Java Engineering Lead - Senior Vice President

Role Overview

Our FX Technology platform underpins the world’s largest Markets FX business, operating continuously 24/7 across more than 87 countries globally. The stability, scalability, and evolution of this platform are critical to the firm’s clients, markets, and reputation.

We are undertaking a once-in-a-generation re-engineering of the FX Trade Services platform, creating a highly resilient, always-on, and globally scalable platform designed to support the business over the next 15+ years.

A core pillar of this transformation is the adoption of an Agentic AI Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) — a cutting-edge, persona-driven engineering model. This approach fundamentally changes how software is designed, built, tested, and supported.

We are seeking a visionary, hands-on engineering leader, and AI evangelist to lead this transformation. The successful candidate will champion and operationalise an AI-first engineering culture, making the Agentic SDLC a core strategic capability and the primary driver of delivery, quality, and innovation.

You will lead a 35+ global engineering group and play a defining role in shaping the future of engineering within FX Technology.

Engineering Leadership & Ownership

• Lead the FX Trade Services re-engineering programme to deliver a fully resilient (RTO=0, RPO=0), highly available (24/7, 99.999%), horizontally scalable platform.
• Own and drive the adoption of an AI-first engineering strategy, embedding AI-assisted and agentic development practices across the end-to-end SDLC.
• Champion and evolve the Agentic AI SDLC, ensuring persona-driven development becomes the default operating model.
• Define and continuously raise engineering standards across architecture, development, testing, deployment, and operational support—leveraging AI to enhance consistency, productivity, and quality.
• Drive the design of scalable, resilient system architectures in partnership with business stakeholders.
• Prepare and present updates to senior technology and business leadership, including progress on AI maturity and adoption.

Agentic AI & SDLC Transformation (Core Priority)

• Establish and scale a persona-based SDLC, where engineering roles (e.g., developers, analysts, reviewers, support authors) are represented as AI-enabled personas.
• Ensure persona definitions (behaviour, skills, standards, workflows, templates) are well-governed, version-controlled, and continuously improved.
• Drive the systematic integration of AI tools and agents into all phases of the SDLC, including:
  • Requirements analysis and functional specification
  • Software design and architecture
  • Code generation and review
  • Testing, validation, and QA
  • Documentation and support readiness
• Lead the organisation in measuring and optimising AI-assisted productivity, quality, and cycle time improvements.
• Foster a culture of experimentation, learning, and innovation in AI-driven engineering practices.
• Partner with enterprise AI and platform teams to align with broader strategy and leverage shared capabilities.
• Act as a visible AI evangelist, influencing stakeholders across technology and business to embrace agentic ways of working.

Application Development & Core Engineering

• Lead multiple re-engineering squads responsible for rebuilding the core FX trade management platform.
• Own and evolve shared engineering components and platform capabilities.
• Ensure systems are designed for operability, performance, and global availability.
• Balance delivery speed with platform stability, resilience, and regulatory compliance.
• Embed AI-enabled development practices into day-to-day engineering workflows.

People, Culture & AI Adoption

• Build and lead a high-performing, globally distributed engineering organisation, including a strategic presence in India.
• Upskill engineering teams in AI-assisted development and persona-driven workflows, ensuring broad adoption and proficiency.
• Create a culture that embraces:
  • Curiosity and experimentation
  • Continuous learning (particularly in AI and emerging tooling)
  • Accountability and engineering excellence
• Attract and develop engineers who are adaptable, forward-thinking, and excited by AI-driven transformation.
• Empower teams to challenge traditional SDLC approaches and continuously improve the Agentic model.

Risk, Control & Production Excellence

• Ensure AI-driven and traditional engineering practices meet the governance, audit, and control requirements of a global regulated business.
• Define safe, explainable, and controlled use of AI in software development, including guardrails and auditability.
• Maintain robust production management practices, including incident management and continuous improvement.
• Own disaster recovery and resilience strategies across critical applications.
• Proactively manage technology and operational risk, including risks introduced by AI adoption.

Leadership & Communication

• Act as a visible and credible senior engineering leader within FX Trade Services and across FX Technology.
• Advocate for AI-first engineering at leadership forums, clearly articulating value, risks, and progress.
• Communicate a compelling vision for the Agentic SDLC transformation and inspire teams to adopt it.
• Role-model ethical behaviour, accountability, and sound judgement in all decisions.

What We’re Looking For

• A senior engineering leader capable of re-engineering complex, business-critical platforms at scale.
• A strong belief in and passion for AI-first software engineering, with the ability to translate emerging concepts into practical execution.
• Proven ability to lead large-scale engineering transformations, even where the target state is evolving or not fully defined.
• Experience introducing or scaling modern SDLC practices (e.g., platform engineering, DevOps, automation, AI-assisted development).
• Strong engineering fundamentals and architectural judgement.
• A leadership philosophy that values people, culture, and continuous improvement as much as delivery.
• Experience working with global, distributed teams, including India.
• Ability to balance innovation with resilience, risk management, and regulatory discipline.
• Comfort operating at the frontier of engineering practices, where playbooks are still being created.

Direct experience with persona-based or agentic SDLC models is not required; however, curiosity, adaptability, and a strong commitment to AI-driven change are essential.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant Java technology experience
• 5+ years in engineering or technology leadership roles
• Experience in financial services, markets, or regulated environments preferred
• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale platform transformations
• Exposure to AI/ML, developer productivity tooling, or automation at scale strongly preferred

Education

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• Master’s degree preferred

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Job Family Group:

Technology

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Job Family:

Applications Development

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Time Type:

Full time

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Most Relevant Skills

Please see the requirements listed above.

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Other Relevant Skills

For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.

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