
VP, Engineering
NinjaTrader
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Hybrid
Location: Chicago • California • Colorado • United 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