Sr. Director, Software Engineering & Architect

Sr. Director, Software Engineering & Architect Remote Position - must reside Florida, Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah or Wisconsin Who We Are: TradeStation is the home of those born to trade. As an online brokerage firm and trading ecosystem, we are focused on delivering the ultimate trading experience for active traders and institutions. We continuously push the boundaries of what's possible, encourage out-of-the-box thinking, and relentlessly search for like-minded innovators. At TradeStation, we are building an AI-First culture. We expect team members to embrace AI as a core part of their daily workflow, whether that's using AI to accelerate development, enhance decision-making, improve client outcomes, or streamline internal processes. We hire, grow, and promote people who can harness AI responsibly and creatively. We treat AI as a partner in problem-solving, not just a tool; following our governance standards to ensure AI is used ethically, securely, and transparently. If you join us, you're joining a culture where AI is how we work. Are you ready to make yourself at home? What We Are Looking For: We are seeking a visionary Senior Director, Software Engineering & Architect to provide strategic leadership and drive the evolution of our technology solutions. You will be instrumental in shaping the organization's technology roadmap, fostering innovation, and building a world-class engineering team. As a key member of the technology leadership team, you will collaborate with senior stakeholders to align technology initiatives with business objectives, ensuring our solutions deliver competitive advantage and drive sustainable growth. What You'll Be Doing: Architecture & Technical Leadership Design and architect enterprise-scale, event-driven systems using streaming platforms like Apache Kafka, event sourcing patterns, and distributed streaming architectures to support real-time order management, trade execution, and post-trade processing Lead the technical evolution of our OMS platform, ensuring scalability, fault tolerance, low-latency performance, and high availability across multi-region cloud deployments (AWS preferred) Establish architectural standards and best practices for microservices, API design (REST/gRPC/FIX), stateful processing, and real-time data pipelines Oversee database architecture and optimization strategies for relational (Postgres) and distributed systems (Redis, Kafka Streams, event stores) Provide hands-on technical leadership and mentorship to engineering teams, fostering a culture of engineering excellence, innovation, and continuous learning Lead code reviews, enforce coding standards, and champion test automation and CI/CD best practices Build and develop high-performing teams of backend engineers and solutions architects Collaborate with cross-functional teams including product, operations, risk management, and compliance Strategic Initiatives Collaborate with senior leadership to define technology roadmaps and prioritize initiatives that align with business objectives and competitive positioning Partner with third-party vendors in co-development or embedded models, ensuring seamless integration within regulated environments Drive observability and operational excellence through comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and diagnostics (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch) Ensure all systems meet regulatory and compliance requirements for financial transaction processing Collaborate with product and engineering teams to identify opportunities for AI-driven enhancements across the applications Architect scalable interfaces for integrating ML models and AI services into real-time trading workflows, ensuring performance, security, and regulatory compliance Champion responsible AI practices and help define the roadmap for leveraging AI in future asset class expansion and client-facing capabilities Innovation & Thought Leadership Evaluate and champion adoption of emerging technologies and architectural patterns to maintain competitive advantage Represent the technology organization at industry events, contributing to the company's reputation as a technology innovator in financial services The Skills You Bring: Extensive experience building complex, mission-critical messaging systems, preferably in financial trading, OMS, or high-frequency transaction processing environments Hands-on track record as a solution architect overseeing large-scale cloud deployments (AWS preferred), microservices architectures, stateful event-driven systems, and real-time data pipelines Deep, demonstrable expertise in event streaming platforms (Apache Kafka, Kafka Streams, Confluent Platform) and event-driven architecture patterns including event sourcing, CQRS, and saga patterns Expert-level knowledge of Java performance optimization including GC tuning, thread/async management, concurrency patterns, and JVM diagnostics Extensive experience with relational and distributed database design, optimization, and tuning (Postgres, Redis, Kafka) Strong background in API design and implementation (REST, gRPC, FIX protocol), security best practices, and authentication/authorization frameworks Proven expertise in observability, monitoring, and operational excellence using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch Demonstrated leadership in code reviews, setting coding and architecture standards, and driving test automation and quality practices Strong understanding of margin/risk models, order workflow, trade execution, and post-trade processing for brokerage operations Experience working with third-party vendors, ideally in co-development or embedded models within regulated financial contexts Exceptional communication skills with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders Strategic thinking ability to translate business requirements into scalable, innovative technology solutions Experience with Kubernetes orchestration, multi-region architecture, and hybrid deployment models (cloud/on-premises) preferred Hands-on experience with stream processing frameworks (Kafka Streams, Apache Flink, or similar), preferrable C++ experience preferred Involvement in open-source contributions, especially in cloud infrastructure, event streaming, market data processing, or risk analytics preferred Practical experience applying AI/ML techniques to backend systems for risk modeling, predictive analytics, anomaly detection, or operational efficiency preferred Knowledge of regulatory and compliance frameworks for financial transaction systems (SEC, FINRA, MiFID II, etc.) preferred Familiarity with additional financial protocols and standards (FIX, SWIFT, etc.) preferred Experience with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, CloudFormation) and GitOps practices preferred Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field 10+ years in software engineering Desired Qualifications: Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field is preferred TradeStation provides equal employment opportunities to current and prospective employees, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, age, pregnancy, disability, handicap, citizenship, veteran or marital status, or any other legally recognized status entitled to protection under federal, state, or local anti-discrimination laws. #J-18808-Ljbffr