Lead Architect - Vice President

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly experienced and visionary Lead Architect to steer our technology team. This senior leadership position is responsible for architecting, designing, and guiding the implementation of mission-critical, high-performance application systems. The ideal candidate is a thought leader with profound expertise in the Java ecosystem, distributed systems, and microservices architectures. You will set the technical direction and strategy, driving innovation and ensuring the delivery of robust, scalable, and secure solutions that align with our long-term business goals.

Key Responsibilities:

• Technical Strategy & Architecture: Define and own the end-to-end technical architecture for major application systems. Lead feasibility studies, drive technology selection, and create the strategic roadmap for future development.
• System & Microservices Design: Lead the architectural design and implementation of complex, large-scale microservices ecosystems using the Spring Boot framework. Ensure designs are scalable, resilient, and maintainable.
• Expert-Level Java Development: Provide technical leadership and hands-on contribution to the development of sophisticated, efficient, and reliable Java code, with a deep focus on advanced multithreading, concurrency, and performance tuning.
• Event-Driven Architecture: Architect and govern enterprise-grade, event-driven systems using Kafka and other messaging technologies, establishing best practices for data streaming and asynchronous communication.
• Database & Data Strategy: Oversee the design and optimization of high-throughput database solutions. Define data modeling standards, and ensure data integrity, security, and performance across all systems.
• Lifecycle Governance: Provide technical oversight and governance across the entire software development lifecycle, from strategic planning and analysis to deployment and long-term support.
• Cloud & Containerization Strategy: Define and enforce best practices for containerization (ECS, Kubernetes), cloud-native deployment, and infrastructure-as-code practices to build scalable and automated CI/CD pipelines.
• Agile Leadership: Champion and refine Agile best practices within and across teams, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and engineering excellence.
• Code Quality & Security Governance: Establish and enforce stringent standards for code quality, performance, and security. Lead security architecture reviews and mandate measures to mitigate risks.
• Mentorship & Technical Leadership: Act as a key technical visionary for the organization. Mentor and develop senior engineers and team leads, fostering a culture of innovation and technical excellence.
• Risk & Compliance Oversight: Drive a culture of proactive risk management and robust compliance. Ensure architectural decisions and development practices align with all applicable laws, policies, and ethical standards.

Required Qualifications & Experience:

• Experience: 10-15 years of progressive experience in software engineering, with a significant focus on systems architecture and technical leadership.
• Core Java Mastery: Mastery of Core Java, including deep expertise in advanced concurrency, performance optimization, JVM internals, and the latest language features.
• Architectural Leadership: Proven track record of designing and delivering complex, distributed, and scalable enterprise systems.
• Spring Framework: Expert-level proficiency with the Spring Framework and Spring Boot for building and operating large-scale microservices.
• Event-Driven Systems: Proven experience architecting and managing large-scale, highly available event-driven systems using Kafka.
• Database Architecture: Expertise in database architecture (SQL and NoSQL), advanced performance tuning, and complex data modeling.
• Cloud & Container Orchestration: Extensive, hands-on experience with cloud-native technologies, container orchestration (e.g., ECS, Kubernetes), and modern CI/CD practices.
• Agile Methodologies: Demonstrated leadership in maturing and scaling Agile development practices across teams.

Preferred Qualifications:

• AI & Prompt Engineering: Strategic experience in leveraging smart AI tools and prompt engineering to accelerate development cycles, improve code quality, and drive analytics.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree/University degree or equivalent experience
• Master’s degree preferred

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Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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