VP, Kafka Platform Manager

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At LPL, people leaders hold the key to the employee experience — shaping culture, driving performance, and guiding individuals to new heights. Because when that happens, we all win – clients, LPL, and most importantly our, employees.

If you're ready to lead with intention and discover what’s possible, LPL Financial invites you to apply today.

Job Overview:

We have an exciting opportunity to join our Technology organization as VP, Middleware Engineering manager. In this role, you will be responsible for leading support and operations of Kafka and Swagger Hub platforms

Responsibilities:

- Manage mission critical Kafka messaging, streaming and integration platforms powering advisory platforms.
- Lead Kafka Middleware Platform Engineering Operations for both on premise and cloud-based platforms.
- Develop a high-performing platform team, handle financial planning, vendor management, contract negotiations.
- Develop strategy, roadmaps, and operational metrics for Kafka platforms
- Manage incident resolutions, platform upgrades, maintenance and drive automation for Kafka and Swagger Hub platforms.
- Help application teams onboard to messaging platforms.
- Deliver internal automations and self-service capabilities for the developer community.
- Install, manage, and maintain messaging platforms.
- Consolidate platforms into cloud and maintain operational hygiene.
- Contribute to integrating these platforms into a common management approach using DevSecOps and infrastructure-as-code pipelines and principles.
- Establish feedback loops that ensure continuous improvement and prioritization of the highest value customer needs.
- Leverage common tools, such as Jira and ServiceNow, for capturing, tracking, assigning, and planning demand/work.
- Lead, coach, and develop a team of high-performing outcome-oriented engineers, including onshore, nearshore, and offshore personnel.
- Collaborate across the firm to maintain alignment on vision, strategy, and performance to goals, approaching strategy with an entrepreneurial mindset, leveraging critical thinking to increase the value proposition of assigned products and programs.

What are we looking for?

We want strong collaborators who can deliver a world-class client experience. We are looking for people who thrive in a fast-paced environment, are client-focused, team oriented, and are able to execute in a way that encourages creativity and continuous improvement.

Requirements:

- 5-7 years of developing, cultivating, and leading strong, high-performing Kafka platform teams.
- 4+ years in platform engineering and management involving Middleware technologies.
- 5+ years delivering and operating in an Agile/Kanban model where dependency management and priority trade-off conversations are key to successful execution
- 5-7 years of experience with Cloud technologies, architecture, DevSecOps and Infrastructure-as-code engineering and integration, including Terraform, Ansible, and platform management automation tools and technologies
- 2+ years activating and managing high-performing 24x7 support teams

Core Competencies:

- Demonstrated Expertise (“DE”) managing middleware messaging platforms (Confluent Kafka) and in Public Clouds (AWS or Azure or GCP, or Oracle Cloud Infrastructure).
- DE creating CI/CD deployment of DevOPS tools (Ansible, Chef and Jenkins) to automate provisioning and remove manual steps.
- DE building integration for applications to Middleware tools, including Confluent Kafka ,IBM Message Brokers, and Message Gateways.
- DE integrating different databases (Oracle, Postgres, and Microsoft SQL server) using middleware/integration technologies.
- DE setting up enterprise grade monitoring solutions using one of Dynatrace ,Splunk, New Relic, and Nagios.
- DE handling Linux based deployments and troubleshooting issues using Scripting tools (Shell Scripting, Python, Perl, and Ansible).
- DE performing capacity assessment, maintaining operational hygiene, conducting High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) setups, requirements handling, delivering and code reviews, and production support for middleware/integration platforms (Confluent Kafka, IBM MQ, Axway, IBM Message Brokers, and Message Gateways).
- DE managing Kubernetes/Docker based platforms

Preferences:

- 8+ years of experience in technology leadership roles that span across architecture, platform, and infrastructure engineering preferably within a financial service or related FinTech firm.
- Ability to create a strategy and execute on a roadmap that delivers to the strategy.
- Strong communication skills, both written and oral, with ability to create/present presentations and serve as one of the recognized subject matter experts in the organization
- Demonstrate business acumen and the ability to interact with senior leaders, including developing, presenting, and gaining approval on business cases and funding requests.
- Flexibility and organizational change management experience.
- The ability to work in a cross-functional team and drive outcomes without having direct authority of all dependencies.
- Actively anticipates, identifies, and manages risks within position scope and at the company.
- Consensus-builder who drives change across initiatives within and outside direct accountability and evaluates solutions to the most complex business challenges.

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Pay Range:
$137,093.00 - $228,557.00
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Actual base salary varies based on factors, including but not limited to, relevant skill, prior experience, education, base salary of internal peers, demonstrated performance, and geographic location. Additionally, LPL Total Rewards package is highly competitive, designed to support your success at work, at home, and at play – such as 401K matching, health benefits, employee stock options, paid time off, volunteer time off, and more. Your recruiter will be happy to discuss all that LPL has to offer!
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Company Overview:

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LPLA) is among the fastest growing wealth management firms in the U.S. As a leader in the financial advisor-mediated marketplace(6) , LPL supports over 32,000 financial advisors and the wealth management practices of approximately 1,100 financial institutions, servicing and custodying approximately $2.3 trillion in brokerage and advisory assets on behalf of approximately 8 million Americans. The firm provides a wide range of advisor affiliation models, investment solutions, fintech tools and practice management services, ensuring that advisors and institutions have the flexibility to choose the business model, services, and technology resources they need to run thriving businesses. For further information about LPL, please visit www.lpl.com.

At LPL, independence means that advisors and institution leaders have the freedom they deserve to choose the business model, services, and technology resources that allow them to run a thriving business. They have the flexibility to do business their way. And they have the freedom to manage their client relationships, because they know their clients best. Simply put, we take care of our advisors and institutions, so they can take care of their clients.

For further information about LPL, please visit www.lpl.com .

Join the LPL team and help us make a difference by turning life’s aspirations into financial realities. Please log in or create an account to apply to this position. Principals only. EOE.

Information on Interviews:

LPL will only communicate with a job applicant directly from an  @lplfinancial.com  email address and will never conduct an interview online or in a chatroom forum.  During an interview, LPL will not request any form of payment from the applicant, or information regarding an applicant’s bank or credit card.  Should you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact LPL’s Human Resources Solutions Center at (855) 575-6947.

EAC 5.19.26