Solutions Architect Group Manager (Spark/PySpark Data Platforms)

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Job Overview

About Citi:
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

As a bank with a brain and a soul, Citi creates economic value that is systemically responsible and in our clients’ best interests. As a financial institution that touches every region of the world and every sector that shapes your daily life, our Enterprise Operations & Technology teams are charged with a mission that rivals any large tech company. Our technology solutions are the foundations of everything we do from keeping the bank safe, managing global resources, and providing the technical tools our workers need to be successful to designing our digital architecture and ensuring our platforms provide a first-class customer experience. We reimagine client and partner experiences to deliver excellence through secure, reliable, and efficient services.

Our commitment to diversity includes a workforce that represents the clients we serve from all walks of life, backgrounds, and origins. We foster an environment where the best people want to work. We value and demand respect for others, promote individuals based on merit, and ensure opportunities for personal development are widely available to all. Ideal candidates are innovators with well-rounded backgrounds who bring their authentic selves to work and complement our culture of delivering results with pride. If you are a problem solver who seeks passion in your work, come join us. We’ll enable growth and progress together.

Overview of the Role:

The Solutions Architect Group Manager (Spark/PySpark Data Platforms) is a critical senior management position, primarily focused on people leadership and organizational effectiveness. This role bears the responsibility for accomplishing significant results through the diligent management, mentorship, and development of a high-caliber team or an entire department dedicated to application systems. The fundamental purpose is to orchestrate the successful establishment, implementation, and enhancement of new or revised application systems and programs, working in close collaboration and strategic partnership with the wider Technology Team. The ultimate objective extends beyond just technical delivery; it is to cultivate an environment that empowers teams, fosters innovation, and streamlines applications systems analysis and programming activities to achieve peak performance and deliver consistent, high-quality software solutions that directly support business objectives. This manager acts as a vital enabler, fostering growth, resolving complex team dynamics, and ensuring the collective success of their people.

Responsibilities:

• Design and Architect Technical solutions across various programs and bring standardized approach, Bring in latest technology and design principles to increase efficiency and product better output to align with strategic vision

• Manage multiple teams of professionals to accomplish established goals and conduct personnel duties for team (e.g., performance evaluations, hiring, and disciplinary actions).

• Provide strategic influence and exercise control over resources, budget management, and planning while monitoring end results.

• Utilize in-depth knowledge of concepts and procedures within own area and basic knowledge of other areas to resolve issues.

• Ensure essential procedures are followed and contribute to defining standards.

• Integrate in-depth knowledge of applications development with overall technology function to achieve established goals.

• Provide evaluative judgment based on analysis of facts in complicated, unique, and dynamic situations including drawing from internal and external sources.

• Influence and negotiate with senior leaders across functions, as well as communicate with external parties as necessary.

• Appropriately assess risk when business decisions are made, demonstrating particular consideration for the firm's reputation and safeguarding Citigroup, its clients, and assets, by driving compliance with applicable laws, rules, and regulations, adhering to Policy, applying sound ethical judgment regarding personal behavior, conduct, and business practices, and escalating, managing, and reporting control issues with transparency, as well as effectively supervise the activity of others and create accountability with those who fail to maintain these standards.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of relevant experience in Software Development, Architect or other related technical roles (e.g., Lead Architect, Tech Lead, etc.)

• 5+ years of experience specifically leading the design and implementation of large-scale data processing solutions.

• Proven leadership and team management experience, including mentoring, performance management, talent acquisition, and fostering a high-performing engineering culture.

• Demonstrated ability to define, drive, and execute technical strategy, fostering innovation and continuous improvement within development teams.

• Expert familiarity with the Software Development lifecycle (SDLC) and general technical concepts, sufficient to effectively manage technical teams and understand their challenges, with direct hands-on technical expertise.

• Strong technical background, including hands-on experience and architectural understanding in several of the following areas:

  • System Design & Architecture: Demonstrated ability to lead complex distributed system design efforts, evaluate architectural trade-offs (scalability, resilience, security, cost-efficiency), and guide technical teams in building robust, performant, and secure enterprise-grade applications, particularly in the big data domain.

  • Apache Spark & PySpark: Deep hands-on experience and architectural understanding of Spark's Core Concepts (RDDs, DataFrames, Datasets), Internals (Catalyst, Tungsten), Performance Tuning, troubleshooting, and best practices for building production-grade PySpark applications. Experience with Spark Streaming/Structured Streaming is highly valued.

  • Cloud Platforms: Extensive experience with at least one major cloud provider (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform), demonstrating strong understanding of IaaS, PaaS, and FaaS offerings, Managed Services (Databases, Messaging Queues), and Cloud-Native Development Patterns for data pipelines.

  • Programming Languages: Proficiency and leadership experience in modern programming languages such as Python for Data Engineering and general software development; strong command of PySpark.

  • Microservices Architecture: Deep understanding of Microservices Design principles, including Domain-Driven Design, Inter-service Communication (REST, gRPC, Kafka), Data Consistency Patterns (Saga), API gateways, and Service Mesh technologies.

  • DevOps & MLOps Practices: Solid expertise in implementing and promoting DevOps/MLOps culture and practices, including Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps), Infrastructure as code (IaC)tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible), Containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), Monitoring and Logging Solutions (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack), and Automated Testing strategies.

  • Database Technologies: Experience with both Relational (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle) and NoSQLdatabases (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra, Redis), including Data Modeling, Optimization, and Scaling strategies.

• Exceptional communication skills, with a proven ability to articulate complex technical concepts, architectural decisions, and strategic roadmaps clearly and concisely to diverse stakeholders (technical and non-technical).

Education:

Bachelor’s degree/University degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field or equivalent experience.

Master’s degree preferred.

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Job Family Group:

Technology

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Job Family:

Applications Development

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Time Type:

Full time

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Most Relevant Skills

Please see the requirements listed above.

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Other Relevant Skills

For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.

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