Fixed Income Quality Engineering (Middle Back Office Testing)

SMBC•New York City, NY

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

SMBC Group is seeking a highly experienced, hands-on VP of Quality Engineering to help lead its Fixed Income Middle/Back Office testing function. The role defines, implements, and governs a testing strategy to ensure the reliability, scalability, and compliance of post-trade processing systems across settlements, confirmations, collateral management, regulatory reporting, and risk. The successful candidate will combine deep Fixed Income product and back-office workflow knowledge with hands-on Python programming and Quality Engineering leadership to advance automation, governance, and continuous improvement. The role leads Quality Engineering for back-office applications supporting Swaps, Derivatives, and Fixed Income trading; builds and manages a team spanning manual, automation, and performance testing; and partners with Technology, Operations, Risk, and Compliance. It establishes quality governance, standards, test coverage, metrics, and executive reporting, while overseeing end-to-end testing and automation across post-trade platforms and integrations. SMBC uses a hybrid workforce model, with employees working from home and an SMBC office. Employees must live within a reasonable commuting distance of their office; candidates will learn the specific hybrid schedule during interviews. Hybrid work may not be permitted for certain roles.

Requirements

At least 5 years of Quality Assurance or Quality Engineering experience in the Capital Markets Fixed Income trading space.
Strong background in Fixed Income products, including Swaps, government and corporate securities, repos, derivatives, and OTC products, and in back-office workflows such as settlements, clearing, custody, and payments.
Demonstrated success building QE functions in complex, regulated environments.
Proven track record implementing large-scale automation and QA governance frameworks.
Deep knowledge of post-trade systems and integrations, such as Calypso, Murex, Broadridge, Impact, GLOSS, DTCC, and SWIFT.
Strong expertise in test automation frameworks, including Java or Python with Selenium or Cypress, REST/SOAP service testing, and performance tools such as JMeter or LoadRunner.
Familiarity with DevOps and CI/CD pipelines, such as Jenkins, GitLab, or Azure DevOps.
Data validation skills, including SQL, Excel, and reconciliation tools.
Exceptional leadership, mentoring, and communication skills.
Ability to engage senior stakeholders across Front Office, Back/Middle Office, Risk, Operations, and regulatory functions.
Strategic mindset combined with hands-on problem-solving capabilities.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree such as an MBA, MS in Computer Science or Engineering, or a degree in Financial Engineering.
Prior experience in a sell-side investment bank or hedge fund back/middle-office environment.
Knowledge of regulatory frameworks such as Dodd-Frank, MiFID II, CFTC, and EMIR.
Experience with AI or ML in test automation and predictive analytics for QA.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the Quality Engineering strategy for back-office applications supporting Swaps, Derivatives, and Fixed Income trading.
Partner with Technology, Operations, Risk, and Compliance to align QA with business priorities and regulatory requirements.
Build and manage a high-performing QE team covering manual, automation, and performance testing.
Establish QA governance frameworks with clear accountability, traceability, and reporting across back-office test cycles.
Drive adoption of test management tools such as Jira and Xray to ensure test coverage and defect traceability.
Define and enforce QE best practices, including test automation frameworks, regression coverage, and shift-left practices.
Oversee end-to-end testing for settlements, reconciliations, clearing, payments, regulatory reporting, and other post-trade processes.
Ensure test coverage includes straight-through processing, fail and exception handling, SWIFT messaging, and integrations with custodians and clearing houses.
Establish performance benchmarks and conduct resilience and failover testing for high-volume transaction flows.
Drive automation strategy to improve regression efficiency, scalability, and accuracy across back-office platforms.
Leverage test harnesses, CI/CD pipelines, and AI-driven test frameworks for validation.
Define and maintain quality metrics, including defect leakage, automation coverage, cycle time, and escape rate.
Deliver executive-level reporting through dashboards such as Power BI or Tableau.
Implement continuous-improvement loops to reduce production escapes and improve testing efficiency.
Mentor and communicate with stakeholders, engaging senior-level Front Office, Back/Middle Office, Risk, Operations, and regulatory counterparts.