Director, Development

Job Purpose

The New York Stock Exchange, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE), presents a unique opportunity for a full-time hands-on Director of Engineering to lead and drive the strategic technical vision for trading systems development in a high throughput, low latency trading environment. This senior leadership role carries end-to-end ownership of the architecture, design, and delivery of core systems powering NYSE Equity and Options markets on the cutting-edge Pillar platform. The Director of Engineering will lead multiple engineering teams, set the long-term technical direction, and serve as the key decision-maker on platform architecture — ensuring world-class reliability, performance, and innovation across the trading technology portfolio.

Responsibilities

• Architecture & Design Ownership
  • Own and drive the end-to-end system architecture and technical roadmap for NYSE's high performance, high availability, high throughput trading platform.
  • Serve as the final technical authority on architectural and design decisions, ensuring alignment with long-term business strategy and scalability goals.
  • Define and enforce engineering standards, design patterns, and best practices across all teams and system components.
  • Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies and approaches to maintain a competitive, next-generation platform.
• Engineering Leadership & Team Development
  • Lead, mentor, and grow multiple engineering teams, including Principal Engineers, Senior Engineers, and individual contributors, fostering a culture of technical excellence and accountability.
  • Recruit, retain, and develop top-tier engineering talent; drive career development, succession planning, and performance management across the organization.
  • Champion a collaborative and innovative engineering culture that encourages knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.
• Strategic Planning & Execution
  • Partner with senior business, product, and operations leadership to translate business objectives into technical strategy and execution plans.
  • Own program-level planning, prioritization, and delivery of complex, cross-functional initiatives with organization-wide impact.
  • Establish and track key engineering metrics (system performance, reliability, delivery velocity) and drive continuous improvement against those benchmarks.
  • Manage engineering budgets, vendor relationships, and resource allocation decisions.
• Operational Excellence
  • Ensure the highest levels of system reliability, availability, and regulatory compliance for mission-critical trading infrastructure.
  • Drive incident management, root-cause analysis, and systemic improvements to reduce operational risk.
  • Effectively represent engineering in cross-organizational forums, regulatory reviews, and executive-level discussions.

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related degree.
• 15+ years of progressive hands-on software engineering experience, including significant depth in C/C++ development on Linux.
• 5+ years in a senior engineering leadership role with demonstrated experience managing and scaling multiple teams.
• Proven track record of owning and driving large-scale system architecture and design for high performance, low latency, mission-critical platforms.
• Deep expertise in data structures, algorithmic complexity, systems programming, and performance-oriented software design.
• Strong hands-on background with TCP/IP, Multicast network protocols, multithreading, and real-time systems.
• Experience with scripting languages and automation in complex engineering environments.
• Experience with AI assisted coding tools and agents for automating development workflows

Leadership and Strategic Skills

• Demonstrated ability to set technical vision, influence across organizational boundaries, and drive alignment between engineering, business, and operations leadership.
• Experience managing engineering budgets, roadmaps, and cross-functional programs at scale.
• Strong executive communication skills — ability to translate complex technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders and represent engineering at the executive level.
• Track record of building, mentoring, and retaining high-performing engineering organizations.
• Experience operating within regulated financial services or exchange environments is strongly preferred.