Vice President - Lead Software Engineer

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 Lead 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 role

We are seeking a senior, hands-on Senior Engineer with a strong backend Java/python focus to join IBD & GCM Technology, part of the wider Institutional Securities Technology (IST) Division. The team supports the complex and evolving needs of two of the firm's most prestigious and market-leading businesses, Investment Banking and Global Capital Markets.

This role combines deep technical expertise with people leadership. You will lead a group of engineers, set technical direction for your area, and act as a primary technology partner to the business. You'll work directly with business stakeholders and product owners to understand their workflows, identify pain points, and translate business needs into pragmatic solutions that deliver measurable value.

This is not a role where seniority means stepping away from code. You will design, build, and own core components across the stack, from Java services and APIs through to the user interface, while mentoring engineers and helping the team make sound architectural decisions. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable discussing strategy and trade-offs with senior stakeholders, reviewing implementation details with developers, and owning delivery from concept through production.

What you'll do in the role

• Lead, manage, and develop a group of engineers, setting priorities, providing technical mentorship, and fostering a culture of ownership, quality, and continuous improvement.
• Act as the primary technology partner to business stakeholders in IBD and GCM: gather requirements, shape priorities, and lead initiatives from concept through delivery.
• Lead the architectural design and modernization of defined components within our ecosystem, and drive analysis and design for initiatives that span multiple teams and systems.
• Act as a hands-on engineer, personally tackling the most challenging problems and building scalable, resilient backend services in Java alongside modern web front ends.
• Communicate regularly with product leads across the technology organization and discuss opportunities for improvement to existing and future technology solutions.
• Promote engineering best practices, including code quality, automated testing, and CI/CD, and help drive their continued evolution across the team.
• Own the stability of production systems, lead the resolution of complex incidents, and communicate clearly with business users during critical events.
• Actively use AI tooling to accelerate the software development lifecycle while applying strong engineering judgment and oversight.

What you'll bring to the role

• At least 10 years' relevant experience designing, building, and operating enterprise-scale applications.
• Strong hands-on Java/Python engineering skills, including Spring Boot, concurrent programming, RESTful API design, and automated testing.
• Full stack experience, including building modern web applications with JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks such as React or Angular.
• Strong relational database and SQL skills, and solid Linux fundamentals.
• Strong experience with event-driven architectures and messaging systems such as Kafka/MQ.
• Proven experience managing or leading engineers, including setting direction, mentoring, and growing talent.
• A track record of working directly with business stakeholders, gathering requirements, influencing strategy, and transl Desired Skills
• Knowledge of Investment Banking and Capital Markets workflows and products (advantageous but not required).
• Understanding of cloud-based platforms and distributed systems.
• Understanding of authentication and authorization frameworks.
• Experience with modern Java (21+) and GitHub.
• Experience integrating AI-assisted development tools, such as Claude Code or Amp, into a real engineering workflow.
• Willingness to learn additional languages (e.g., Python) as business needs require.

Who Thrives Here

• A leader who enjoys building and developing teams while remaining deeply hands-on and close to the code.
• Someone with strong technical instincts who is comfortable owning ambiguous, complex problems from conception through production.
• A clear communicator who builds strong, trusted partnerships with business users, senior technology leaders, and engineers at all levels.
• A collaborator who can influence outcomes, challenge assumptions constructively, and build alignment across teams.
• Someone with genuine curiosity about the IBD and GCM businesses and the ability to connect technical decisions to business outcomes.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM MORGAN STANLEY:

At Morgan Stanley, we raise, manage and allocate capital for our clients – helping them reach their goals. We do it in a way that’s differentiated – and we’ve done that for 90 years.  Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren’t just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work-life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There’s also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

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Expected base pay rates for the role will be between $155,000 and $215,000 per year at the commencement of employment. However, base pay if hired will be determined on an individualized basis and is only part of the total compensation package, which, depending on the position, may also include commission earnings, incentive compensation, discretionary bonuses, other short and long-term incentive packages, and other Morgan Stanley sponsored benefit programs.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a workforce that is diverse in experience and background.  Our recruiting efforts reflect our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion, where individuals are hired, developed, and advanced based on their skills and talents.

Our workforce reflects a broad cross-section of the global communities in which we operate, bringing a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives, and experiences.

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