Lead Software Engineer - SRE

Location: Columbus, OH, United States

Job Family: Software Engineering

About the Role

At JP Morgan Chase, we are at the forefront of financial innovation, powering the world's most important financial services with cutting-edge technology. As a Lead Software Engineer in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), you will play a pivotal role in ensuring the reliability and scalability of our mission-critical systems that handle trillions in daily transactions. Based in our Columbus, OH hub, you will lead efforts to build resilient infrastructure that supports everything from global payments to real-time trading platforms, all while navigating the complexities of a highly regulated industry. Your passion for SRE principles will drive us toward zero-downtime operations, making a direct impact on our clients' trust and the firm's competitive edge. In this leadership position, you will spearhead initiatives to automate and optimize our cloud-based ecosystems, leveraging tools like Kubernetes and Terraform to deploy fault-tolerant services. You will collaborate closely with software developers, product managers, and compliance teams to embed reliability into every aspect of our engineering lifecycle, from code deployment to incident response. Expect to tackle challenges unique to finance, such as ensuring sub-millisecond latency during market peaks and maintaining strict adherence to regulations like SOX and GDPR. Your expertise will help us proactively mitigate risks, turning potential disruptions into opportunities for system improvements. We value thought leaders who thrive in dynamic environments and are committed to fostering inclusive teams. As part of JP Morgan Chase's global technology organization, you will have access to world-class resources, mentorship from industry veterans, and the chance to influence strategic decisions. If you are excited about building the backbone of modern finance and leading a team toward engineering excellence, join us in Columbus to shape the future of reliable financial systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, implementation, and maintenance of reliable, scalable systems supporting JP Morgan Chase's core banking and trading platforms
• Collaborate with development teams to integrate SRE best practices, ensuring 99.99% uptime for financial applications
• Develop and automate infrastructure using tools like Terraform and Kubernetes to support high-volume transaction processing
• Monitor system performance and proactively identify bottlenecks in real-time data flows critical to financial operations
• Conduct root cause analysis for incidents, driving improvements in system resilience and reducing mean time to recovery (MTTR)
• Mentor and guide a team of SRE engineers, fostering a culture of reliability in a fast-paced financial environment
• Ensure compliance with regulatory standards by implementing security and audit controls in all deployed systems
• Optimize resource utilization and cost efficiency in cloud environments while maintaining performance SLAs
• Participate in on-call rotations and lead response efforts during critical outages affecting client services
• Contribute to thought leadership by publishing internal best practices and innovating on SRE tools for the financial sector

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field; advanced degree preferred
• 8+ years of experience in software engineering with a focus on Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices
• Proven track record of leading engineering teams in building and maintaining high-availability systems in a financial services environment
• Deep expertise in cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP, with hands-on experience in infrastructure as code (IaC)
• Strong understanding of financial regulations like SOX, GDPR, and PCI-DSS compliance in system design
• Experience with incident management, on-call rotations, and post-mortem analysis in mission-critical applications
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to mentor junior engineers

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working at a large-scale financial institution like JP Morgan Chase
• Certification in SRE practices (e.g., Google SRE certification) or cloud architectures
• Background in developing monitoring and observability tools for trading or payment systems
• Familiarity with agile methodologies and DevOps pipelines in a regulated industry
• Prior leadership in cross-functional teams handling production incidents during market volatility

Required Skills

• Proficiency in programming languages like Python, Java, or Go for automation and tooling
• Expertise in containerization and orchestration with Docker and Kubernetes
• Strong knowledge of monitoring tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, and ELK Stack
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitLab CI, or similar
• Understanding of distributed systems and microservices architecture
• Skills in cloud-native services (e.g., AWS EC2, Lambda, RDS)
• Incident response and chaos engineering practices
• Data analysis and scripting for performance tuning
• Leadership and communication skills for team collaboration
• Problem-solving in high-stakes financial environments
• Familiarity with security protocols and encryption for sensitive data
• Agile and DevOps methodologies
• Version control with Git and collaborative development
• SQL and NoSQL database management
• Soft skills in mentoring and stakeholder management

Benefits

• Competitive base salary and performance-based annual bonuses
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance plans
• 401(k) retirement savings plan with generous company matching
• Paid time off including vacation, sick days, and parental leave
• Professional development opportunities with tuition reimbursement and access to internal training programs
• Employee stock purchase plan and financial wellness resources
• On-site fitness centers and wellness programs at Columbus campus
• Flexible work arrangements including hybrid options post-pandemic

JP Morgan Chase is an equal opportunity employer.