Lead Software Engineer

FINRA • Rockville, MD

10d • Hybrid

About The Position

Working independently, the Lead Software Engineer owns development of software products and works on improving the overall quality of the product throughout the software development life cycle and mentors other Software Engineers. Reports directly to a Director or Senior Director. Essential Job Functions: Seasoned contributor that works on complex projects requiring extensive knowledge of specialty area and industry practices Manages processes, projects or products to improve efficiency within org or product area Influences outcomes in cross-functional settings Demonstrates solid understanding of systems and processes within job area and recommends improvements Designs and develops industry-leading solutions that meet defined quality standards, reliability specifications, and help achieve key strategic objectives Ensures comparison of tasks and quality of work, supporting peers to ensure the team delivers consistently Excellent understanding in computer science fundamentals - Algorithm design, Problem solving, Complexity analysis and data structures. Engineering/Operations Excellence: Helps identify gaps between system components and designs and delivers solutions Implements methods for managing and maintaining the organization’s software development environments to ensure software engineers are equipped with the tools and resources necessary to create and validate builds Takes broad perspective to problems and exercises independent judgement in techniques and evaluation criteria to obtain results Develops actionable insights from analyzing software development trends, software engineering best practices, and innovative test environment management tools and communicates integration recommendations to management Identifies ways to overcome challenging situations that jeopardize the achievement of business goals Collaboration: Coaches and trains less experienced colleagues in techniques, processes, and responsibilities Integrates the culture of intelligence, integrity, and initiative into team goals and decisions Partners within and across teams to remove barriers and identify shared goals and priorities Openly shares progress and priorities with key stakeholders, communicating complex or technical information at the right level. Demonstration of FINRA’s values. Collaboration, both in-person and virtually, in furtherance of FINRA’s mission of investor protection and market integrity. Essential Technical Skills: Big Data Technologies: Extensive hands-on experience with Hadoop, Spark, Hive, and Trino for processing petabyte-scale datasets. Proven ability to diagnose and resolve data skew, resource limitations, scalability challenges, and job failures in production environments. Apache Spark Expertise: Deep understanding of Spark architecture including executors, tasks, stages, and DAG execution. Demonstrated proficiency in performance tuning techniques such as partitioning strategies, caching, broadcast joins, and optimization of large-scale data processing jobs. SQL Mastery: Advanced proficiency in complex SQL including window functions, multi-table joins, aggregations, and query optimization. Experience handling edge cases involving NULLs, duplicates, and ordering in production environments. Cloud Technologies: Strong experience with AWS services including S3, EMR, Glue, Lambda, Athena, EKS, and serverless architectures. Practical knowledge of file format optimization, consistency management, and cloud-based data processing workflows. Programming (Python/Scala): Proficiency in writing clean, modular, and performant code using Python or Scala. Strong understanding of functional programming concepts (immutability, higher-order functions), collections, concurrency, and memory management for scalable data processing. Full Stack Development: Strong experience in full stack development across frontend and backend technologies. Ability to design and implement end-to-end solutions from user interface to data layer, with understanding of modern web frameworks, APIs, and microservices architectures. AI Tool Proficiency: Hands-on experience with AI development tools (GitHub Copilot, Q Developer, ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) and AI workflow design. Proven ability in prompt engineering and leveraging AI coding assistants for enhanced productivity. Agile Methodology & Change Management: Extensive experience with Scrum, Kanban, and continuous improvement practices. Demonstrated experience leading teams through AI adoption, technology transformation, and workflow optimization initiatives. System Design & Architecture: Strong system design experience with ability to architect scalable, distributed data processing solutions and enterprise-level applications. Object-Oriented Development: Strong experience in object-oriented programming principles, design patterns, and software engineering best practices. Data Storage Technologies: Strong experience with modern data storage solutions, database technologies, and data modeling approaches for both relational and NoSQL systems. Performance Tuning & Optimization: Demonstrated expertise in identifying bottlenecks and optimizing application and data processing performance across the full stack. DevOps & CI/CD: Strong experience with DevOps practices, continuous integration, continuous deployment pipelines, and infrastructure as code. Test Automation: Strong experience in test automation frameworks, unit testing methodologies, and quality assurance practices. Software Security: Strong understanding of security best practices, secure coding principles, and application security across all layers. Data Analysis & Insights: Ability to interpret AI-generated insights and data-driven metrics, translating them into actionable technical improvements and measurable business value.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or related discipline with at least 7 years of related experience, or equivalent training and/or work experience.
• Strong system design experience
• Strong experience in object-oriented development
• Strong experience with cloud technologies
• Strong experience in data storage technologies
• Strong experience in performance tuning and optimization
• Strong experience in DevOps and CI\CD technologies
• Strong experience test automation and unit testing
• Strong experience software security
• Extensive hands-on experience with Hadoop, Spark, Hive, and Trino for processing petabyte-scale datasets. Proven ability to diagnose and resolve data skew, resource limitations, scalability challenges, and job failures in production environments.
• Deep understanding of Spark architecture including executors, tasks, stages, and DAG execution. Demonstrated proficiency in performance tuning techniques such as partitioning strategies, caching, broadcast joins, and optimization of large-scale data processing jobs.
• Advanced proficiency in complex SQL including window functions, multi-table joins, aggregations, and query optimization. Experience handling edge cases involving NULLs, duplicates, and ordering in production environments.
• Strong experience with AWS services including S3, EMR, Glue, Lambda, Athena, EKS, and serverless architectures. Practical knowledge of file format optimization, consistency management, and cloud-based data processing workflows.
• Proficiency in writing clean, modular, and performant code using Python or Scala. Strong understanding of functional programming concepts (immutability, higher-order functions), collections, concurrency, and memory management for scalable data processing.
• Strong experience in full stack development across frontend and backend technologies. Ability to design and implement end-to-end solutions from user interface to data layer, with understanding of modern web frameworks, APIs, and microservices architectures.
• Hands-on experience with AI development tools (GitHub Copilot, Q Developer, ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) and AI workflow design. Proven ability in prompt engineering and leveraging AI coding assistants for enhanced productivity.
• Extensive experience with Scrum, Kanban, and continuous improvement practices. Demonstrated experience leading teams through AI adoption, technology transformation, and workflow optimization initiatives.
• Ability to interpret AI-generated insights and data-driven metrics, translating them into actionable technical improvements and measurable business value.

Responsibilities

• Seasoned contributor that works on complex projects requiring extensive knowledge of specialty area and industry practices
• Manages processes, projects or products to improve efficiency within org or product area
• Influences outcomes in cross-functional settings
• Demonstrates solid understanding of systems and processes within job area and recommends improvements
• Designs and develops industry-leading solutions that meet defined quality standards, reliability specifications, and help achieve key strategic objectives
• Ensures comparison of tasks and quality of work, supporting peers to ensure the team delivers consistently
• Excellent understanding in computer science fundamentals - Algorithm design, Problem solving, Complexity analysis and data structures.
• Helps identify gaps between system components and designs and delivers solutions
• Implements methods for managing and maintaining the organization’s software development environments to ensure software engineers are equipped with the tools and resources necessary to create and validate builds
• Takes broad perspective to problems and exercises independent judgement in techniques and evaluation criteria to obtain results
• Develops actionable insights from analyzing software development trends, software engineering best practices, and innovative test environment management tools and communicates integration recommendations to management
• Identifies ways to overcome challenging situations that jeopardize the achievement of business goals
• Coaches and trains less experienced colleagues in techniques, processes, and responsibilities
• Integrates the culture of intelligence, integrity, and initiative into team goals and decisions
• Partners within and across teams to remove barriers and identify shared goals and priorities
• Openly shares progress and priorities with key stakeholders, communicating complex or technical information at the right level.
• Demonstration of FINRA’s values.
• Collaboration, both in-person and virtually, in furtherance of FINRA’s mission of investor protection and market integrity.

Benefits

• Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.
• Non-exempt employees are also eligible for overtime pay in accordance with federal, state, or local law.
• As part of its dedication to employee wellness, FINRA provides comprehensive health, dental and vision insurance.
• Additional insurance includes basic life, accidental death and dismemberment, supplemental life, spouse/domestic partner and dependent life, and spouse/domestic partner and dependent accidental death and dismemberment, short- and long-term disability, long-term care, business travel accident, disability and legal.
• FINRA offers immediate participation and vesting in a 401(k) plan with company match and eligibility for participation in an additional FINRA-funded retirement contribution, tuition reimbursement, commuter benefits, and other benefits that support employee wellness, such as adoption assistance, backup family care, surrogacy benefits, employee assistance, and wellness programs.
• Time Off and Paid Leave FINRA encourages its employees to focus on their health and wellness in many ways, including through a generous time-off program of 15 days of paid time off, 5 personal days and 9 sick days, unless otherwise required by law (all pro-rated in the first year).
• Additionally, we are proud to support our communities by providing two volunteer service days (based on full-time schedule).
• Other paid leave includes military leave, jury duty leave, bereavement leave, voting and election official leave for federal, state or local primary and general elections, care of a family member leave (available after 90 days of employment); and childbirth and parental leave (available after 90 days of employment).
• Full-time employees receive nine paid holidays.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees