Low latency eTrading Connectivity - Fixed Income Trading in London

We are seeking an exceptional, hands-on Senior Vice President (SVP) to join our eTrading Connectivity engineering team in London. This is a premier technical role designed for an elite technologist who thrives on writing high-performance, ultra-low-latency code and architecting robust exchange connectivity and order routing systems.

In this role, you will be the ultimate technical authority for our electronic trading connectivity platforms, including exchange gateways, protocol translation layers (FIX, binary protocols), and routing orders to facilitate electronic execution. You will drive technical strategy, design core system architectures, and actively write production code.

Key Responsibilities

• Hands-on Engineering & Architecture
• Core Development: Design, write, and optimize ultra-low-latency, high-throughput exchange connectivity software in Rust, C/C++, and Java.
• Architectural Ownership: Define the technical architecture for next-generation exchange gateways, order routing systems, and execution client interfaces.
• Latency Optimization: Conduct deep-dive performance profiling and tuning (e.g., cache optimization, memory layout, lock-free data structures, kernel bypass, and network stack tuning) to achieve sub-microsecond wire-to-wire latencies.
• Technical Strategy: Formulate and execute the technical roadmap for electronic trading connectivity, ensuring alignment with global business objectives and technological advancements.
• System Design Decisions: Act as the ultimate decision-maker for critical system designs, protocol implementations, and hardware/software trade-offs.
• Technical Delivery & Mentorship
• Delivery Leadership: Take end-to-end technical ownership of complex, strategic connectivity initiatives from concept to production deployment.
• Code Quality & Standards: Champion modern software engineering practices, including rigorous code reviews, comprehensive unit/integration testing, and continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
• Technical Mentorship: Act as a technical mentor to senior developers across the global eTrading team, fostering a culture of continuous technical growth, innovation, and engineering pride.
• Problem Solving: Serve as the highest-level technical escalation point for complex production issues, connectivity bottlenecks, and architectural challenges.

Qualifications

• Education
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related highly technical field.
• Experience
• Extensive software engineering experience within the financial services industry, with a significant portion dedicated to electronic trading (eTrading) connectivity systems.
• Proven track record of designing, building, and delivering production-grade, ultra-low-latency connectivity platforms.
• Deep domain expertise in Capital Markets. Direct experience with Fixed Income products (specifically Rates and Spread businesses) is highly desirable and considered a major merit.
• Demonstrated experience leading technical delivery and mentoring senior engineers in a non-managerial, highly technical capacity.
• Technical Skills
• Expert-level programming skills in Rust, C/C++ (modern C++17/20/23), and/or Java (low-latency Java).
• Deep understanding of low-latency paradigms: Lock-free programming, memory barriers, cache-conscious design, CPU pinning, thread affinity, and zero-copy serialization.
• Advanced networking knowledge: TCP/IP, UDP, IP Multicast, socket programming, and experience with kernel bypass technologies (e.g., Solarflare EF_VI, OpenOnload, DPDK).
• Operating Systems: Expert-level knowledge of Linux/Unix operating system internals, kernel tuning, and system-level profiling tools (e.g., perf, valgrind, bcc/BPF).
• Data & Messaging: Experience with high-performance messaging middleware (e.g., Solace, Kafka) and in-memory data grids/caches.
• Modern Tooling: Strong proficiency with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, and infrastructure-as-code.
• Soft Skills
• Strong analytical, algorithmic, and problem-solving capabilities.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex low-latency architectural concepts to both technical peers and business stakeholders.
• Self-motivated, delivery-focused, and capable of working effectively in a fast-paced, high-pressure trading environment.
• Collaborative mindset with a passion for mentoring and raising the technical bar of the engineering team.

This job description provides a high-level review of the types of work performed. Other job-related duties may be assigned as required.

By joining Citi London, you will not only be part of a business casual workplace with a hybrid working model (up to 2 days working at home per week), but also receive a competitive base salary (which is annually reviewed), and enjoy a whole host of additional benefits such as: 27 days annual leave.