Senior IT Engineer
CLS Group
About CLS
CLS is the trusted party at the centre of the global FX ecosystem. Utilized by thousands of counterparties, CLS makes FX safer, smoother and more cost effective. Trillions of dollars’ worth of currency flows through our systems each day.
Created by the market for the market, our unrivalled global settlement infrastructure reduces systemic risk and provides standardization for participants in many of the world’s most actively traded currencies. We deliver huge efficiencies and savings for our clients: in fact, our approach to multilateral netting shrinks funding requirements by over 96% on average, so clients can put their capital and resources to better use.
CLS products are designed to enable clients to manage risk most effectively across the full FX lifecycle – whether through more efficient processing tools or market intelligence derived from the largest single source of FX executed data available to the market.
Our ambition to make a positive difference starts with our people. Our values – Protect, Improve, Grow – underpin everything that we do at CLS and define and shape a supportive and inclusive working environment in which everyone is encouraged to be open and forward-thinking.
Job purpose |
| As Senior IT Engineering lead reporting to Engineering Manager, To engineer and re-engineer CLS’s Strategic Financial Settlement and Non-Settlement platforms. CLS Convergence, CLSnow, ClearFX, SCM, and CLSnet on cloud. To assist in the application of settlement knowledge to non-settlement solutions; complementing our IT Engineering team, bringing subject matter expertise in several areas. Strong MQ Series installation, configuration and support experience. Experienced in setting up MQ Series on two systems, connect queues, send messages back and forth. Strong knowledge of basic MQ Series functions and facilities. Strong Unix, Windows NT and MVS experience. Good knowledge and experience in using TCP/IP and SNA. Responsible for leading the specific technical designs, builds and deployments of both new solutions and enhancements to existing solutions. This candidate will have the ability to collaborate across IT to ensure the smooth transition of new services deployed from project into production. Provide third level support, where required, to assist the Infrastructure Service Operations teams with the investigation, escalation and resolution of technical Infrastructure issues that cannot be resolved by the BAU team. Proficiency working with third parties, where relevant, to assist in their deployment of new services. |
Essential Function / major duties and responsibilities of the job |
| Strategic Assist in the development of the overall strategy and architecture definition for the CLS internal technology infrastructure, remote access and collaboration tools. The primary focus for this role is technically leading the Settlement and Non-settlement-based projects, extending to Convergence, CLSnet on the cloud and cloud technologies, such as AWS. Design technical infrastructure solutions that meet service delivery needs, security requirements and provisions for the future needs of the business based on IT Strategy. This should include all governance and non-governance design and support documentation. · Provide advice, technical consultation, and Level 3 support guidance by analyzing and resolving problems and evaluating alternative means of satisfying user requirements, research and implement new technology to service the client and the team while staying up to date on the latest solutions and communicate with the vendors to ensure the best option is provided. · Assist in the implementation of the overall strategy and assist in the architectural definition for the CLS internal technology infrastructure in respect settlement technologies. · Design technical infrastructure solutions that meets Technology and Service Delivery needs and provision for the future requirements of the business, based on IT Strategy. This should include all governance and non-governance design and support documentation. · Undertake vendor engagement in support of settlement technology and have a good understanding of other technologies; such as XA, two-factor commit, messaging, databases, and associated integration challenges. Comprehensive review, design, and execution of end-to-end financial settlement technical solutions. · SAML, ADFS, and Single Sign-On · Active Directory SPN, Kerberos, OU, and LDAP scripting · Disaster Recovery · Advanced trace logs. · Security review and vulnerability testing. · Research and analyze the existing environment and provide solutions that support improved insight or reporting for the AWS cloud environments. · Design and engineer solutions that best utilize all available APIs within cloud-based systems; to include monitoring, vulnerability management, configuration management, integrity verification, logging and auditing for Cloud environments. · Test possible solutions in a developmental environment to ensure technology has the desired outcomes for the cloud environment. · Coordinate the integration and implementation of vetted solutions · Support the development of Operational Plans as needed · Develop an operational plan for supporting of all of the solutions developed · Perform other tasks consistent with the goals and objectives of the department/contract · Managing and maturing the current CI/CD pipeline using Jenkins and Gitlab by researching, recommending, and implementing additional tool sets. · Research and undertake vendor and product reviews. |
| Operational
§ Dedication to providing high quality IT services to all internal and external customers. § Ensure 99.999% uptime for systems and services in a corporate environment through strict adherence to information technology policies and procedures. § Work closely with IT management and onsite teams in the design, validation, and testing of solutions prior to implementation. § Manage the deployment, monitoring, development, upgrading, and support of IT systems, including servers, operating systems, hardware, and software. § Participate in recommendations for the improvement and growth of the IT infrastructure and IT systems. § Work with decision-makers to define business and systems requirements and recommend new technology in accordance with corporate policies. § Keep current with the latest technologies. § Negotiate service agreements and assist in administration. § Maintain inventory and asset management data for IT hardware, software, and equipment. § Maintain regular communication with the organization's executives, department heads, and end users regarding pertinent IT activities. § Qualifications and Skills: § Strong technical knowledge of networks (LAN/WAN) including hardware, protocols, and standards. § Extensive experience in support of desktop and laptop hardware and operating systems. § Extensive application support experience. § Excellent understanding of the organization's goals and objectives. § In-depth knowledge of applicable data privacy practices and laws. § Strong interpersonal and leadership skills. § Ability to work in a team-oriented, collaborative environment. § Strong analytical, evaluative and problem-solving abilities. § Ability to work with minimal direction. § Ability to conduct and direct research into IT issues and products as required. § Willingness to master new skills as needed. § Ability to present ideas in business-friendly and user-friendly language. § Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment. § Experience with installation and configuration of Cisco routers and switches is a plus. § Experience with RDBMS databases including SQL Server and Oracle is a plus. § Experience with UNIX operating systems, RedHat Enterprise, IBM AIX is a plus. § Experience with SAN storage including Dell, EMC and IBM is a plus. § Provide last line support for solutions delivered by the engineering function in line with existing IT service management processes. Act as an escalation point, for Service Operations where there is a need to escalate from L2 to L3 and for problems pertaining to IT technology and with a view to re-engineering. § Successfully transition the support of new technologies to Service Operations. § Provide last line support for solutions delivered by the engineering function in line with existing IT service management processes. Act as an escalation point, for the managed service, for problems pertaining to settlement technology and with a view to re-engineering. § Successfully transition the support of new settlement and non-settlement solutions. This will include preparing written documentation, such as a ‘Handover to Support’ document, and include product training, where required. § Maintain familiarity with business continuity procedures and take part in ‘Controlled’ and ‘Uncontrolled’ disaster failover testing. This is in conjunction with the Engineering and support teams. § Perform all changes to CLS standards across the whole settlement stack, including the development components, infrastructure, applications, databases and operate real-time support of settlement solutions where required. § Assist in the annual Audit and any compliance reporting or adherence to security or compliance related processes. § Participate in the development of performance and capacity requirements and work with and assist the P&C team. § Participate in the transformation of documentation. This is to assist in building a set of ‘best practice’ documents in relation to settlement and non-settlement applications. § Engage with third parties and provide technical assistance on high impact settlement issues. This would entail joining a bridge and working with developers and vendors. § Engage with third party vendors, such as IBM, Rackspace, AWS. § Solid troubleshooting skills with the ability to provide comprehensive support and debugging thereafter. § Solid understanding of settlement solutions with XA, two face commit, two-factor authentication, and encryption. § Understanding of QoS. § Understanding of the UNIX/Linux environments. § Subject Matter Expert candidate must be a Senior UNIX Engineer with extensive years of experience supporting financial platforms. § Have Senior DB2 DBA with extensive replication, configuration, performance and troubleshooting. § Demonstrate ability as a Senior WebSphere MQ administrator. The person must have extensive experience in configuration, performance and troubleshooting of MQ messaging. § The candidate must demonstrate strong application integration ability with high level troubleshooting and the ability to explain and demonstrate technical challenges to non-technical staff. § Extensive IBM Power, vMware skills, and AWS Cloud experience. § Strong SAN and NAS experience. § The person must demonstrate a strong ability to integration technical solutions. § The candidate must have strong interpersonal skill and must demonstrate the ability to work under pressure and time constrains. § Strong XA, multi-factor commits, two-factor authentication experience. § Subject Matter Experts need analytical skills to evaluate network and system performance and determine how changes in the environment will affect them. § Subject Matter Experts must be able to describe problems and their solutions to non-IT workers. § Subject Matter Experts may have to work on many problems and tasks at the same time. § Subject Matter Experts must be able to quickly resolve any problems that arise with computer networks. § Maintain familiarity with business continuity procedures and take part in ‘Controlled’ and ‘Uncontrolled’ disaster failover testing. This is in conjunction with the Engineering and support teams. § Assist in the annual audits within the IT function. § Participate in the development of performance and capacity requirements. |
| Leadership § Lead and oversee the successful release and transition of new IT services into support, meeting the team’s service acceptance criteria. § Undertake the role of Technical Lead on internal RTB projects applying both significant communications, organizational and technical skills to achieve successful outcomes. § Strong collaboration skills with senior stakeholders, peers and the project management team. § Through example and behavior, strive to provide peer leadership to other team members ensuring a level of excellence is achieved in delivering the service. § Effectively deliver projects as a technical lead, where required to do so, in line with the engineering function’s overall programme and aligned to the corporate strategy. § Provide technical design authority over new or changing solutions, in conjunction with other team members. |
Experience / essential and desired for successful job performance |
| Solid understanding of IT technologies, including cloud architecture, such as Azure and AWS. This requires extensive knowledge in this field with the ability to make decisions and drive through from initial concept to full deployment. This will include collaboration with other teams, such as architecture and security and third parties. · Analytic skills & experience · Strong teamwork & collaboration skills · Good written & verbal communication skills · Ability to work in a fast paced and agile development environment · Take a personal interest in, and responsibility for quality of work performed · Ensure accurate and complete documentation · Ability to pay close attention to detail while performing technically detailed task · Ability to quickly learn new technologies and adapt to rapid changes · Ability to articulate technical information clearly and simply to non-technical people · Participate in the transformation of documentation. This is to assist in building a set of ‘best practice’ documents that can be used for both audit purposes and education. |
Qualifications / certifications |
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§ Bachelor’s degree or equivalent working knowledge and experience § Strong Understanding and appreciation of working on business-critical production infrastructure, applications and database services § Unix/Microsoft/VMware/Citrix/Cisco certification/AWS § Knowledge of working in the financial services industry
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Knowledge, skills and abilities / competencies required for successful job performance |
Essential Skills
- Strong skills in networking and client/server environments. Support experience of MQ in Windows and Unix environments.
- Commercial IT exposure in a Large Systems Server environment
- Ability to architect and design MQ solutions for applications.
- Installation & Configuration of MQ v6.0, v8.0+, HACMP, MQ Cluster
- MQ Veritas Cluster Integration
- Experience of working in SSL certificates renewal.
- Troubleshoot Infrastructure and Application issues related to MQ.
- Facilitate Migration of MQ from v7.0 to v8.0 and higher versions.
- Provide infrastructure consulting and support to application development teams.
- Own/Prepare Root Cause Analysis for Major incidents/problems.
- Assist the team in identifying issues and in preparing Root Cause Analysis for Major incidents/problems.
- Assume additional responsibilities as assigned.
- Experience of working on Linux/AIX/Solaris platform must.
- Experience in Shell scripts.
- Experience in MQSC scritping.
- Strong knowledge of IBM WebSphere application Server.
- Installs and configures IBM Websphere, MQ Series, and Message Broker.
- Installs and configures Microsoft Windows Clusters
- Installs and configures IBM MS Series clusters, including configuration of queue sharing as appropriate
- Installs and configures IBM Message Broker that is critical to providing live updates to critical applications.
- Installs and configures PageDuty, Mwatch, Dynatrace, and equivalent monitoring tools
- Provides application software development support during development project cycles and after deployment.
- Configures and troubleshoots database connections across platforms, including connections to Oracle, SQL Server, and DB2 data sources
- Implements SSL channels in IBM MQ Series environments to ensure the security of all data transmissions
- Performs and supports problem determination and resolution in accordance with enterprise problem management processes
- Implements production environment configuration changes in accordance with enterprise change management processes
- Administers and supports MQ Series Workflow
- Installs, configured, and troubleshoots WebSphere Service Registry and Repository (WSRR)
- Documents environments, procedures, and policies in accordance with existing enterprise operational documentation standards
- Strong High Availability knowledge including Symantec VCS HA, VVR replication and similar technologies.
- Serve as technical resource to business analysts, solutions development and other groups responsible for application development standards, system design and integration.
- Maintain professional knowledge of WebSphere MQ hosted on AIX, Linux, and Windows systems as required for the administration and support of a large scale distributed environment
- Prepare and maintain professional documentation of server(s) / application(s) / network configuration(s) as they relate to middleware components and infrastructure.
- Ensure systems remain at operational excellence during infrastructure improvements (hardware/software upgrades server migrations/consolidations, application deployment, etc.).
- Engineer solutions, related to messaging that support and enhance business operations with guidance from Enterprise Architect Team and Technical Management.
- Provide 3st level technical support to IT Managers, DC Systems Managers, Information Security Team and Application Development Teams
- Provide technical leadership and mentor junior engineers supporting them to achieve excellence in their fields of interest and responsibility.
- Be responsible for adherence to Service Level Agreements for Data Investigation/ Level 3 application support services defined
- Perform E2E data issue analysis
- Provide solution to critical and strategic business technology challenges
- Timely identification, communication, and escalation of all production issues for timely resolution within the service level agreement.
- Follow and enforce GPA application support operation excellence principles and governance.
- Identify the area of fault (code, environment, or configuration) and guide the appropriate team in constructing and implementing the fix.
- Maintaining and updating technical documents beneficial for application support
- Develop support-script and simplify-data-investigation scripts
- Ability to delve deep into the code structure to understand complex algorithms and troubleshoot system/data problems.
- Provide technical oversight across systems and applications; leverage support skills across multiple teams and departments.
- Debug and test new software / applications and able to make general enhancements to the existing software / applications.
- Demonstrate drive and initiative; be goal-oriented, dedicated and self-sufficient.
- Partner with development and other technology teams to develop strategy regarding overall architecture and infrastructure, identifies and defines necessary system enhancements; analyzes existing system logic, identifies problems; and recommends and implements solutions
- Be able to work well under pressure, adapt quickly to changing priorities and maintain focus on key tasks during busy periods.
- Responsible for system availability / stability within the production environment to agreed business levels.
- Communicate complex technical issues to business users in a language they understand
- Assess and prioritize issues based on criticality.
- Able to provide effective client communications regularly and escalate when appropriate.
- Plan for and execute annual Continuity of Business (COB) tests, which will involve liaising with DBA’s, System Administrators, Users and other technical support teams to ensure test plans are executed as per the plan.
- Design and implement new on-premises and cloud systems while implementing best practices and industry standards;
- Work closely with application development and infrastructure teams on day-to-day tasks along with project planning and implementation;
- Review, mentor and coach, while defining and promoting usage of standards, best practices and lessons learned;
- Maintain familiarity with emerging technologies;
- Work closely with team members and supervisors to develop & improve monitoring and alerting systems for all critical components of infrastructure;
- Identify and drive opportunities to improve operational workflows;
- Implementation of proactive monitoring, alerting, reporting and self-healing systems;
- Solve problems relating to mission critical services and build automation to prevent problem reoccurrence;
- Create and maintain custom scripts using powershell, python, and bash;
- Create detailed documents and diagrams for all IT infrastructure.
- Requirements:
- Exposure to cloud services and solutions in platforms such as Azure or AWS.
- Strong practical knowledge of Windows and Linux Server operating systems;
- Good understanding of IT security best practices and threat protection;
- Networking: Knowledge and understanding of network concepts and technology such as TCP/IP, UDP, MAC addresses, IP packets, DNS, ACLs, routing tables, VPN and load balancing.
- Experience with Devops practices and tools such as Jenkins, CodeDeploy, Octopus Deply, and other tools;
- Experience with containers;
- Experience with Atlassian tools;
- Experience analyzing logs using tools, such as CloudWatch, SolarWinds or ELK (Logstash, Kibana);
- Experience with Orchestration tools such as Terraform or Cloudformation;
- Familiarity of management tools such as Chef, Puppet, Ansible or SaltStack.
- The candidate must be familiar with UNIX (Linux RedHat 6.x/7.x, AIX 6.1/7.2) 10x., 11.x.
Desirable Skills
- Ensure CLS internal systems are managed to the highest standard by following industry best practice
- Demonstrate good problem management ownership and prevention of SLA breach under Incident/Problem Management processes
- Actively contribute to the development of existing and new IT process and procedures to enhance service transition and service operation lifecycle stages
- Demonstrate self-starter capabilities
- Experience of working in a network heavily segregated by firewalls
- Appreciation of networking and the understanding of firewalls rules
- Understanding of building a product that will result in zero findings on a penetration test
- Appsense
- Work with Unix Engineers to provide hardware recommendations; diagnose memory problems, kernel configuration issues, VCS failover issues
- Implement Legato NetBackup backup and log archive configuration and fault resolution
- Performance tuning we use appropriately sized buffer pools, clustered indexes for heavy sort activity, one materialized query table (MQT), indexes, and daily reorgs on some tables.
- VMware including vCentre
- Strong understanding of designing to meet security principles and compliance
- Application migration skills from Windows 7 to Windows 10
- Citrix Netscaler and remote access
- Developed Microservice Lambda function in Python for Jira Application health-check, Database integrity check, EC2 instance conditioning tools, and managing user access credential/permissions, New Relic Monitor integration with trigger for Lambda function alert handling, scaling servers & graceful restart of services automation
- Designed Prove Of Concept Verizon Container Services on AWS EKS based on Kubernetes/Docker Infrastructure with CoreOS integration, featured with high availability, load balancing, service discovery, and rollout version control for managed application Docker containers, facilitate testing, staging pods of applications
- Designed Prove Of Concept Big Data Analysis tool with Application logs Analyzer for aggregate metrics, Error rates, System Reliability, User Trouble tracking and trend report using NoSQL AWS Lambda function & Kinesis Data Analytic Data Firehose, Glue ETL/Crawler, Athena, EMR and QuickSight
- Knowledge of current cloud architecture, best practices, tools, and frameworks as well as emerging technologies, trends and processes
- Ability to work in a fast paced and agile development environment
- Sound experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible, CloudFormation etc.)
- Sound knowledge of server infrastructure, virtualization, and cloud computing
- Experience supporting an enterprise desktop engineering environment
- Experience with deploying Database related software in a Unix and Windows environment.
- Ensure CLS internal systems are managed to the highest standard by following industry best practice
- Demonstrate good problem management ownership and prevention of SLA breach under Incident/Problem Management processes
- Actively contribute to the development of existing and new IT process and procedures to enhance service transition and service operation lifecycle stages
- Demonstrate self-starter capabilities
- Experience of working in a network heavily segregated by firewalls
- Appreciation of networking and the understanding of firewalls rules
- Understanding of building a product that will result in zero findings on a penetration test
- Application Layering
- ESX/Vmware
- Active Directory
- DNS
- Malware Tools
- AWS
- Okta Service-Level Security
- Okta Identity Cloud Features
- Centrify Security.
- Good knowledge of security (SAML, OAuth, OpenID, Kerberos, Policies, entitlements etc.)
- RedHat Enterprise Linux in-depth knowledge Infrastructure deployment experience in the Public cloud Knowledge of security controls for the Public cloud (encryption of data in motion/rest and key management).
- Experience with distributed, parallel file systems and related tools (GPFS, CFS etc.) Knowledge of Linux containers.
- Experience in the financial industry bachelor's degree in a related field.
Our commitment to employees
At CLS, we celebrate diversity and consider this to be one of our strongest assets. We are committed to fostering an environment in which everyone feels comfortable to be who they are, and inclusion is valued. All employees have access to our inclusive benefits, including:
- Holiday - UK/Asia: 25 holiday days and 3 ‘life days’ (in addition to bank holidays). US: 23 holiday days.
- 2 paid volunteer days so that you can actively support causes within your community that are important to you.
- Generous parental leave policies to ensure you can enjoy valuable time with your family.
- Parental transition coaching programmes and support services.
- Wellbeing and mental health support resources to ensure you are looking after yourself, and able to support others.
- Affinity Groups (including our Women’s Forum, Black Employee Network and Pride Network) in support of our organisational commitment to embrace and always be learning more about DE&I.
- Hybrid working to promote a healthy work/life balance, enabling employees to work collaboratively in the office when needed and work from home when they don’t.
- Active support of flexible working for all employees where possible.
- Monthly ‘Heads Down Days’ with no meetings across the whole company.
- Generous non-contributory pension provision for UK/Asia employees, and 401K match from CLS for US employees.
- Private medical insurance and dental coverage.
- Social events that give you opportunities to meet new people and broaden your network across the organisation.
- Annual flu vaccinations.
- Discounts and savings and cashback across a wide range of categories including health and retail for UK employees.
- Discounted Gym membership – Complete Body Gym Discount/Sweat equity program for US employees.
- All employees have access to Discover – our comprehensive learning platform with 1000+ courses from LinkedIn Learning.
- Access to frequent development sessions on a number of topics to help you be successful and develop your career at CLS.
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