NinjaTrader

VP, Engineering

NinjaTrader

full-time

Posted on:

Location Type: Hybrid

Location: ChicagoCaliforniaColoradoUnited States

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Salary

💰 $275,000 - $325,000 per year

Job Level

About the role

  • Lead a multi-director engineering organization spanning client platforms (Desktop, Web, Mobile) and real-time trading systems; set the tone for engineering culture, accountability, and craft
  • Own performance management rigorously by establishing clear expectations, running structured calibrations, developing top performers, and addressing underperformance decisively
  • Build leadership bench strength through strategic hiring and developing existing managers into senior leaders
  • Partner with the CTO to translate business strategy into organizational design, headcount plans, and capability roadmaps
  • Establish and enforce elevated engineering standards across code quality, testing rigor, deployment safety, incident response, and on-call excellence
  • Drive measurable improvements in change failure rate, deployment frequency, and P1 incident trends to enable predictable execution
  • Champion DORA metrics and SDLC best practices to ensure consistent quality across all teams
  • Define and own the multi-year technical roadmap for client platforms and core trading systems including OMS, execution engine, market data, and exchange connectivity
  • Lead platform modernization efforts, including retiring legacy infrastructure, evolving the Scala/Akka trading core, and expanding cloud-native capabilities on GCP while maintaining 99.95%+ uptime
  • Enforce architectural guardrails and decision frameworks to ensure system coherence
  • Achieve 80–90%+ roadmap execution through strong planning, prioritization, and delivery cadences
  • Communicate engineering tradeoffs clearly to executive stakeholders and translate technical complexity into business terms
  • Partner with Product, Design, Risk, and Compliance to align engineering investments with company priorities
  • Champion AI-driven engineering initiatives including agentic development, AI-assisted code review, and debugging automation
  • Measure and report on AI tooling impact across cycle time, defect rates, and developer experience

Requirements

  • 15+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading organizations with multiple Directors or Sr. Engineering Managers
  • Proven experience owning both client-facing platforms (web, mobile, or desktop) and backend distributed systems within the same role
  • Demonstrated success improving engineering quality through reduced defect rates, improved deployment safety, and strong SDLC practices
  • Experience in high-growth fintech, trading, payments, or similarly high-stakes environments where reliability has financial impact
  • Deep expertise in distributed systems, event-driven architecture, low-latency systems, and cloud-native infrastructure (GCP or equivalent)
  • Strong command of engineering delivery metrics such as DORA, change failure rates, and incident management
  • Executive-level communication skills with the ability to translate technical complexity into business outcomes
  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience
Benefits
  • Generous PTO
  • 7 Paid Holidays Annually + 5 Conditional Holidays Annually
  • 1 Service Day Annually
  • 401k with 3.5% Company Match
  • Paid Parental Bonding Leave
  • Health, Vision, Dental Coverage
  • Life and Disability Insurance Covered 100% by NinjaTrader
Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools
software engineeringdistributed systemsevent-driven architecturelow-latency systemscloud-native infrastructureGCPDORA metricsSDLC best practicescode qualityincident management
Soft Skills
leadershipcommunicationstrategic hiringperformance managementplanningprioritizationdelivery cadencesstakeholder engagementaccountabilitymentoring
Certifications
Bachelor’s degree in Computer ScienceMaster’s degree in Engineering