Distinguished Architect, Trading Platforms and Technology

Distinguished Architect — Trading & Investment Management Technology
Where Ambition Meets Innovation Build a career that matches your initiative with innovation. At LPL Financial, technology is a core driver of growth—powering over $1.2 trillion in assets and supporting more than 32,000 advisors.

As a Distinguished Architect – Trading & Investment Management Technology , you will shape the future of trading platforms across Broker Dealer, Advisory, and Models capabilities – working at the forefront of cloud transformation, AI-enabled trading, and next-generation financial infrastructure. This is a rare opportunity to operate at enterprise scale while remaining deeply hands-on , driving meaningful impact for advisors and their clients.

The Distinguished Architect serves as a senior individual contributor responsible for defining and advancing the target-state architecture across LPL’s trading and investment management platforms. This role partners closely with executive leadership to align business strategy with modern, scalable, and secure technology solutions.

Blending strategic influence with technical depth, this leader guides architecture standards, modernization initiatives, and innovation efforts across high-volume, mission-critical trading systems. This role requires hands-on depth in designing low-latency, high-throughput trading systems, including real-time event streaming, order routing, and market data infrastructure at scale.

The role may sit hybrid out of any of our hubs including NYC (Midtown), Fort Mill SC, San Diego CA, or Austin TX.

• Own architecture for enterprise-scale trading platforms supporting $1T in assets.
  
  Partner with business, product, and technology leadership to align architecture strategy with enterprise priorities and investments.
• Build at the intersetion of AI-driven trading, real-time data systems, and digital assets.
• Define target-state architecture for trading platforms across Broker Dealer, Advisory, and Models domains.
• Lead modernization initiatives including cloud adoption (AWS), API-first design, and transformation to microservices and event-driven architectures.
• Establish and evolve enterprise architecture standards, frameworks, and reusable assets that drive scalability, performance, and security.
• Influence enterprise standards, not just a single domain
• Drive adoption of emerging technologies including AI/ML, real-time data platforms, and blockchain-based capabilities.
• Guide and influence domain architects to ensure architectural consistency and quality across the trading ecosystem.
• Champion Architecture as Code (AaC) to enable scalable governance, compliance, and continuous delivery.
• Provide strategic guidance on build vs. buy decisions and industry best practices to executive stakeholders.

We’re looking for strong collaborators who deliver exceptional client experiences and thrive in fast-paced, team-oriented environments. Our ideal candidates pursue greatness ,
act with integrity , and are driven to help our clients succeed . We value those who embrace creativity, continuous improvement, and contribute to a culture where we win together and create and share joy in our work.

• 8 or more years of experience designing enterprise-scale architectures, including microservices and event-driven systems.
• 5 or more years of experience in trading technology domains (e.g., equities, ETFs, options, or wealth platforms).
• Experience in trading systems including OMS/EMS platforms, FIX protocol, and market data infrastructure.
• Experience leading cloud transformation initiatives (AWS preferred) and modernizing legacy platforms.
• Experience in defining and executing long-term architecture strategies and roadmaps.