Sr. Director, Software Engineering & Architecture - TradeStation

Who We Are:

TradeStation is an online brokerage firm seeking to level the playing field for self-directed investors and traders, empowering them to claim their individual financial edge.  At TradeStation, we're continuously pushing the boundaries of what's possible, encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and relentless search for innovation.

What We Are Looking For:

We are seeking a highly skilled hands-on Sr. Director/Solutions Architect with deep expertise in SQL Server performance tuning and proficiency in C++/C# or similar languages. You will lead the transformation of legacy monolithic systems into scalable, high-performance solutions capable of handling high throughput and low latency. This role involves immediate troubleshooting of a 20-year-old trading platform while driving long-term system modernization, applying best practices in SDLC, CI/CD, and Agile methodologies. It’s crucial for candidate to have worked in the Fintech sector with expertise in brokerage trading platforms.

The ideal candidate is a strong leader with a proven ability to mentor development teams, guide best SDLC practices, make quick decisions, and deliver working proofs of concept. You will collaborate across teams to identify dependencies, build architectural blueprints, and guide technical efforts to align with business objectives. This is an exciting opportunity to lead both hands-on technical work and strategic system optimization in a fast-paced environment.

What You’ll Be Doing:

Short-Term (Performance & Application Optimization):

• Hands-on resolution of critical SQL Server performance issues, such as slow-running queries, deadlocks, excessive locking/blocking, and high CPU/memory utilization
• Lead and perform detailed SQL Server performance tuning, including query optimization, indexing strategies, and partitioning for efficient resource use
• Work closely with C++/C# development teams to review and optimize application-level interactions with SQL Server, ensuring the application logic is efficient and database access is streamlined
• Lead cross-functional troubleshooting efforts to resolve performance bottlenecks between SQL Server and application code
• Provide immediate solutions to enhance the system’s responsiveness, stability, and performance

Long-Term (Integration, Modernization & Strategic Leadership):

• Architect and drive the modernization of the legacy trading platform, transitioning from a monolithic system to a scalable, modular architecture (e.g., microservices) while ensuring seamless SQL Server integration
• Provide strategic leadership in design and implement both build and buy solutions, cloud migrations, database refactoring, and application modernization
• Team Leadership & SDLC Coaching:
• Coach and mentor development teams on best practices for the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), ensuring proper code reviews, testing, and documentation
• Promote Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) across the team, ensuring timely, iterative delivery of features and optimizations
• Champion CI/CD practices, guiding teams in setting up automated build, test, and deployment processes for both the database and application layers
• Establish development standards and processes that encourage collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement
• Act as a technical leader and advisor to cross-functional teams, ensuring that the database architecture and development practices align with business objectives

The Skills You Bring:

• Demonstrated technical leadership as a team member in a hands-on role. Leading by example is expected
• Experience as a lead developer, making design decisions, performing code reviews and mentoring team members
• Experience with distributed and scalable software architectures, understanding of CAP theorem
• Lead transformation projects of modernizing systems with low latency
• Mastery in MS SQL databases,
• Mastery of 1 or more modern general-purpose programming languages, such as C++ or C#
• Experience with communication protocols (low level TCP/UDP/IP, WebSockets, Protobufs, HTTP, FIX)
• Knowledgeable about multi-threading, inter-process communications and event handling
• Understanding of database concepts, including NoSQL and document DBs (Redis)
• Comfortable with cloud-based architectures, infrastructure, and services (AWS, Azure)
• Experienced with DevOps principles and using CI/CD tools (GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, Jenkins)
• Familiar with scripting and automation (e.g. Bash, PowerShell, Python etc.)
• Familiarity working in a fluid Agile environment and demonstrated success with structured testing practices such as automated unit testing, regression testing, TDD and continuous delivery

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience
• Minimum 7 years of relevant experience
• Fintech working experience knowledgeable in brokerage & trading process

Desired Qualifications:

• Mastery in MS SQL database performance tuning and optimizing SQL code
• C++/C#/.Net Core development experience
• Involvement in open-source projects with a demonstrated portfolio
• Cloud architecture and deployment (AWS, Stacker, EKS)
• Cross-platform development experience (Ubuntu/Linux, Windows, etc.)
• Skilled at managing many async streams of communication, remotely directing work (Slack)

What We Offer:

• Collaborative work environment
• Competitive Salaries
• Yearly bonus
• Generous 401k plan
• Comprehensive benefits for you and your family starting Day 1
• Unlimited Paid Time Off
• Flexible working environment
• TradeStation Account employee benefits, as well as full access to trading education materials
• Pay Range (US) $240-260K. (Countries outside of the US have differing ranges in accordance with local labor markets)

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.

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