Job Title: Reference Data Team Lead

Location: Sydney, Australia

Relocation & Visa Sponsorship Available

About the Company

Our client is a global leader in proprietary trading, where cutting-edge technology drives success on the world's most competitive markets. Their teams of traders and developers collaborate closely to build high-performance systems that deliver real-time insights and execution at speed.

The Reference Data team plays a foundational role in maintaining the integrity and availability of market data that powers all trading and analytical operations. With expanding data needs and growing system complexity, the team is scaling-and this role is a key leadership hire in that journey.

About the Role

As a Reference Data Team Lead, you will take full technical and team leadership of a small but critical development team (4-5 engineers), owning a suite of core systems that manage reference data across global trading desks. This is an 80% hands-on engineering and 20% people leadership role-ideal for someone who has built or maintained reference data systems end-to-end and is ready to step into a high-impact leadership position.

You'll work closely with cross-functional teams, including traders, quantitative researchers, infrastructure, and project management groups, to ensure data accuracy, system reliability, and seamless integration with trading platforms.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

- Provide architectural direction and technical oversight for all reference data systems.

- Actively contribute code, lead design sessions, and drive system performance optimization.

- Conduct code reviews, promote best practices, and guide the team in engineering excellence.

Team Management & Mentorship

- Lead a team of developers with varied years of experience.

- Mentor and support engineers through technical guidance, feedback, and upskilling.

- Manage workload distribution, team planning, and delivery timelines.

Reference Data System Ownership

- Own, maintain, and enhance reference data platforms-these are existing, mature systems critical to trading operations.

- Ensure high data quality, system uptime, and scalability across asset classes.

- Troubleshoot and resolve production issues related to static and market data pipelines.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

- Interface with traders, quant researchers, and product teams to understand data needs.

- Align system design and implementation with business requirements.

- Partner with global teams to harmonize reference data practices and system enhancements.

- Process Improvement & Tooling

- Implement and maintain data workflows using tools like Apache Airflow.

- Set up and manage CI/CD pipelines using tools like Jenkins and Morpheus.

- Drive continuous improvement in system performance, deployment, and developer experience.

Qualifications

Must-Have

- 7-15 years of experience, with at least 5+ years dedicated to reference data systems in trading firms, investment banks, or financial technology environments.

- Experience in trading environments, particularly in proprietary or high-frequency trading (HFT) contexts.

- Proven experience building or owning core reference data platforms-not just supporting or consuming them.

- Strong programming skills in Python (preferred) or C#, with hands-on development experience.

- Solid knowledge of SQL, database architecture, and data modeling.

- Experience leading or mentoring engineering teams, ideally in high-performance environments.

- Familiarity with workflow orchestration tools like Airflow, and CI/CD tools like Jenkins.

- Excellent communication skills to collaborate across technical and non-technical teams.

- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

Nice to Have

- Understanding of financial instruments such as equities, futures, and options.

- Familiarity with market data vendors (e.g., Bloomberg, Refinitiv).

- Prior exposure to data governance or data quality frameworks.

Why Join?

- High-impact role in a mission-critical function supporting global trading activity.

- Join a company that values engineering depth over trendy tools-solid systems, not fluff.

- Visa sponsorship and relocation support for international candidates.

- Collaborative, high-caliber engineering culture that prizes technical curiosity and excellence.

If you are a senior developer with deep reference data expertise and a passion for leading from the front, we encourage you to apply and explore this unique opportunity.