District Partners is partnering with a highly stable, operationally mature financial services firm operating at the intersection of broker-dealer infrastructure, buy-side investment management, and fixed income markets. The platform is built, the systems are performing, and the team is experienced. This is a key leadership hire with full ownership of engineering, responsible for driving structure, consistency in execution, and the next phase of platform growth within a regulated financial environment.
This role is best suited for a leader stepping into a VP-level position with meaningful ownership in a lean environment, where scope is broad and impact is immediate.
This role requires experience within a mid-market or platform-oriented financial services environment where engineering teams operate with end-to-end ownership. Candidates coming from highly siloed large-bank structures will not be a fit.
What You’ll Do:
Own engineering, architecture, and system evolution across trading, clearing, settlement, and accounting platforms
Serve as the primary technical counterpart to executive leadership, ensuring alignment between business priorities and system design
Lead, develop, and scale a lean engineering team while maintaining a high bar for performance and accountability
Establish and enforce engineering standards, delivery frameworks, and prioritization discipline
Drive system reliability, scalability, and performance across a regulated financial environment
Ensure alignment with SEC, FINRA, and SOX requirements across systems and processes
Introduce structure where needed without disrupting an already effective operating model
Oversee the integration and practical use of AI tooling to improve engineering output and efficiency
Operating ModelOperate as a hands‑on leader with retained technical credibility
Balance architecture ownership with team leadership and delivery accountability
Make decisions with incomplete information in a low‑bureaucracy environment
Partner closely with business stakeholders to align technical direction with operational needs
Maintain a high signal‑to‑noise ratio in how priorities are set and executed
Technology EnvironmentBackend: Java, Groovy, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, distributed microservices architecture
DevOps: Jenkins CI/CD, infrastructure as code (Terraform or AWS CDK), containerization
Systems: Trading, clearing and settlement, and accounting platforms supporting fixed income products in a regulated environment
What You’ll HaveDirect experience within fixed income financial services environments is required, including trading, clearing, and post‑trade systems
Background aligned to organizations supporting mortgage‑backed securities (MBS), repo financing, or similar structured products is strongly preferred
Experience within broker‑dealer, buy‑side, hedge fund, or regulated fintech platforms with comparable system complexity
Demonstrated ability to lead engineering teams while remaining credible in system design and architecture
Strong working knowledge of regulated financial systems and associated compliance requirements
Experience operating in lean organizations with broad ownership across systems
Ability to introduce structure, prioritization, and accountability without over‑engineering
Executive presence with the ability to engage effectively across technical and business leadership
LocationTri‑State (NY/CT/NJ) or Washington, DC metro area with periodic presence in office
CompensationTotal compensation in the $300,000–$400,000 range (base + bonus), aligned to scope and impact