Overview of the Role: The
Low Latency Network Solutions Architect is a seasoned professional role, who applies in-depth IT knowledge and experience towards gathering and analyzing business and application requirements in support of Citi's global financial services, Electronic Trading, Markets, and Quantitative Investment platforms.
With the primary goal to design strategic target state low-latency network architectures, using defined standards to maximize throughput, minimize deterministic packet latency and jitter, and ensure maximum capacity while driving IT operational efficiency and cost optimization. They will possess in-depth experience in high-performance networking, exchange colocation ecosystems, ultra-low latency switching, multicast market data distribution, and hardware acceleration platforms, providing robust network services across private cloud data centers, colocation facilities, and hybrid cloud environments, integrating orchestration and automation to rapidly deliver infrastructure solutions.
Key Responsibilities:- Trusted Advisor: Supporting CTI businesses and Markets Technology as a trusted advisor for all low-latency network solution and engineering tasks.
- Stakeholder Collaboration: Engage in routine discussions with key stakeholders (Network Engineering, Systems Administrators, Core Infrastructure Build, Application Owners, Business Sponsors) regarding application performance and connectivity requirements.
- Enterprise Architecture Alignment: Collaborate with Application Architects, Electronic Trading Developers, DevOps, Market Data, and Telecommunications teams to ensure alignment with enterprise architecture standards and low-latency best practices.
- Design Artifacts & Documentation: Ability to take all elements of a solution design and capture them in both narrative form and detailed architectural diagram form (Visio) in such a way that both technical and business stakeholders can understand.
- Resiliency & Performance Sizing: Must grasp the technical aspects of an application's RTO / RPO, failover mechanisms, and zero-packet-drop high availability when designing an infrastructure solution.
- Technology & Hardware Evaluation: Evaluate emerging low-latency networking technologies, Layer 1 switching fabrics, FPGA/SmartNIC acceleration, kernel bypass technologies, and optical transport services to continuously improve network architecture.
- Subject Matter Expert (SME): Serve as the subject matter expert (SME) for all low-latency network technologies, cut-through switching architectures, Multicast routing (PIM-SM, PIM-SSM, IGMP), Precision Time Protocol (PTP IEEE 1588v2), and Direct Market Access (DMA) integration patterns.
- Security & Governance: Define and enforce network security, micro-segmentation, low-latency encryption (MACsec), audit compliance, and disaster recovery strategies across trading and colocation fabrics.
- Mentorship: Mentor and guide junior architects and network engineers in best practices surrounding network automation, latency monitoring, and infrastructure governance.
- Cloud Transformation: Support the organization's cloud and hybrid connectivity initiatives with a strong understanding of low-latency cloud interconnection services (e.g., AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, GCP Dedicated Interconnect).
- Performance Optimization: Drive innovation, latency reduction, micro-burst mitigation, and telemetry optimization initiatives across all global trading network platforms.
Qualifications: - Capacity & Infrastructure Sizing: Deep understanding of how electronic trading and financial application requirements determine infrastructure type, switch buffer architecture, link oversubscription ratios, and High Availability / Disaster Recovery capabilities.
- Engineering Background: Prior experience as a Senior Network Engineer, Network Architect, or Systems Infrastructure Engineer in a high-volume financial services, electronic trading, or Tier-1 service provider environment. Experience in root-cause analysis (RCA) techniques in complex data center and colocation environments.
- Communication Skills: Consistently demonstrates clear and concise written and verbal communication, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts across teams.
- Project Leadership: Ability to develop strong working relationships, manage multiple projects with competing priorities, and lead architectural initiatives.
- Continuous Learning: Team player with willingness to learn the latest technologies, while taking initiative to master new tasks and industry trends quickly.
- Hardware Expertise: Demonstrated expertise in low-latency switching and routing platforms (e.g., Arista 7130 / MetaWatch / 7050 / 7060, Cisco Nexus 3500 / 9000 series, ExaNIC, SmartNICs, and FPGA-accelerated network interface cards) with practical experience in high-volume, mission-critical environments.
- Protocol Mastery: Hands-on experience designing Layer 2/3 network fabrics, BGP, OSPF, Multicast routing (PIM-SM, PIM-SSM, IGMPv2/v3), cut-through switching, and VXLAN/EVPN.
- Time Synchronization & Telemetry: Strong knowledge of high-precision time synchronization (PTP IEEE 1588v2, SyncE, GPS grandmaster clocks) and network packet capture analytics platforms (e.g., Corvil, Endace, cPacket, Wireshark).
- Host & Kernel Optimization: Solid understanding of host-level networking optimizations, kernel bypass frameworks (e.g., Solarflare Onload / ef_vi, DPDK), socket buffer tuning, and CPU core pinning.
- DevOps & Automation: Familiarity with DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and network automation frameworks (e.g., Python, Ansible, Terraform).
Critical Competencies & Preferred Certifications:- Effective communication and presentation skills to guide architectural review boards, provide technical direction, and conduct executive presentations with business sponsors
Certification DomainPreferred Industry CertificationCisco SystemsCisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) / CCDE (Data Center or Enterprise Infrastructure)
Arista NetworksArista Certified Engineering Expert (ACE-A / ACE-P / ACE-L3)
Public Cloud NetworkingAWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty / Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer
Enterprise ArchitectureTOGAF or equivalent Enterprise Architecture framework certification
Education: - Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Telecommunications, Information Technology, or 6+ years of relevant experience working with enterprise mission-critical, low-latency trading infrastructure systems.
Job Family Group: Technology
Job Family:Architecture
Time Type:Full time
Primary Location:Irving Texas United States
Primary Location Full Time Salary Range:$125 760,00 - $188 640,00
In addition to salary, Citi's offerings may also include, for eligible employees, discretionary and formulaic incentive and retention awards. Citi offers competitive employee benefits, including: medical, dental & vision coverage; 401(k); life, accident, and disability insurance; and wellness programs. Citi also offers paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays. For additional information regarding Citi employee benefits, please visit citibenefits.com. Available offerings may vary by jurisdiction, job level, and date of hire.
Most Relevant Skills Please see the requirements listed above.
Other Relevant Skills For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.
Anticipated Posting Close Date:nov 04, 2026
Automated Processing and AIWe use automated processing, including artificial intelligence, for our legitimate business interests (or our reasonable and appropriate business purposes) to identify and align the candidate's skills and abilities with a specific job opening. Additionally, if you so choose, or consent, we can match your skills and abilities to other suitable roles at Citi.
Importantly, all our hiring processes and decisions, including determining your suitability for a role, are conducted, checked, and decided by individuals. Our automated processing and AI do not involve relying on automatic or autonomous decision-making. Please refer to any Jurisdictional Considerations, with specific provisions for your country (where relevant) for further details.
Illinois residents - AI Notice and Right
