Solutions Architect Senior Director

WHO WE ARE

Apex Fintech Solutions (AFS) powers innovation and the future of digital wealth management by processing millions of transactions daily, to simplify, automate, and facilitate access to financial markets for all. Our robust suite of fintech solutions enables us to support clients such as Stash, Betterment, SoFi, and Webull, and more than 20 million of our clients' customers. 

Collectively, AFS creates an environment in which companies with the biggest ideas in fintech are empowered to change the world. As a global organization, we have offices in Austin, Dallas, Chicago, New York, Portland, Belfast, and Manila.

If you are seeking a fast-paced and entrepreneurial environment where you'll have the opportunity to make an immediate impact, and you have the guts to change everything, this is the place for you. 

AFS has received a number of prestigious industry awards, including:

• 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018 Best Wealth Management Company - presented by Fintech Breakthrough Awards

• 2021 Most Innovative Companies - presented by Fast Company

• 2021 Best API & Best Trading Technology - presented by Global Fintech Awards

ABOUT THIS ROLE

As a Senior Director, Solutions Architect, you will play a multi-faceted role in ensuring that Apex meets the feature, regulatory and client experience demands of our technology services. This role, in particular, focuses on the expansion of Apex’s forward-looking Ascend platform to non-US localities while continuing to support current US-based processing, continuing the trusted attention to local regulatory best practices, coupled with disruptive, market-defining technology, as established by Apex’s US value proposition.

This role demands strategic vision (informed by experience), leadership and influence prowess, and a hands-on approach to drive the implementation of market leading processing solutions in Apex’s strategic Ascend platform.

Duties/Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership:

• Collaborate closely with business SMEs, Relationship Managers, the service delivery organization and the technology organization to deliver local/regional Ascend solutions to create a one-of a kind global wealth processing platform.

• Develop and forcefully champion a strong, opinionated perspective on trade execution, custody, and clearance architecture. Don't just understand these systems—decisively shape them. Guide team members – collaboratively -- with clear, authoritative direction on outcomes, making confident judgments that others can follow.

• Develop cross-functional solutions based upon little direction (essentially, develop a plan from 0 to 1) yet seek validation via business SMEs and other Product Managers.

• Interface with clients from both a tactical and strategic perspective on our existing Ascend processing capabilities and understand evolving local needs, competitive requirements, and best practices.

• As a champion of the Ascend platform, raise issues or concerns to Senior Management, whether for production service experience or development challenges. Once identified, endeavor to resolve issues by identifying responsible parties and relentlessly seeking closure.

Client-facing Leadership:

• In conjunction with Sales and Relationship Management, engage with client stakeholders (product and technology leadership, operations, compliance) to capture business goals, regulatory needs, and localization requirements for each target market.

• Facilitate workshops and interviews to understand client pain points, current workflows, and desired outcomes in local contexts.

• Present solution concepts, architecture diagrams, and realistic, timeline-informed roadmaps to both business and technical client audiences, adapting the language and approach as needed. Deliver product demos and proof-of-concept presentations tailored for local market features and workflows.

• Lead solution validation sessions—walk clients through proposed interaction points and feature designs; gather feedback for localization or compliance adjustments.

• Collect and act on client feedback post-launch, facilitating enhancements and rapid iterations to ensure continued local/regional compliance.

• Build trusted relationships with client teams, acting as a strategic advisor for ongoing and future localized needs.

Team Leadership:

• Act as a quarterback for our strategic global investments; lead, mentor, and inspire a team of product, engineering, and testing professionals towards the incremental and iterative delivery of solutions, continuing the configuration-driven processing architecture which is the foundation of the Ascend platform.

• Foster a culture of quality, innovation, and accountability across technology and business partners, promoting agile principles such as iterative development and frequent feedback loops.

• Establish clear goals and performance metrics to evaluate solution readiness, with a focus on acceptance testing criteria, automated end-to-end test coverage and agility in responding to changing requirements.

• Identify and escalate blockers quickly towards resolution

Execution Leadership:

• Ability to articulate an executable, cross-platform plan for delivering local clearing and custody solutions on Ascend, with enough clarity to engage other domain teams in understanding the outcomes required.

• Continue to maintain architectural governance of the platform while adding localized configurations and processing to all feature domains.

• Closely collaborate with other Product Managers and Business SMEs during the definition of cross-domain changes. Fill in knowledge gaps and question assumptions as required.

• Work with Product Execution team (technology program management) to ensure all initiatives are transparently tracked according to Apex standards.

• Oversee the planning, execution, and analysis of end-to-end test scenarios, prioritizing testing efforts based on risk and impact analysis.

• Ensure thorough test coverage across all components and integrations of the platform, with a focus on identifying and mitigating regression risks of the client-facing API and UI surface.

Collaboration and Communication:

• Collaborate closely with product management, development teams, and other stakeholders to prioritize testing activities and resolve issues within agile development sprints.

• Communicate status, risks, and recommendations to senior management and project stakeholders.

• Facilitate knowledge sharing and cross-functional collaboration to foster a culture of quality ownership within an agile development framework.

Education and/or Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent work experience) required

• 12+ years of prior work experience in a leadership role in delivering large-scale, complex Financial Services solutions in an agile environment.

• 6+ years of people management experience

• Experience working in international financial services, encompassing multiple markets and regulatory environments.

Required Skills/Abilities

• Extensive knowledge of Clearance, Custody and Trade Execution processing requirements in Financial Services. Understanding of the processing differences versus traditional investment products like equities.

• Demonstrated understanding of global regulatory standards in banking and wealth management (e.g., US SEC/FINRA, UK FCA, EU regulations, APAC regulations). Track record of designing solutions to accommodate international tax and reporting requirements for cross-border wealth clients.

• Deep understanding of integration architectures: APIs, microservices, data migration, ETL, and middleware relevant to financial services.

• Strong leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to inspire and lead teams in an agile environment.

• Strong ability to listen, but also to question assumptions.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills and ability to adapt storytelling to different audiences based on their priorities and level of knowledge.

• Experience in building and managing high-performing teams within agile development frameworks.

• Familiarity with agile development methodologies and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.

• Excellent problem-solving abilities and attention to detail, with a proactive approach to identifying and mitigating regression risks within an agile environment.

• Understanding of user experience, web development, API standards, and Agile practices, with a strong preference for best practices and incremental delivery.

• Ability to make decisions with imperfect information, lead without authority and be comfortable managing a team through ambiguity and complexity.

Work Environment

• This job operates in a hybrid, office environment 3 days per week.

• Position requires 30%+ time for travel to other offices or regional processing areas. (We’re a distributed company.)

#product management #full-time #director #LI-DM1 #APEX

​Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Our Rewards

We offer a robust package of employee perks and benefits, including healthcare benefits (medical, dental and vision, EAP), competitive PTO, 401k match, parental leave, and HSA contribution match. We also provide our employees with a paid subscription to the Calm app and offer generous external learning and tuition reimbursement benefits. At AFS , we offer a hybrid work schedule for most roles that allows employees to have the flexibility of working from home and one of our primary offices.

Salary Range

The annual base salary range for this position is noted above. Exact compensation offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and office location.

EEO Statement

Apex Fintech Solutions is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, or any other protected characteristic. Our hiring practices ensure that all qualified applicants receive fair consideration without regard to these characteristics.

Disability Statement

Apex Fintech Solutions is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible workplace for all candidates, including those with disabilities. We are dedicated to ensuring equal employment opportunities and providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. If you require reasonable accommodations to participate in the application or interview process, please submit your request via the Candidate Accommodation Requests Form. We will work with you to provide the necessary accommodations to ensure your full participation in our hiring process.