Vice President - Principal Software Engineer

Morgan Stanley • New York, NY

1d • Onsite

About The Position

In the Technology division, we leverage innovation to build the connections and capabilities that power our Firm, enabling our clients and colleagues to redefine markets and shape the future of our communities. This is a Software Engineering position at the Vice President level, which is part of the job family responsible for developing and maintaining software solutions that support business needs. Morgan Stanley is an industry leader in financial services, known for mobilizing capital to help governments, corporations, institutions, and individuals around the world achieve their financial goals. Interested in joining a team that’s eager to create, innovate and make an impact on the world? Read on. About the team Securities Lending Technology is part of Prime Brokerage Technology. Our Approvals platforms provide locates and availability to external clients and internal users, connecting short-sale activity to Securities Lending inventory and controls. Our distributed engineering teams partner with the Trading Desk, Strats, Client Coverage and Product to improve client service and support the wider Stockloan Trading business. About the role We are seeking a senior technology leader in New York to lead the team and multiple connected initiatives across Approvals and distribution. You will combine strong engineering judgement with senior stakeholder engagement, helping shape client-facing services and their integration with inventory, trading and lifecycle platforms. You will work closely with Strats, Trading and Client Coverage to translate commercial needs an quantitative requirements into reliable, scalable technology. This is a hands-on leadership role with responsibility for developing engineers, guiding technical decisions and communicating clearly with senior stakeholders and clients.

Requirements

• A substantial track record of delivering business-critical software, leading engineering teams and coordinating multiple related initiatives across organizational boundaries.
• Strong server-side development and architecture skills in Java or Scala, including distributed services, messaging, databases, SQL, Unix/Linux and production troubleshooting.
• Experience building client-facing or trading-related platforms where availability, response time, data correctness and operational controls are essential.
• Working knowledge of Securities Lending, equity trading or closely related financing workflow with the ability to reason about short-sale coverage, inventory and trading dependencies.
• Proven senior stakeholder engagement and client-facing technical communication: listen carefully, synthesize competing needs and explain options and risks without unnecessary technical details.
• Strong analytical judgement and experience partnering with quantitative, business or product specialists to turn complex requirements into supported production solutions.
• Demonstrated people leadership, mentoring, capacity planning and development of engineers who can own delivery independently within a global team.
• Disciplined delivery practices covering design review, automated testing, secure development, observability, recovery and controlled releases.
• A degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience; clear written and spoken English.

Nice To Haves

• Locate and availability platforms, electronic distribution, client onboarding and integration, or Securities Lending inventory-management systems.
• Direct partnership with Strats, a Trading Desk and Client Coverage, including integration of analytics or decision engines into operational workflow
• Modernization of high-volume distributed services, event-driven processing, performance engineering and cloud-ready systems.
• Responsible use of approved AI-assisted development tools, with independent validation, testing, code review and protection of confidential information

Responsibilities

• Translate departmental priorities into a medium-to-long-term roadmap for Approvals and distribution, owning multiple programmes and aligning regional needs with global platform direction.
• Lead and develop the engineering team: establish clear ownership, coach technical leads and engineers, plan capacity and manage performance in partnership with Technology leadership.
• Partner with the Trading Desk, Strats and Client Coverage on locate decisions, availability distribution, inventory use and client workflows; turn ambiguous requests into agreed requirements and controlled delivery.
• Lead client-facing technical discussions alongside Coverage and Product, explaining capabilities, integration options and delivery trade-offs while managing expectations and service risk
• Shape resilient, scalable Approvals services and interfaces, protecting response times and controls for systems that sit within clients’ trading flow
• Coordinate with Stockloan Trading and lifecycle teams on inventory, position and trade-event dependencies; promote consistent data and reusable services across platform boundaries.
• Work with Strats to integrate decision logic and analytics into production services, with clear interfaces, validation, monitoring and ownership.
• Guide architecture, implementation and controlled rollout; communicate progress, complex decisions and risks to senior stakeholders, and drive improvements following production incidents.

Benefits

• Comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry
• Ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal