Derivatives Development Lead

Who we are

United by a sense of purpose towards our customers – to be a trusted partner for the long-term – and our universal banking platform in EMEA, SMBC Group has an international growth agenda and award-winning products, meaning we provide exciting opportunities to work on a diverse range of projects and initiatives. We deliver a full suite of corporate finance products and solutions to our customers as well as investment banking and advisory services, and a range of innovative solutions in global capital markets. Read on to find out how you could enhance your skills and gain valuable experience, by joining us to support our clients transition to a sustainable future.

Role Summary

This Director level Derivatives Development Lead helps lead the engineering of high-performance Java applications supporting Sales & Trading Business Platforms.

The role combines deep technical expertise and engineering leadership to deliver resilient, scalable, commercially aligned solutions. Requiring extensive expertise in Java, distributed systems, concurrency, microservices, event-driven architectures, and high-performance computing, translating complex requirements into strategic engineering solutions.

As a senior technical leader, the individual will help shape architecture and engineering direction, solve complex technical challenges, and support technology strategy, standards, and governance.

The role is strongly hands-on and autonomous, while mentoring senior engineers, supporting technology decisions, and driving technical excellence and continuous improvement.

The successful candidate will combine strategic thinking with practical delivery, influence senior stakeholders, and help shape the technology landscape in line with business priorities.

Providing senior engineering leadership for critical Sales & Trading platforms across EMEA, help shaping technology strategy, architecture, and delivery within a regulated banking environment.

Based in Dublin, leads and develops software engineers, fostering technical excellence and continuous improvement. Within a matrix structure, the role reports locally for people matters while aligning with London technology leadership on strategy, architecture, and delivery priorities.

You may also provide local line management for Business Platforms technology resources in Dublin, supporting growth of the Bank’s technology capability.

Works with senior business and technology stakeholders globally to promote engineering best practices and deliver scalable, resilient, high-performance solutions.

Collaborates across Development, Architecture, Infrastructure, Product, Business Analysis, and Operations, providing technical expertise to align teams and deliver complex cross-functional initiatives.

Operating across EMEA within a global organisation, engaging regional and global stakeholders. Leading complex, business-critical technology initiatives with varying regulatory visibility.

Partnering with development leads, technology managers, and teams across Risk, Quants, DevOps, Finance, and Regulatory Reporting.Aligning cross-functional and regional stakeholders on requirements, dependencies, and delivery.

Ensuring solutions align with technology standards, platform capabilities, and governance requirements. whilst Leading, coaching and developing the engineering teams, building a high-performance culture focused on consistent, high-quality delivery.

Position Description

Technical Leadership

• Help shape engineering strategy, architecture, standards, and best practices.
• Guide complex designs, ensuring alignment with business needs and enterprise architecture.
• Provide hands-on leadership to resolve critical technical challenges.
• Mentor engineers and technical leads, promoting ownership and engineering excellence.

Java Engineering

• Define Java engineering standards and drive adoption of modern Java practices.
• Provide deep expertise in concurrency and JVM performance, resolving complex engineering issues.
• Review critical code and complex implementations, driving quality, maintainability, and performance.

Distributed Systems & Microservices

• Help shape architecture and engineering patterns for scalable distributed systems, microservices, and service-oriented architectures.
• Support the development of standards for service communication, resilience, fault tolerance, performance, and scalability.
• Help promote engineering quality and continuous improvement across platform teams.

Event-Driven Architecture

• Help shape standards and architecture for event-driven systems, including Kafka and messaging platforms.
• Support the delivery of robust, scalable, high-performance event-processing solutions.

Cloud & Platform Engineering

• Define Java deployment strategy across containerised and cloud-native environments.
• Provide technical leadership across Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift, cloud platforms, CI/CD, and infrastructure automation.
• Partner across Architecture, Infrastructure, Production, Security, and Engineering to drive platform modernisation and simplification.

Provide Level 3 support as required.

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent. Holding 15+ years’ relevant experience from Investment banking pricing or risk experience, including Front Office, Market/Credit Risk, risk sensitivities, and Front-to-Back processes.
• Strong fundamentals in concurrency, algorithms, and data structures.
• Extensive distributed systems experience, including multi-threaded and asynchronous applications.
• Strong hands-on Java, including streams, lambdas, concurrency APIs, JVM profiling and performance tuning.
• Experience with JavaScript/TypeScript and ReactJS.
• Algo-trading and low-latency experience, including lock-free and microsecond/sub-millisecond workloads.
• Experience with Spring Boot, PostgreSQL, and OpenShift.
• Extensive Kafka or event-processing/messaging experience.
• Strong TDD and Agile/Scrum delivery experience.
• Expert-level CI/CD experience across large, complex systems.

Nice to have:

• Hands-on experience with dynamic scalability; cloud deployment, container/Docker deployment, GRPC services, or cloud-based services.
• Experience with Workflow/Scheduling/State management.

There will at times the need to balance project work, BAU and support tasks so utilising their time efficiently will be key

Competencies

What we offer

For all the expertise and experience you bring to help us make a difference, it’s only sustainable if we support you to build your career and be your best self so we offer competitive company benefits, centred around promoting positive well-bring and work-life balance. We also believe in fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment, where all team members perspectives and contributions are valued. Initiatives in place which promote a diverse and inclusive culture and healthy work life balance include hybrid working, Sport & Social Clubs and Diversity and Inclusion networks.

As an employee of SMBC you have access to a host of both useful and exciting benefit offerings. See below some of the benefits on offer to you:

• Hybrid and flexible working
• Competitive paid leave days
• Benefits to support your physical wellbeing, including private medical insurance and life and invalidity insurance
• Various policies to support your mental wellbeing, including a robust behavioural health network with counselling and coaching services
• Access a wide range of learning and development opportunities and career progression opportunities
• Ambitious remuneration package

So, if you like a challenge and want to continuously grow and develop in a role where you will be supported along the way by a dynamic and diverse team, apply today!!