Principal, Solutions Architecture

Location: Chicago, IL

About the Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced Principal, Solutions Architect to help design and build next-generation clearing systems that will support the continued evolution of the capital markets industry.

This is an opportunity to work on highly complex, enterprise-scale technology platforms involving distributed systems, real-time data processing, event-driven architecture, and cloud-native applications. The ideal candidate brings deep software architecture experience, strong hands-on development knowledge, and the ability to guide engineering teams in designing scalable, resilient, and high-performance solutions.

You will play a key role in shaping application architecture, defining technical standards, and delivering modern solutions that support both real-time and scheduled data flows across enterprise platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and lead application architecture across distributed and enterprise technology platforms.
• Architect next-generation systems using event-driven architecture, microservices, publish/subscribe messaging, and distributed computing patterns.
• Design streaming and batch-based systems supporting real-time and scheduled data processing.
• Develop architectural strategies for Kafka-based messaging and streaming platforms, including topic design, partitioning, and producer/consumer patterns.
• Guide the development of high-throughput, low-latency services supporting data-intensive and transaction-oriented systems.
• Define architectural standards, design patterns, and engineering best practices across development teams.
• Lead end-to-end solution architecture from initial design through implementation and deployment.
• Architect cloud-native applications and Kubernetes-based deployment strategies with a focus on scalability, resilience, high availability, and disaster recovery.
• Establish infrastructure-as-code practices using Terraform and other automation technologies.
• Partner with DevOps, platform engineering, security, and development teams to ensure solutions meet enterprise standards.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend solutions that improve system performance, reliability, and scalability.
• Review technical designs and code to ensure alignment with architectural standards and security requirements.
• Mentor engineering teams and communicate complex architectural concepts and technical decisions to both technical and business stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of relevant technology experience, including enterprise application architecture, software engineering, or distributed systems.
• Demonstrated experience designing large-scale distributed systems, transaction processing platforms, or event-driven applications.
• Strong software development background in Java, Python, or C#.
• Experience designing high-throughput, low-latency services for data-intensive or transaction-oriented environments.
• Strong experience with Apache Kafka or comparable messaging and streaming platforms.
• Deep understanding of microservices, event-driven architecture, object-oriented design, and software design patterns.
• Experience designing streaming and batch-processing solutions and complex enterprise data integrations.
• Experience architecting Kubernetes-based deployments and containerized applications.
• Cloud architecture experience, preferably within AWS environments.
• Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (IaC), preferably Terraform.
• Experience with DevOps tools and practices, including Git, Jenkins, Docker, and automated deployment pipelines.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts and architectural decisions to non-technical audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience within capital markets, financial services, trading, clearing, securities, or related industries.
• Experience with data lakehouse architecture and technologies such as Apache Iceberg.
• Knowledge of data serialization formats and schema management, preferably Protocol Buffers (Protobuf).
• Experience with OAuth2/OIDC, JWT authentication, and enterprise identity management platforms.
• Familiarity with tools such as Artifactory and ArgoCD.
• Experience designing highly available, multi-region systems and disaster recovery strategies across cloud and on-premises environments.

Why Consider This Opportunity?

• Help architect and build next-generation clearing technology platforms.
• Work with modern distributed systems, cloud-native technologies, and real-time data processing.
• Influence enterprise architecture standards and technical direction.
• Collaborate with highly experienced engineering and technology professionals.
• Make a meaningful impact on the future of capital markets technology.