VP, Engineering

What you'll do:

As VP of Product Engineering, you will own end-to-end engineering accountability for the platforms and systems that over 2.5 million traders depend on every day — including Desktop, Web, and Mobile trading applications, as well as the real-time backend infrastructure that powers them. Reporting directly to the CTO, you will lead a multi-director organization with a mandate to build a durable, high-performing engineering organization capable of predictable execution at scale while operating a 24x7 mission-critical trading platform. This role requires driving transformation while maintaining stability.

In this role you will:

• Lead a multi-director engineering organization spanning client platforms (Desktop, Web, Mobile) and real-time trading systems; set the tone for engineering culture, accountability, and craft
• Own performance management rigorously by establishing clear expectations, running structured calibrations, developing top performers, and addressing underperformance decisively
• Build leadership bench strength through strategic hiring and developing existing managers into senior leaders
• Partner with the CTO to translate business strategy into organizational design, headcount plans, and capability roadmaps
• Establish and enforce elevated engineering standards across code quality, testing rigor, deployment safety, incident response, and on-call excellence
• Drive measurable improvements in change failure rate, deployment frequency, and P1 incident trends to enable predictable execution
• Champion DORA metrics and SDLC best practices to ensure consistent quality across all teams
• Define and own the multi-year technical roadmap for client platforms and core trading systems including OMS, execution engine, market data, and exchange connectivity
• Lead platform modernization efforts, including retiring legacy infrastructure, evolving the Scala/Akka trading core, and expanding cloud-native capabilities on GCP while maintaining 99.95%+ uptime
• Enforce architectural guardrails and decision frameworks to ensure system coherence
• Achieve 80–90%+ roadmap execution through strong planning, prioritization, and delivery cadences
• Communicate engineering tradeoffs clearly to executive stakeholders and translate technical complexity into business terms
• Partner with Product, Design, Risk, and Compliance to align engineering investments with company priorities
• Champion AI-driven engineering initiatives including agentic development, AI-assisted code review, and debugging automation
• Measure and report on AI tooling impact across cycle time, defect rates, and developer experience

What you'll need:

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading organizations with multiple Directors or Sr. Engineering Managers
• Proven experience owning both client-facing platforms (web, mobile, or desktop) and backend distributed systems within the same role
• Demonstrated success improving engineering quality through reduced defect rates, improved deployment safety, and strong SDLC practices
• Experience in high-growth fintech, trading, payments, or similarly high-stakes environments where reliability has financial impact
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, event-driven architecture, low-latency systems, and cloud-native infrastructure (GCP or equivalent)
• Strong command of engineering delivery metrics such as DORA, change failure rates, and incident management
• Executive-level communication skills with the ability to translate technical complexity into business outcomes
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience

Bonus points for:

• Background in capital markets, brokerage, or futures and derivatives technology
• Experience with real-time trading systems such as OMS, EMS, exchange connectivity, or market data infrastructure
• Proficiency in C++, Java, Scala, Go, or similar programming languages
• Experience implementing AI-powered developer productivity tools at scale
• Experience navigating post-acquisition engineering integration

Compensation:

The salary range for this role will be $275,000.00 - $325,000.00 USD. In addition, this position will also receive an annual target bonus of 20%. Bonus pay at NinjaTrader is based on individual performance (50%) as well as company/team performance (50%).

Salary and bonus earnings are only two components of the total compensation package offered by NinjaTrader. NinjaTrader offers a 401K plan through ADP under which the company will match up to 3.5% of employee contributions. Annual paid time off allowance accrues at a rate of 23 days per year (some positions may qualify for more) plus seven paid holidays.

Location:

This role is based in Chicago, IL. *There may be remote flexibility for exceptional candidates in the following states: California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC, Wisconsin.

Hybrid:

For Chicago-based employees, we follow a hybrid work schedule: In-office Tuesday through Thursday, with remote work on Mondays and Fridays. In addition to these weekly remote days, we offer:

• 20 additional flex remote days annually
• 5 Company Wide Office-Optional weeks tied to major holidays