VP of Engineering | Fixed Income Platform | AWS-Native

District Partners is working with a mid-market financial services firm operating across broker-dealer infrastructure and investment management, with a core focus on fixed income markets. The firm has built and operates its own trading, financing, and post-trade platform, supporting structured fixed income products in a regulated environment. The systems are stable and performing; this hire is responsible for owning engineering end-to-end and driving the next phase of scale, structure, and execution. This is not a traditional VP role. The environment is lean, hands-on, and execution-focused. The VP of Engineering will operate as a player-coach, maintaining direct involvement in architecture and system design while leading a small, high-performing team. Candidates must have direct fixed income experience, including exposure to trading and post-trade systems tied to instruments such as mortgage-backed securities (MBS), repo, or other structured products.

Position Details

• Title: VP of Engineering
• Location: Tri-State (NY/CT/NJ) or Washington, DC metro area
• Work Model: Hybrid
• Compensation: $300,000 – $400,000 total compensation (base + bonus)

Key Responsibilities

• Own engineering across fixed income trading, clearing, settlement, and accounting systems
• Remain hands-on in architecture and system design, contributing directly where needed
• Lead and scale a lean engineering team, maintaining a high bar for accountability and output
• Drive execution across front-to-back fixed income workflows, including financing and post-trade processes
• Establish lightweight but effective structure across delivery, prioritization, and engineering standards
• Ensure system reliability, scalability, and performance in a regulated environment
• Partner directly with business leadership, trading, and operations teams
• Ensure alignment with SEC, FINRA, and SOX requirements
• Introduce tools and processes, including AI-enabled workflows, that improve engineering efficiency without adding unnecessary overhead

Technology Environment

• Backend: Java, Groovy, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, microservices
• Data: MongoDB, event-driven architecture
• Cloud: AWS (EC2, ECS, SQS, SNS, S3, CloudWatch)
• DevOps: Jenkins, Terraform or AWS CDK, containerization
• Systems: Fixed income trading, financing (repo), clearing/settlement, and accounting platforms

Required Skills and Experience

• Direct experience within fixed income platforms is required, including trading and post-trade systems exposure
• Experience supporting mortgage-backed securities (MBS), repo or similar financing mechanisms, and structured fixed income products
• Background within broker-dealers, buy-side firms, hedge funds, or regulated fintech platforms with comparable system complexity
• Proven ability to operate as a hands-on engineering leader in lean environments
• Strong technical depth in distributed systems and cloud-based architectures
• Experience building or supporting internally developed financial platforms
• Solid understanding of regulated financial systems and compliance frameworks
• Ability to introduce structure and discipline without slowing execution

Additional Notes

• This is a high-ownership role with immediate impact
• The team is intentionally lean; leadership is expected to be hands-on
• Best suited for candidates coming from platform-centric organizations, not highly siloed enterprises
• Candidates must be comfortable operating across architecture, leadership, and delivery simultaneously