Lead Backend Engineer - Vice President -Software Engineering

Lead Backend Engineer - Vice President -Software Engineering

Morgan Stanley is seeking a Vice President-level backend engineering leader to design and deliver the governance workflow and audit/versioning architecture for the Metadata Repository platform. This role provides senior technical ownership of platform services and establishes engineering standards to ensure metadata is trusted, change-controlled, and scalable across Finance (and potentially the firm).

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 Engineer position at Vice President Level, which is part of the job family responsible for developing and maintains software solutions that support business needs. 
Since 1935, Morgan Stanley is known as a global leader in financial services, always evolving and innovating to better serve our clients and our communities in more than 40 countries around the world.
What you'll do in the role:

Own the end-to-end architecture for governance workflow execution (draft → review → approve → publish), including extensibility for future workflow types and policy controls

Define and standardize audit/versioning patterns across metadata entities, ensuring traceability, replay ability, and compliance-aligned change history
Establish engineering standards for service design, API versioning, data modeling, workflow correctness, and operational reliability
Guide implementation of workflow/state management approaches (state machines/workflow engines), including transactional boundaries and failure recovery
Own platform API strategy powering metadata CRUD and discovery, including performance and scalability requirements
Ensure strong testing strategies for correctness and regression prevention across workflow and policy logic
Partner with identity/security stakeholders on authentication/authorization and policy-driven controls
Provide technical leadership and direction to Directors and senior engineers; drive consistency across teams and components
Define and enforce engineering quality standards, including TDD expectations, testing strategy, and code hygiene
Establish standards for CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and release readiness across teams
Guide teams on effective and safe use of AI-assisted code generation tools, balancing speed with reliability and maintainability
Ensure platform services are designed to support end-to-end business workflows, including collaboration with UI and consumer teams
Promote engineering practices that prioritize correctness, clarity, and long-term maintainability

Collaborate with senior stakeholders to align delivery milestones and prioritize high-value governance capabilities
What you'll bring to the role:

At least 8 years' relevant experience would generally be expected to find the skills required for this role.

Strong backend engineering and architecture experience with Java (preferred), service design, and REST APIs
Deep understanding of workflow/state management, transactional modeling, and correctness guarantees
Proven experience designing and implementing audit/versioning systems for enterprise platforms
Strong experience with datastores (relational + search) and enterprise-grade data modeling
Strong engineering discipline around testing, reliability, and operational readiness
Experience implementing approval workflows and policy-driven controls in regulated/controlled environments
Strong understanding of Test-Driven Development (TDD) and automated testing methodologies
Experience working within CI/CD pipelines for enterprise backend services
Demonstrated focus on clean, maintainable, and well-structured code
Experience using AI-assisted development tools for code generation or developer productivity
Ability to think beyond backend services and contribute to end-to-end business solutions, including UI-driven workflows when appropriate
Pragmatic engineering leadership: deliver iteratively while maintaining platform integrity and standards
 

Preferred / Nice to Have

Experience with graph/search platforms enabling relationship-based discovery

Experience integrating with enterprise identity and access controls (SSO, RBAC/ABAC patterns)

Qualifications

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Typically, 10–14+ years of experience in backend/platform engineering

Demonstrated ownership of complex, multi-team platform services

Strong stakeholder management, communication, and technical leadership skills

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.

To learn more about our offices across the globe, please copy and paste https://www.morganstanley.com/about-us/global-offices​ into your browser.

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.

For more information, please visit: https://www.morganstanley.com/people-opportunities/eeo.