Principal Solution Architect
About the job
- Demonstrated experience in one or more of the following domains: event-driven and message-based systems, transaction processing systems, distributed and parallel computing.
- Solid experience designing application architectures across distributed and enterprise technology platforms, including microservices and streaming or batch-based applications.
- Experience with projects involving complex integration of disparate types of technologies, platforms, and data.
- Experience architecting large-scale distributed systems.
- Ability to architect Kubernetes-based deployment topology for stateless services and on-demand jobs, including horizontal pod autoscaling, multi-AZ resilience, and cross-region/on-premises failover and disaster recovery strategies (hot-hot, S3 replication).
- Fluency in object-oriented design, industry best practices, software patterns, and architecture principles.
- Experience defining and documenting architecture strategies, designs, and requirements across business, information systems (applications and data), and technology enterprise architecture domains.
- Experience defining non-functional requirements, including performance, scalability, availability, and security, and ensuring application architectures satisfy them.
- Strong ownership of work and projects.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills.
- Software development experience in Java, Python, or C#, including building high-throughput, low-latency services for data-intensive or transaction-oriented systems.
- Strong knowledge of Kafka or other messaging and streaming systems, including topic design, partitioning strategies, and producer/consumer patterns for reliable, event-driven communication.
- Fluency in object-oriented design principles, software design patterns, and modern architecture practices such as microservices, event-driven architecture, and domain-driven design, with the ability to apply them to real-world, large-scale systems.
- Knowledge of identity and access management using OAuth2/OIDC flows (client credentials and authorization code with PKCE), JWT-based token validation, and integration with identity providers such as ForgeRock and SailPoint.
- Knowledge of schema management and data serialization formats, preferably Protocol Buffers (Protobuf), including schema evolution.
- Understanding of data lake-house architecture and table formats such as Apache Iceberg.
- Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code principles and tooling to enable repeatable, automated environment design.
- Working knowledge of DevOps tooling and practices such as Git, Jenkins, Docker, Artifactory, and ArgoCD to support automated build, test, and deployment of distributed, containerized applications.
- Experience working with cloud ecosystems, including AWS, PaaS, and Kubernetes.
- BS degree in Computer Science, a similar technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 10+ years of relevant work experience.
- Design application architecture across distributed and enterprise technology platforms using patterns such as event-driven architecture, publish/subscribe messaging, and microservices, and use Infrastructure as Code practices to enable consistent, repeatable, automated provisioning across environments.
- Define and enforce architectural standards, patterns, and best practices across engineering teams.
- Design streaming and batch-based systems that support real-time and scheduled data flow across the organization.
- Shape and guide message-based system architecture using Kafka or similar platforms to enable reliable, decoupled, event-driven communication between services.
- Develop and oversee data architecture and integration strategies spanning streaming, batch, and message-based processing to ensure reliable, secure, and efficient data flow across systems.
- Own end-to-end solution architecture from ideation through implementation, including documenting architectural decisions and system diagrams.
- Guide the development and deployment of distributed, cloud-native services, ensuring resilience, scalability, and cost efficiency.
- Collaborate with DevOps, platform engineering, and security teams to ensure architectures are operable, resilient, and aligned with organizational standards.
- Review engineering team designs and code to ensure alignment with architectural standards, security requirements, and regulatory and compliance needs.
- Troubleshoot and resolve complex, cross-system issues spanning application, infrastructure, messaging, and data layers.
- Partner with engineering, data, and business teams to translate business requirements into robust, scalable technical solutions.
- Translate complex architectural decisions and trade-offs into clear, actionable insights for business stakeholders and non-technical audiences to support informed decision-making.
- Evaluate emerging tools, frameworks, and technologies, and provide recommendations for adoption.
- Mentor engineering teams on architectural best practices and distributed systems, event-driven, and batch-processing design.
- 6+ years of work experience in the capital markets industry.
- Experience with Terraform for Infrastructure as Code.
- Knowledge of Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) for data serialization and schema management.
About the company
OCC clears and settles trades in the derivatives market, acting as a central counterparty that guarantees completion of transactions and manages risk. It serves clients including clearing members and exchanges, handling standard options, stock loans, and futures by processing trades, margining, and settlement through its systems. The OCC earns fees based on trade volume and risk management activities, and it emphasizes secure technology like its MyOCC portal to protect authorized users. What sets OCC apart is its focus on being a dedicated, regulated clearinghouse with robust risk controls and technology infrastructure to support the safety and efficiency of derivatives markets. Its goal is to maintain the stability and integrity of financial markets by reducing counterparty risk and ensuring smooth clearing and settlement of trades.
Company Size
1,001-5,000
Company Stage
Debt Financing
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
Chicago, Illinois
Founded
1973
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- OCC launched MIAX Futures clearing on May 20, 2026, expanding volume and capital efficiencies.
- September 29, 2026 SOC Agent automates alerts, reducing analyst burden and manual variance.
- Jake Middleton’s September 8, 2026 security hire strengthens defenses before the cloud platform launch.
What critics are saying
- A failed Ovation cloud launch in 2027 would hit every listed-options market simultaneously.
- September 2026 SOC automation exposes OCC to AI errors in security investigations.
- MIAX, Cboe, and Nasdaq keep pressing fee and connectivity competition against OCC.
What makes OCC unique
- OCC remains the sole central counterparty for U.S. listed options, anchoring market plumbing.
- Its cross-margining network with MIAX Futures expanded on May 20, 2026.
- OCC’s SIFMU status and multi-regulator oversight create unmatched trust and reach.
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Benefits
Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance
Life, AD&D, and Disability Insurance
Health Savings Account
Flexible Spending Accounts
401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
401(k) Employer Match
Monthly Student Debt Contribution
Tuition Reimbursement
10 Paid Holidays (including 1 Floating Holiday)
Paid Time Off (PTO)
12-week Paid Parental Leave
Sabbatical
Technology Stipend up to $2000
Work from Home Program
Back-up Dependent/Elder Care Support
Company News
OCC strengthens Security Operations with an agentic AI investigation solution built on AWS. CHICAGO, Sept. 29, 2026 - The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)(R), the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today announced the launch of an AI-powered security investigation agent (the "SOC Agent") built with Amazon Web Services' Amazon Bedrock. The solution automates the investigation of security alerts in OCC's Security Operations Center, delivers interpretable and auditable results, and creates a human-in-the-loop feedback system to continuously improve. "At OCC, protecting the markets we serve starts with the strength of our security operations. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility, OCC operates a Security Operations Center that must investigate a steady stream of security alerts quickly, consistently, and to a defensible standard," said Ben Le, Deputy Chief Security Officer. "The SOC Agent was designed to automate an investigative workflow while keeping OCC's security experts firmly in control of the process and its outcomes." The SOC Agent conducts investigations by running agentic loops against OCC's security data in its Security Information and Event Management Platform, working through an alert the way an analyst would: forming a line of inquiry, retrieving the relevant evidence, evaluating what it finds, and deciding what to examine next. The agent reduces manual effort and variability, and frees skilled analysts to concentrate on analysis, escalations, and the most complex cases. "The SOC agent OCC developed on Amazon Bedrock is a great example of agentic AI delivering immediate business value. This approach uses AI to augment an existing approach to investigation workflows while preserving the critical human judgment that security requires," said Jeff Axelrad, Director, Financial Services Governance, Risk, and Compliance, AWS. The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Founded in 1973, OCC is dedicated to promoting stability and market integrity by delivering clearing and settlement services for options, futures and securities lending transactions. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU), OCC operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. OCC has more than 100 clearing members and Business Sensitive
The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) has appointed Jake Middleton as Chief Security Officer, effective 8 September 2026. Middleton will lead enterprise-wide information security and cybersecurity teams. Middleton brings over 20 years of cyber and information security leadership experience. He joins OCC from Federal Reserve Financial Services, where he served as Vice President and Head of Product and Platform Security. He previously spent nearly a decade as Vice President and Information Security Officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. At OCC, Middleton will oversee Cyber Operations, Security Governance, Security Business Operations, Security Engineering & Technology Integration, and the Security Red Team. The appointment comes as OCC prepares to launch the first cloud-powered clearinghouse platform.
OCC names Jake Middleton as Chief Security Officer. Business Wire CHICAGO, September 08, 2026-(BUSINESS WIRE)-The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)(R), the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, has appointed Jake Middleton as Chief Security Officer, effective Sept. 8, 2026. Middleton will lead and manage enterprise-wide information security and cybersecurity teams. Middleton has more than 20 years of cyber and information security leadership. He joins OCC from Federal Reserve Financial Services, where he served as Vice President and Head of Product and Platform Security. There he led security architecture for the Federal Reserve's national payment, clearing, and settlement services. Prior to that, he spent nearly a decade as Vice President and Information Security Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In that role, he had accountability for security operations, security engineering, incident response, and cyber risk management. Previously, he held progressively senior engineering and management roles at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. "As the threat landscape evolves and we prepare to launch the first cloud-powered clearinghouse platform, strong security leadership is critical," said Andrej Bolkovic, chief executive officer, OCC. "Jake's experience building and managing high-stakes information and cyber security teams at the Federal Reserve makes him uniquely suited to protect the security of the critical financial infrastructure OCC manages every day." Middleton will oversee Cyber Operations, Security Governance, Security Business Operations, Security Engineering & Technology Integration, and the Security Red Team. "OCC operates at the core of global financial markets, and the confidence the industry places here rests on systems that have to operate safely and securely every day," said Middleton. "My job is to make sure the security risk is understood and managed with the rigor this institution's role demands." The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Founded in 1973, OCC is dedicated to promoting stability and market integrity by delivering clearing and settlement services for options, futures and securities lending transactions. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU), OCC operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. OCC has more than 100 clearing members and provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 21 exchanges and trading platforms. More information about OCC is available at www.theocc.com.
Brian P. Donnelly joins OCC Board of Directors. New York, July 28, 2026 - RQD*Clearing LLC is excited to celebrate Brian Donnelly's appointment to the Board of Directors of The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). As Founder and Chairman of RQD* Clearing and Founder, Chairman and CEO of Optimal Market Technologies, Brian brings deep expertise across options trading, clearing and financial market infrastructure. OCC's Board plays a critical governance role, helping ensure the nation's clearing infrastructure remains resilient, well-governed and capable of supporting stable and efficient markets. Brian's appointment is significant recognition of his industry leadership, experience and longstanding commitment to strengthening the infrastructure that supports the U.S. financial markets. Read the full announcement here.
Stephen Luparello will retire as chairman of OCC's board of directors in January 2027 after nine years of service. Michael Bodson, former president and CEO of Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), has been elected as a public director and will succeed Luparello as chairman. Bodson brings over 35 years of experience leading major financial institutions. He served as DTCC's president and CEO from 2012 to 2022, guiding the company through significant market events including the COVID-19 pandemic and meme-stock volatility. OCC also announced the election of two new member directors, Matthew Hulsizer and Brian P. Donnelly. Luparello will remain engaged with OCC as an adviser to the board following his retirement.