Senior Architect, Post Trade

As a Senior Architect, Post Trade at DriveWealth, your primary responsibilities will include designing scalable and robust back office and front office systems while ensuring high throughput and low-latency transactions. You'll be collaborating with various teams to meet both functional and operational requirements, and leading initiatives for high availability and disaster recovery to guarantee business continuity. Additionally, you'll focus on establishing automation frameworks and mentoring engineering teams throughout the software development lifecycle.

To qualify for the Senior Architect, Post Trade position at DriveWealth, candidates should have over 15 years of experience in software architecture and systems design, preferably in financial services. You will need to demonstrate expertise in high-availability architectures and disaster recovery frameworks. Familiarity with cloud-native environments and strong understanding of non-functional requirements such as scalability and security are critical. Experience with containerization technologies and microservices architecture will be advantageous.

The Senior Architect, Post Trade at DriveWealth plays a vital role in empowering the organization to achieve its mission of democratizing financial independence. By architecting scalable and resilient systems, you ensure that our platform can handle a high volume of transactions smoothly and securely. Your work directly supports our partners in providing seamless investing experiences, which is essential as they serve clients worldwide.

Working at DriveWealth as a Senior Architect, Post Trade offers a dynamic blend of start-up energy combined with significant Wall Street impact. The culture promotes teamwork, accountability, and creativity, all while delivering institutional-grade solutions. You’ll enjoy a hybrid work experience, with flexibility in scheduling and a collaborative office space located in the Financial District of New York. We celebrate diversity and encourage innovative thinking and experimentation.

At DriveWealth, the Senior Architect, Post Trade has ample opportunities for growth and professional development. You'll receive an annual stipend to invest in continued education and personal development, access to mentoring from seasoned experts in the industry, and the chance to lead innovative projects. The emphasis is on fostering a learning environment that aids in building a successful career in the finance tech landscape.

When addressing high availability in system design, it's essential to implement redundancy and distribution of resources to avoid single points of failure. My approach often involves using load balancers, replicating services across geographies, and incorporating fault-tolerant mechanisms. Discussing past successful implementations can illustrate how these principles were applied effectively.

In discussing a challenging project, focus on a situation where you faced significant technical hurdles. Use the STAR method: explain the Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Emphasize how you leveraged your skills in software architecture and collaboration with cross-functional teams to navigate the project to successful completion.

Non-functional requirements are crucial in financial platforms. Key aspects include security, performance, scalability, and compliance. It's important to ensure that systems handle peak loads without degrading performance—demonstrating real-world examples of how you’ve ensured these requirements in previous projects can add credibility to your answer.

Ensuring compliance and security starts at the design phase. I advocate integrating security measures into the architecture, such as encryption for data at rest and in transit, implementing permission controls, and conducting regular audits. It helps to have stories from past experiences where secure practices were successfully integrated in a systemic manner.

For a modern brokerage platform, essential technologies include cloud-native architectures, container orchestration tools like Kubernetes, event-driven systems using Kafka, and robust database solutions like PostgreSQL and NoSQL options. Highlighting your firsthand experience with these technologies, along with any frameworks you've built, can show your competence in this area.

Handling team conflicts involves communication, empathy, and problem-solving. I approach conflicts by facilitating discussions where concerns can be openly shared. Emphasizing collaboration and focusing on the team's shared goals is crucial. Providing examples of resolved conflicts through effective team engagement can demonstrate your leadership skills.

Disaster recovery planning is critical in financial services. My experience involves developing recovery plans that include regular backups, defining RTOs and RPOs, and conducting drills to ensure readiness. Discussing specific instances where you successfully executed disaster recovery strategies underscores your capability in this vital area.

I emphasize the importance of phases like requirements analysis, design, testing, and maintenance within the SDLC. In particular, integrating automated testing and CI/CD practices throughout the cycle is vital for maintaining high-quality standards. Sharing specific practices implemented in previous projects would reinforce your points.

Balancing innovation and compliance requires careful planning and risk assessment. I promote creative thinking among teams while ensuring that proposed innovations are compliant with existing regulations. Sharing examples of how you've fostered innovation without compromising compliance can highlight your ability to navigate this challenge.

Collaboration in software architecture is essential for ensuring that various perspectives shape the final product. Engaging stakeholders allows for a better understanding of functional and operational requirements, fostering innovation. Illustrating successful collaborative projects can effectively communicate the importance of teamwork in achieving desired outcomes.