Backend Developer Lead - Vice President

Role Overview The Staff Engineer is a highly experienced individual contributor within Banking technology division. This role is responsible for driving engineering excellence through hands‑on technical contributions, setting high technical standards by example, and delivering robust, scalable, and secure middleware platforms. The Principal Engineer will apply innovative modern software engineering practices (DevSecOps, SRE) to solve complex business challenges, directly contributing to Citi's global banking objectives. This position requires exceptional technical mastery, strategic problem‑solving abilities, and the capacity to technically guide and influence project outcomes and peers across the organization. Key Responsibilities Technical Vision & Architectural Contribution: Actively contribute to and uphold the long‑term technical vision and architectural roadmap for core platforms within the Banking Technology middleware ecosystem, encompassing Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, Microservices, GraphQL, and NoSQL databases. Implement and advocate for organizational engineering standards, best practices, and architectural patterns to ensure scalability, reliability, security, and maintainability across all engineering initiatives. Technical Mentorship & Skill Development: Lead by example in coding, design, and problem‑solving. Mentor and provide technical guidance to senior and junior software engineers, fostering a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and technical excellence. Share knowledge, best practices, and innovative solutions with the team. Hands‑on Operational Excellence & Resilience: Apply and champion DevSecOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles in daily work, ensuring high standards of system availability, performance, security, and operational efficiency for critical production platforms. Proactively identify and address technical debt, mitigate system risks, and implement robust disaster recovery capabilities. Technical Advisory & Problem Solving: Act as a primary technical advisor to senior business leaders and product owners, translating complex business requirements into clear, actionable technical designs and innovative solutions. Effectively articulate technical insights, architectural decisions, and development progress to diverse audiences. Innovator & Early Adopter: You are a forward‑thinking technologist who actively drives the exploration, evaluation, and hands‑on application of emerging technologies, advanced architectural patterns, and innovative solutions (e.g., Apache Flink, Artificial Intelligence) to enhance product offerings and improve engineering productivity. You are a relentless champion of continuous improvement in software architecture, development processes, and tooling. You effectively leverage AI tools to enhance development efficiency, accelerate problem‑solving, and drive innovation in your daily work. Cross‑Functional Technical Collaboration: Collaborate extensively with other engineers and technical leads across engineering, product management, and operations to ensure alignment of technical designs, seamless integration of solutions, and achievement of broader organizational goals. Influence technical decisions through deep expertise and well‑reasoned arguments. Accountability for Technical Delivery & Quality: Take ultimate accountability for the successful, on‑time delivery of complex, high‑quality, and user‑centric software components. Uphold rigorous engineering standards through thorough design, code, and security reviews, and contribute to comprehensive technical documentation, ensuring a culture of engineering excellence. Who You Are You are a highly experienced and seasoned software engineer with a deep passion for building world‑class software solutions in a complex enterprise environment. Your work is characterized by technical mastery, thoughtful design, and a relentless commitment to quality and operational excellence. Expert System Designer: You are an engineer with a proven ability to design and build critical middleware ecosystems. You possess deep expertise in creating and applying sound architectural patterns to ensure the scalability, reliability, security, and maintainability of enterprise platforms. Passionate Hands‑On Developer: You are an exceptional developer who thrives on solving complex problems with clean, efficient code. You are passionate about your craft and enjoy mentoring other engineers, leading by example with a commitment to technical excellence and continuous learning. Champion of Operational Excellence: You are a dedicated practitioner of operational excellence, with extensive experience applying DevSecOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles in your work. You are committed to building and maintaining systems with the highest standards of availability, performance, security, and resilience. Effective Technical Partner: You are an adept partner to the business, capable of engaging with product owners to translate complex requirements into clear, actionable, and innovative technical solutions. You excel at articulating technical insights and architectural decisions to diverse audiences. Pragmatic Innovator: You are a forward‑thinking technologist who actively explores, evaluates, and strategically applies emerging technologies and advanced architectural patterns (e.g., Apache Flink) to enhance product offerings and improve engineering productivity. Accountable for Quality & Delivery: You are driven by accountability, taking ultimate ownership for the successful and timely delivery of complex, high‑quality, and user‑centric software solutions that directly meet critical business needs. You have a meticulous approach to upholding rigorous engineering standards, including design, code review, security, and technical documentation. A Natural Collaborator: You are a highly collaborative individual, adept at working within and across diverse engineering teams to achieve strategic alignment and build cohesive, impactful solutions. Required Qualifications Experience: Minimum of 10+ years of progressive experience in backend software development, with a proven track record of owning the design and delivery of complex, large‑scale software projects as a senior individual contributor. Technical Mastery: Deep, hands‑on expertise and architectural understanding of enterprise‑level middleware technologies including Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, Microservices architecture, GraphQL, and NoSQL databases. Demonstrated experience with high‑volume, low‑latency distributed systems. Experience with Apache Flink is a significant advantage. Architectural Prowess: Demonstrated ability to architect, design, and implement highly scalable, resilient, secure, and performant distributed systems. SDLC & DevOps Expertise: Expert‑level understanding of the modern Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), CI/CD pipelines, DevSecOps, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) best practices, with extensive, hands‑on experience in their practical application. Communication & Collaboration: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, capable of articulating complex technical concepts to diverse audiences and working effectively with business and technical stakeholders to drive positive outcomes. Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field is required; a Master’s degree or equivalent advanced professional qualifications are a plus. Why Citi? Over 200 years in business with a wonderful team of creative, visionary, and entrepreneurial thinkers. Tremendous opportunities to advance, open to everyone across all levels. Learn and grow simultaneously! We offer a unique journey of personal and professional development, accomplishment, and satisfaction. We value intelligence and a global mindset. There is a strong culture of empowerment here – we embrace diversity. We do our best to be flexible and may differ depending on the business or area. Citi offers a robust training program. We continually re‑evaluate our training model to ensure that we are always offering the most relevant and best in class training. At Citi, we value internal mobility. We want you to build a long‑term career with us, so you can expect opportunities to move around the organization. Primary Location Irving, Texas, United States Salary Range $125,760.00 - $188,640.00 In addition to salary, Citi’s offerings may also include, for eligible employees, discretionary and formulaic incentive and retention awards. Citi offers competitive employee benefits, including medical, dental & vision coverage; 401(k); life, accident, and disability insurance; and wellness programs. Citi also offers paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays. For additional information regarding Citi employee benefits, please visit citibenefits.com. Available offerings may vary by jurisdiction, job level, and date of hire. Anticipated Posting Close Date Feb 23, 2026 Equal Employment Opportunity 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. If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our search tools and/or apply for a career opportunity review Accessibility at Citi. View Citi’s EEO Policy Statement and the Know Your Rights poster. #J-18808-Ljbffr