Company purpose:

Our company purpose is to contribute to a responsible and sustainable economy by financing and advising clients according to the highest ethical standards.

Our employer promise is built around three pillars:

Being a great place to work

Committed to sustainability and having a positive impact

Being dedicated to the development of our people

Business Area / Department Overview

FX Plus is a worldwide platform that provides FX rates for international payments. The FX products include live rates, guaranteed rates and pre-negotiated rates. FX Plus has feature-rich and real-time pricing capabilities that create a win-win situation for BNP Paribas and its corporate and retail clients with more FX choices at better rates. FX Plus covers APAC, Middle East and Europe, North America regions.

FX Plus currently has two major ambitions:

Expansion into new BNP Paribas Group territories, domestic banks and payment processing providers

Introduce new product offerings such as exotic currencies and API products

The FX Plus IT team is recruiting for a highly motivated, hands-on Application Architect who will be a key player in delivering FX Plus technical change in support of these ambitions.

Job Purpose

The role is for an Application Architect to guide the Development Team, working in collaboration with the Product and IT teams to capture technical requirements and to provide architectural guidance for FX Plus.

Key Responsibilities

• Propose and provide feedback from experience/knowledge on architecture, design, technology choices and technology direction of the platform. 
• Work closely with the other developers in determining and following best development and architecture practice.
• Participate in an agile based software development lifecycle including technical analysis, documentation, development, testing and code reviews.
• Collaborate with the production support team for release and maintenance of the components.
• Coach less experienced participants through instruction, pair programming and code reviews. 
• Fully participate in requirement, design, estimation and planning meetings for new functionality.
• Provide 3rd line application support on a rota basis.

Skills & Experience Required

Essential

• Extensive application architecture experience in a highly regulated enterprise environment.
• Experience in designing distributed systems at scale with respect to consistency and availability.
• Experience of testing systems for load and performance requirements.
• Strong interest in application modernization and continuous improvement.
• Excellent knowledge of programming best practices and design patterns.
• Extensive development skills and experience with Java, Spring, Hibernate, Open API, Log4J, etc.
• Good development skills and experience with Angular, JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, etc.
• Good understanding of Oracle relational databases with appropriate SQL knowledge.
• Good understanding of Enterprise Messaging Patterns implemented in REST and MQ styles.
• Good understanding of test-driven development and continuous integration practices.
• Strong communication and presentation skills both verbal and written.
• Strong understanding the FX cash business and the associated products (Spot, Fwd, NDFs).
• Familiarity with the Atlassian software development lifecycle tools, e.g. JIRA, Confluence, etc.
• Familiarity with Jenkins, TeamCity, Ansible, Nexus, Artifactory etc in support of DevOps.
• Experience of working with in-house development teams distributed across regions.
• Experience working in an Agile team.

Preferred

• Prior exposure to systems involved in the FX part of the payments chain.
• Experience of participating in architecture governance in an enterprise environment.
• Experience in working with Containers, Kubernetes, Helm, etc.
• Experience of working with Apache Kafka.
• Certified ScrumMaster
• TOGAF Certified

And of course, we expect all our colleagues to embody and practice the Group values (alignment with the Bank’s strategy, commitment, work ethic, integrity and Code of Conduct).

A bit more about why you should join us

1. We’re a great place to work

We aim for optimal work/life balance (depending on role, this includes hybrid working, flexible working and agile)

We are proud of our award-winning flexible benefits and health & wellbeing strategy. Our flexible benefits include:

Generous holiday allowance of at least 26 days (plus bank holidays) – with option to buy and sell holidays.

Valuable financial plans – a 12% non-contributory pension which has been moved to sustainable investments*, life assurance*, income protection and personal accident insurance.

Extensive wellbeing and mental health offering – one of the most advanced private medical schemes in the UK, dental cover, wellbeing app, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy support, subsidised gym memberships, bespoke health assessments including genetic testing, Private GP (including digital GP services to parents of employees), Employee Assistance Programme, menopause & fertility support (we are an accredited Menopause Friendly Employer), neurodiversity assessment and support.

Key onsite services and facilities in London – include physiotherapy, nutrition, massage therapy, physiology, mental health first aiders, seasonal flu vaccinations and free onsite fitness centre.

Plus, emergency back-up care for dependants, green car leasing, season ticket loan, and a range of other benefits.

* Subject to relevant caps

2. As the eurozone’s largest bank, we are committed to having a positive impact in the world.  

For example, we are committed to Net Zero in all of our financing and investment portfolios by 2050. By 2030, 80% of our energy production financing will be low carbon.

But impact for us means more than climate. It means empowering our people every day. Everyone gets four volunteering days each year - in 2023, we achieved over 18,000 hours of volunteering across the UK and reaching over 4,500 young people.

3. We believe in our people

We support our people to develop skills to adapt to the ever-evolving world of work and to prepare for the jobs of today and tomorrow. We do this through a comprehensive training offering, talent programmes, mentoring, career days and inhouse career tools.

We are proud of the number of our people who progress and secure new roles internally. In fact, in 2023, nearly half of our positions in UK CIB were filled internally. 

Investing in our people also means we have a collaborative and inclusive culture:

Direct feedback from our people shows that our internal culture sets us apart from our industry peers.

Each year, nearly 30,000 employees globally are involved in professional networks that play an active role in promoting Diversity and Inclusion within the Group. These include our:

Pride Network, Ability Network (which supports disabled employees), MixCity (gender equality network), Women in Global Markets, Women in Global Banking, Women in IT, Diversity Equity & Inclusion in Technology, Early Careers Network, Multicultural Network and Parents & Carers Network.

Equal opportunities 

BNP Paribas is committed to providing a work environment that fosters diversity, inclusion, and equal employment opportunity without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.

Adjustments

We don’t want anyone to be disadvantaged in our recruitment processes, so if you have a disability or health condition which may mean that you’d benefit from some adjustments or additional support, please let us know as early in the process as possible.

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