Senior Manager Data Services Engineering; API

The Senior Manager of API & Data Services Engineering will lead the design, development, and operation of the enterprise data distribution layer for Cetera’s Modernized Event-Driven Data Platform and related operational data platforms. This role is responsible for delivering secure, scalable, and high-performance data access through APIs, caching layers, and data services that serve both operational and analytical consumers.

We’re looking for a Senior Manager of Data Engineering to lead the team responsible for building and scaling our API‑first data access and distribution layer. This role is critical in decoupling data producers from consumers, simplifying the tech stack, and delivering governed, reliable, near‑real‑time and batch data to the business.

As a hands-on engineering leader, you will drive event‑driven architectures, ensure data integrity and performance, and partner across Architecture, Ingestion, Mastering, and Integrated Data teams to build a cohesive end‑to‑end platform. Financial services experience—especially broker‑dealer or wealth management—is strongly preferred.

This role follows a hybrid schedule in our Dallas, TX office.

• Lead, mentor, and grow a high‑performing API & Data Services engineering team.
• Build a culture of ownership, reliability, and continuous improvement.
• Set expectations, support development plans, and guide team career growth.
• Oversee design and delivery of API‑first data access patterns (REST, Graph
  
  QL).
• Build secure, scalable data services exposing canonical data from our modernized, event‑driven platform.
• Implement caching strategies (Redis/Dynamo
  
  DB) to meet low‑latency requirements.
• Enforce contract‑driven access, versioning, and schema governance.
• Leverage AWS streaming technologies (Kinesis, Kafka on AWS) for real‑time financial transactions.

• Implement RBAC and entitlement‑aware access.
• Ensure compliance with security, privacy, and regulatory standards.
• Partner with Governance and Architecture to enforce enterprise policies.

• Plan and prioritize multiple engineering initiatives.
• Gather requirements specific to financial/regulatory environments.
• Balance delivery and operational support across hybrid teams.

• Serve as the primary contact for all data access and distribution needs.
• Partner with application, analytics, and domain teams to onboard new use cases.
• Translate business requirements into scalable platform capabilities.
• Communicate complex issues clearly to leadership and non‑technical stakeholders.

• Own reliability and performance for 24×7 APIs and data services.
• Establish monitoring, alerting, and incident management processes.
• Ensure SLAs, uptime targets, and performance goals are consistently met.

• Work closely with Data Architecture to align API and distribution patterns with our enterprise data modernization strategy.

• Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or related field (Master’s preferred).
• 8+ years in software/data engineering, including 3+ years in leadership.
• Experience with large‑scale operational data systems, ODS, and enterprise data integration.
• Hands‑on expertise with AWS streaming and cloud‑native data engineering.
• Proven success managing 24×7 data platforms and monitoring frameworks.
• Financial services experience required; broker‑dealer/wealth management strongly preferred.

• Strong understanding of REST and Graph
  
  QL federation/schema management.
• Familiarity with data contracts, versioning, and governed APIs.
• Experience with event‑driven architectures and real‑time data processing.
• Exposure to data mesh/domain‑oriented data access models.
• Experience supporting analytics and AI/ML through governed APIs.
• Cloud‑native modernization, migration, and distributed systems experience.

• AWS Solutions Architect (preferred)
• AWS Data Analytics
• REST/API/Graph
  
  QL certifications

The salary range for this role is $ - $, plus competitive performance‑based bonus. Compensation packages are based on a wide array of factors unique to each candidate, including…