Director, Spread Products Electronic Trading Tech Lead

RBC•Jersey City, NJ

2d•$210,000 - $275,000

About The Position

What is the opportunity? At RBC Capital Markets, a premier global investment bank and a core part of Royal Bank of Canada's business, we are seeking a talented individual to join our Capital Markets division, specifically within the Global Spread Products (GSP) Technology Organization to lead our Electronic Trading Platform. This team supports a thriving $1.6 billion business which has embarked on a multi-year journey to expand its footprint and trading revenue. This role provides the candidate a good balance between stakeholder management (30%), technical design / architecture / coding (30%), team/people management (30%) and lastly opportunity to volunteer and give back to the community (10%). This is a strategic role and provides the candidate excellent visibility with senior management across business and technology and provides opportunity for career growth at RBC. What will you do? As Electronic Trading Tech Lead, the candidate will report to Global Head of Spread Technology and be part of his senior management team. The candidate will be responsible for the overall ownership of the Electronic Trading Platform (Java / Python / Solace / KDB / Ignite) and responsible for creating and executing strategic projects that augment electronic trading capabilities of the business. The candidate will directly engage with the Credit (US/UK) & Muni electronic trading desk to understand the business needs and transpose them to technical architecture, leading a global team of developers to deliver the necessary functionality for the business. Design, build, and maintain robust electronic trading connectivity infrastructure across diverse trading venues including Alternative Trading Systems (ATS), Electronic Communication Networks (ECN), trading hubs, and direct bilateral connections with institutional clients. Lead the implementation and optimization of industry-standard trading protocols including FIX (Financial Information eXchange), SBE (Simple Binary Encoding), and other venue-specific connectivity protocols, ensuring low-latency, high-throughput message processing. Engage with other teams within Spread Technology as well as other asset classes to identify synergies and drive adoption and/or creation of common solutions for electronic trading connectivity. Bring an innovative mindset to explore and integrate emerging technologies including AI and machine learning to enhance trading connectivity, optimize order routing, improve latency prediction, automate venue selection, and drive intelligent trade execution strategies. Champion the adoption of AI-powered tools and techniques across the electronic trading platform, including leveraging generative AI for code development, operational automation, anomaly detection in trading connectivity, and predictive analytics for venue performance optimization. Candidate should bring extensive industry experience in electronic trading infrastructure to train the existing team and fast track the platform buildout. The candidate should have deep knowledge of trading venue connectivity patterns, protocol certification requirements, exchange APIs, and best practices for multi-venue order routing and execution management. What do you need to succeed?

Requirements

12+ years of experience building and managing electronic trading connectivity systems with deep expertise in FIX protocol (FIX 4.2, FIX 4.4, FIXT 1.1, FIX 5.0), SBE, and other binary protocols used across trading venues.
Directing, motivating, developing and managing the performance of the team; ensuring high standards and quality of technical work.
Directing reviews of tools and technologies for improving performance and reducing costs; Directing and managing the delivery of large or complex application development projects; defining strategies and client needs focused on technology development.
Proven track record of establishing and maintaining connectivity with diverse trading venues including ATS (Alternative Trading Systems), ECN (Electronic Communication Networks), multi-dealer platforms, trading hubs, and direct bilateral connections with buy-side and sell-side clients; extensive experience with venue certification processes, connectivity testing, market data feeds, order entry gateways, drop copy sessions, and FIX session management across multiple counterparties.
10+ years of Fixed Income banking technology experience in server-side Java with strong emphasis on Java Concurrency, Caching, Collections API, Messaging and Event processing across multiple streams.
7+ years of coding experience in multi-cast messaging (Solace / RV) and low-latency messaging infrastructure;
7+ years of coding with relational databases (SQL Server, Sybase, Oracle) and time-series databases for trade and market data storage;
7+ years of technical design of low-latency trading application services with sub-millisecond performance requirements.
Strong understanding of order lifecycle management, execution workflows, market microstructure, and regulatory requirements (MiFID II, Reg NMS, CAT reporting) as they relate to electronic trading connectivity.
Experience with FIX engines (QuickFIX, Cameron FIX, proprietary implementations) and message transformation frameworks.
Demonstrated innovative mindset with proven ability to identify, evaluate, and adopt emerging technologies to solve complex trading connectivity challenges and drive competitive advantage.
Embraces AI and emerging technologies with practical experience applying AI/ML techniques to trading systems, such as intelligent order routing, latency optimization, pattern recognition in market data, or operational automation.

Nice To Haves

5+ years of DevOps tools (Maven, Jenkins, Nexus, Helios, Kubernetes, Docker) for continuous integration and deployment of trading connectivity components.
Experience with market data normalization, order routing logic, smart order routing (SOR) algorithms, and execution analytics.
Knowledge of credit and fixed income electronic trading platforms such as Tradeweb, MarketAxess, Bloomberg TSOX, Liquidnet, and direct dealer-to-client protocols.
Familiarity with cloud-based trading infrastructure and hybrid on-premise/cloud connectivity architectures.
Hands-on experience with AI/ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn) and their application to trading systems, market data analysis, or infrastructure optimization.
Knowledge of natural language processing (NLP), large language models (LLMs), or generative AI applications in financial services and trading operations.

Responsibilities

Overall ownership of the Electronic Trading Platform (Java / Python / Solace / KDB / Ignite)
Creating and executing strategic projects that augment electronic trading capabilities of the business
Directly engage with the Credit (US/UK) & Muni electronic trading desk to understand the business needs and transpose them to technical architecture, leading a global team of developers to deliver the necessary functionality for the business
Design, build, and maintain robust electronic trading connectivity infrastructure across diverse trading venues including Alternative Trading Systems (ATS), Electronic Communication Networks (ECN), trading hubs, and direct bilateral connections with institutional clients
Lead the implementation and optimization of industry-standard trading protocols including FIX (Financial Information eXchange), SBE (Simple Binary Encoding), and other venue-specific connectivity protocols, ensuring low-latency, high-throughput message processing
Engage with other teams within Spread Technology as well as other asset classes to identify synergies and drive adoption and/or creation of common solutions for electronic trading connectivity
Bring an innovative mindset to explore and integrate emerging technologies including AI and machine learning to enhance trading connectivity, optimize order routing, improve latency prediction, automate venue selection, and drive intelligent trade execution strategies
Champion the adoption of AI-powered tools and techniques across the electronic trading platform, including leveraging generative AI for code development, operational automation, anomaly detection in trading connectivity, and predictive analytics for venue performance optimization

Benefits

A comprehensive Total Rewards Program including bonuses and flexible benefits, competitive compensation, commissions, and stock where applicable
Leaders who support your development through coaching and managing opportunities
Ability to make a difference and lasting impact
Work in a dynamic, collaborative, progressive, and high-performing team
Flexible work/life balance options
Opportunities to do challenging work
Opportunities to take on progressively greater accountabilities
Access to a variety of job opportunities across business and geographies

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