Citi—Lead Java and Apache Spark Developer - Vice President

Job description

Description: We are looking for a Lead/Principal Java Spark Developer to spearhead the architectural vision and technical strategy for the transformation and modernization of Citi’s next-generation data processing platforms. This role is for a thought leader who is passionate about architecting and building highly scalable, resilient, and performant systems that solve complex business problems. This leadership role is ideal for a seasoned expert who thrives on technical challenges, enjoys setting the technical direction, and is motivated to establish and evangelize engineering best practices across teams. While this is a strategic leadership position, it requires a significant hands-on contribution to coding, design, and implementation. You will be a key driver of innovation, responsible for architecting and delivering mission-critical, production-grade solutions, while mentoring teams to elevate the platform's performance, reliability, and development standards. Responsibilities: - Architectural Design: Define and drive the architectural vision and strategy for large-scale data processing platforms, ensuring alignment with business goals. - Technical Leadership: Guide and mentor a team of developers, setting high standards for code quality and engineering excellence while fostering a culture of innovation. - Hands-on Development: Actively participate in the coding, implementation, and peer review of complex modules and core framework components to lead by example. - Strategic Solutioning: Translate complex business requirements into robust, secure, and efficient technical solutions, setting the standard for the engineering organization. - Code Excellence: Champion and enforce best practices for writing modular, testable, and maintainable code, rooted in expert knowledge of OOP principles and design patterns. - System Optimization: Lead efforts to continuously refactor and optimize applications for performance, scalability, and maintainability at an enterprise scale. - High-Level Collaboration: Collaborate with senior stakeholders, product owners, and other technology leaders to define roadmaps and ensure high-quality delivery. - Innovation: Drive the evaluation and adoption of new technologies and methodologies to keep the platform at the cutting edge. - Influence and Leadership: Provide thought leadership and influence technical design and decisions across the organization. Recommended Qualifications: - 10+ years of hands-on experience in Big Data development, with expert-level proficiency in Java and Apache Spark. - Domain Knowledge: Strong understanding of Funds Transfer Pricing (FTP) processes and financial systems is required. - Expert-level knowledge of object-oriented programming, advanced design patterns, and clean coding practices. - Proven track record of architecting, building, and optimizing large-scale, mission-critical distributed data processing systems. - Extensive experience with REST APIs, RDBMS, and Kafka or similar messaging systems. - Deep experience with microservices architecture and containerization technologies (Docker/Kubernetes). - Significant experience working in and leading teams within Agile environments, demonstrating strong collaboration and ownership. - Proven ability to lead technical teams and mentor engineers to achieve technical excellence. - Extensive experience with Databricks is highly preferred. - Deep familiarity and experience with building AI-powered solutions / AI agents. Education: - Bachelor’s degree/University degree or equivalent experience - Master’s degree preferred This job description provides a high-level review of the types of work performed. Other job-related duties may be assigned as required. ------------------------------------------------------ Job Family Group: Technology------------------------------------------------------ Job Family: Applications Development------------------------------------------------------ Time Type: Full time------------------------------------------------------ Most Relevant Skills Please see the requirements listed above.------------------------------------------------------ Other Relevant Skills For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.------------------------------------------------------ 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.