Senior Java Platform Engineer — Senior Vice President

Citi is looking for a Senior Java Platform Engineer to lead the engineering of a global check payment platform at the heart of the Payments Platform and Cheque Processing Transformation Initiative. This is a senior role that blends deep, hands-on Java engineering with platform strategy ownership you will write and review production code, shape the architecture of distributed payment systems, and guide a scrum team to deliver mission-critical capabilities across the full payment lifecycle. Your work will directly influence the reliability, scalability, and modernisation of a platform that processes high-volume financial transactions globally.

Responsibilities

• Design and build production-grade Java microservices for a high-volume, low-latency global check payment platform, including hands-on coding, architecture reviews, and code reviews that set the technical standard for the team.
• Architect event-driven, fault-tolerant distributed systems using Kafka, Spring Boot, and RESTful APIs, covering message schema design, topic partitioning, consumer group strategies, and exactly-once processing.
• Define and govern data architecture across Oracle, Microsoft SQL, and MongoDB, driving schema design, indexing strategies, query optimisation, and data consistency across transactional and settlement workflows.
• Own the engineering roadmap for modernising the check payment platform, migrating mainframe and monolithic legacy components into reusable, cloud-native microservices aligned to Citi Engineering Excellence Standards.
• Lead platform performance engineering by profiling JVM-based applications, identifying and resolving bottlenecks, and optimising critical settlement processing paths to meet SLA commitments on availability, throughput, and latency.
• Embed AI-powered engineering practices across the team by leveraging tools such as GitHub Copilot and LLMs (including Gemini) to improve code quality, automate test generation, and accelerate vulnerability identification and remediation.
• Act as the primary engineering point of contact for the Check Processing pillar, communicating platform health, delivery progress, and engineering strategy clearly to senior business, technology, and operations stakeholders.
• Own the platform's security and compliance posture by leading threat modelling, vulnerability assessments, and secure design reviews to ensure the platform meets regulatory and risk requirements.

Required qualifications & skills

• 10 or more years of software engineering experience, with at least 5 years in a people management or senior engineering leadership capacity.
• Extensive hands-on Java engineering experience in high-throughput, production environments, including JVM performance tuning, GC optimisation, thread management, and memory profiling.
• Hands-on design of microservices architectures using Spring Boot or Spring MVC, covering service decomposition, RESTful API design, inter-service communication, and cloud-native deployment.
• Deep practical expertise in Kafka, including topic design, partitioning strategies, consumer group management, and high-throughput stream processing with exactly-once semantics.
• Hands-on database engineering across Oracle and Microsoft SQL (schema design, query optimisation, indexing) and MongoDB (document modelling, aggregation pipelines, sharding, replica sets).
• Hands-on experience with cloud-native infrastructure including OpenShift, AWS, Kubernetes, and Docker, covering container orchestration, autoscaling, and CI/CD pipeline design using tools such as Jenkins, Gradle, and Maven.
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or equivalent practical experience.

Beneficial skills & qualifications

• Familiarity with agentic AI frameworks such as LangChain or AutoGen, RAG patterns, or vector databases such as Pinecone or Weaviate, applied in an enterprise or regulated context.
• Hands-on Python experience in data pipelines, AI/ML integration, scripting, or automation within a financial services or high-throughput engineering environment.
• Experience leading large-scale legacy modernisation programmes, including migration of mainframe components written in COBOL, Assembler, or C++ into cloud-native microservices.
• Knowledge of MLOps practices including model versioning, deployment pipelines, and production model monitoring, alongside real-time ML model serving techniques.
• Experience with chaos engineering, resilience testing, or fault injection, and familiarity with reconciliation and exception handling patterns in settlement workflows.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree/University degree or equivalent experience

What we offer

Joining Citi means taking ownership of a platform that sits at the centre of global payments infrastructure, with the scope to lead technical transformation, develop a high-performing engineering team, and apply cutting-edge AI capabilities to real-world financial systems. This role offers the strategic visibility and technical depth that senior engineers look for.

• Lead the modernisation of a globally significant check payment platform, with direct influence over architecture, strategy, and engineering outcomes.
• Work at the intersection of high-throughput financial systems and applied AI, with access to modern tooling, platforms, and engineering talent.
• Hybrid working model with 3 days in the office and 2 days working remotely, available across our Irving, TX and Tampa, FL locations.
• Build and develop a high-performing engineering team, with the autonomy to shape technical culture, standards, and capability growth.
• Build and develop a high-performing engineering team, with the autonomy to shape technical culture, standards, and capability growth.
• Competitive financial wellbeing support and a comprehensive benefits package aligned to seniority and location
• Senior visibility and business impact as part of Citi's broader payments modernisation programme, with exposure to cross-functional leadership across Technology, Risk, Finance, and Operations.
• Access to learning and development resources that support continued technical growth and leadership progression at scale.
• Competitive financial wellbeing support and a comprehensive benefits package aligned to seniority and location.

Apply now to take on a senior engineering leadership role at Citi and help shape the future of global payments infrastructure.

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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.

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Automated Processing and AI

We use automated processing, including artificial intelligence, for our legitimate business interests (or our reasonable and appropriate business purposes) to identify and align the candidate's skills and abilities with a specific job opening. Additionally, if you so choose, or consent, we can match your skills and abilities to other suitable roles at Citi.

Importantly, all our hiring processes and decisions, including determining your suitability for a role, are conducted, checked, and decided by individuals. Our automated processing and AI do not involve relying on automatic or autonomous decision-making. Please refer to any Jurisdictional Considerations, with specific provisions for your country (where relevant) for further details.

Illinois residents – AI Notice and Right

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