Fixed Income Quality Engineering (Middle Back Office Testing)

Hybrid

2-3 days onsite in Charlotte, NC

We are seeking a highly experienced hands on VP of Quality Engineering to assist in leading our Fixed Income Middle/Back Office testing function. This role is responsible for defining, implementing, and governing a robust testing strategy that ensures the reliability, scalability, and compliance of post-trade processing systems across settlements, confirmations, collateral management, regulatory reporting, and risk. The ideal candidate combines deep Fixed Income product knowledge, back office workflows, and hands-on Python programming Quality Engineering leadership to drive automation, governance, and continuous improvement.

Role Objectives

• Leadership & Strategy o Define and execute the Quality Engineering strategy for Back Office applications supporting Swaps, Derivatives and Fixed Income trading.

o Partner with Technology, Operations, Risk, and Compliance to align QA with business priorities and regulatory requirements.

o Build and manage a high-performing QE team across manual, automation, and performance testing disciplines.

• Governance & Standards o Establish QA governance frameworks with clear accountability, traceability, and reporting across all back office test cycles.

o Drive adoption of test management tools (e.g., Jira + Xray) to ensure complete coverage and defect traceability.

o Define and enforce QE best practices, including test automation frameworks, regression coverage, and shift-left practices.

• Test Execution & Coverage o Oversee end-to-end testing for settlements, reconciliations, clearing, payments, regulatory reporting (MiFID, TRACE, CFTC), and other post-trade processes.

o Ensure test coverage includes STP (straight-through-processing), fail/exception handling, SWIFT messaging, and integration with custodians/clearing houses.

o Establish performance banchmarks, resilience, and failover testing for high-volume transaction flows.

• Automation & Tooling o Drive automation strategy to increase regression efficiency, scalability, and accuracy across back office platforms (e.g., Calypso, Murex BO, or proprietary systems).

o Leverage modern test harnesses, CI/CD pipelines, and AI-driven test frameworks for smarter, faster, and more reliable validation.

• Metrics & Continuous Improvement o Define and maintain key quality metrics (defect leakage, automation coverage, cycle time, escape rate).

o Deliver executive-level reporting via dashboards (Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent).

o Implement continuous improvement loops to reduce production escapes and improve testing efficiency.

Qualifications and Skills

• Experience o 5+ years in Quality Assurance/Engineering in the Capital Markets Fixed Income trading space

o Strong background in Fixed Income products (Swaps, Govies, Corporates, Repos, Derivatives, OTC products) and Back Office workflows (settlements, clearing, custody, payments).

o Demonstrated success in building QE functions in complex, regulated environments.

o Proven track record of implementing large-scale automation and QA governance frameworks.

• Technical Skills o Deep knowledge of post-trade systems and integrations (e.g., Calypso, Murex, Client, Impact, GLOSS, DTCC, SWIFT).

o Strong expertise in test automation frameworks (Java/Python + Selenium, Cypress, REST/SOAP service testing, performance tools like JMeter/LoadRunner).

o Familiarity with DevOps and CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab, Azure DevOps).

o Data validation skills (SQL, Excel, reconciliation tools).

• Leadership & Soft Skills

o Exceptional leadership, mentoring, and communication skills.

o Ability to engage with Front Office, Back/Middle Office, Risk, Operations, and Regulators at senior levels.

o Strategic mindset with hands-on problem-solving capabilities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree (MBA, MS in Computer Science/Engineering, or Financial Engineering).
• Prior experience in a sell-side investment bank or hedge fund back/middle office environment.
• Knowledge of regulatory frameworks (Dodd-Frank, MiFID II, CFTC, EMIR).
• Experience with AI or ML in test automation and predictive analytics for QA.