Resume - Vasile Chiriac

Vasile Chiriac

Principal Software Engineer & Technical Team Lead
Aurora, Ontario | 647-773-8589 | [email protected] | LinkedIn Profile
"Make it work, make it right, make it fast." – Kent Beck

Professional Summary

Fintech Architect and Principal Engineer with over 15 years of experience and a proven track record of leading global engineering teams. Expert in driving technical strategy, legacy modernization, and bridging the gap between complex quantitative requirements and robust DevOps infrastructure. Seeking an Engineering Leadership role to drive technical strategy and team growth for Quant or Trading Technology teams.

Core Competencies

Electronic Trading: Market Data Feeds (Equities, Options), FIX Protocol (4.2/4.4), Order Management Systems (OMS), Prime Brokerage, Regulatory Reporting (OATS, CAT).
Engineering Leadership: Technical Strategy, Global Team Management (Onshore/Offshore), Legacy Modernization, CI/CD Transformation, Infrastructure-as-Code.
Tech Stack: Java, Python (PySpark), Scala, C# (.NET), SQL (Sybase, Oracle, Impala).
DevOps & Cloud: GitHub Actions, Ansible, Azure, Jenkins, Docker, RHEL8, OpenShift, Airflow.
Global Team Management: Experienced in leading and mentoring hybrid (onshore/offshore) teams of 6+ engineers, fostering technical excellence through coaching and code reviews.
Technical Strategy & Roadmap: Proven track record in driving modernization initiatives, including legacy-to-cloud migrations and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) transformations.
Stakeholder Alignment: Expert at translating complex quantitative and Prime Brokerage requirements into scalable technical specifications for business owners.
SDLC & Agile Governance: Skilled in implementing Agile methodologies and optimizing the software development lifecycle to streamline high-volume production deployments.
Electronic Trading Systems: Deep knowledge of Market Data Feeds (Equities/Options), Order Management Systems (OMS), and execution reports.
Regulatory Compliance: Architected data validation fabrics for FINRA/CAT and OATS regulatory reporting frameworks for Tier-1 firms.
Trading Protocols: Extensive experience with FIX Protocol (4.2/4.4) and SWIFT messaging integration.

Personal & Leadership Skills

Leadership: Mentorship, Team Growth, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Strategic Planning.
Professional: Analytical Problem Solving, Self-Starter, High Autonomy, Stakeholder Management.
Communication: Technical Documentation, Public Speaking, Agile Facilitation, Requirement Translation.

Professional Experience

RBC CAPITAL MARKETS | Toronto, ON

Big Data Developer Expert (Current Contract) May 2025 – Present
  • Lead Service Development: Take ownership of the end-to-end SDLC for scalable batch data pipelines using Apache Spark, Hadoop (HDFS, Hive), and Airflow. Develop critical features for data ingestion and processing using Java and Spark for high-volume market data feeds.
  • Technical Strategy: Architect high-performance ETL processes, selecting the optimal stack (Scala/Python) and integrating with MongoDB and Helios to ensure system scalability and observability. Currently leading the infrastructure migration strategy to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL8) and Azure environments.
  • Collaboration & Quality: Lead code reviews and enforce strict coding standards to ensure data quality, reliability, and compliance in production environments.
  • DevOps Implementation: Drive the adoption of modern CI/CD workflows using Docker, Git, and Linux. Spearheading the refactoring of legacy Jenkins builds into modern GitHub Actions pipelines and utilizing Ansible for automated infrastructure provisioning.
  • Tech Stack: Spark, Hadoop, Hive, HDFS, Airflow, Java, Scala, Python, SQL, MongoDB, Helios, Docker, Git, Linux (RHEL8), Maven, Control-M, AWS S3, Shell, Ansible, GitHub Actions, Azure, Jenkins.

BANK OF AMERICA | Toronto, ON

Solutions Architect & Backend Team Lead Jan 2022 – Apr 2025
  • Global Team Management: Led and mentored a hybrid team of 6 developers (onshore and offshore), fostering a culture of technical excellence through regular code reviews, training sessions, and performance coaching to ensure consistent delivery of high-quality software.
  • Solution Architecture: Designed and maintained scalable backend architectures for Equity Service Technology (Prime Brokerage), orchestrating the interaction between hybrid cloud/on-premise servers and database systems.
  • System Integration: Engineered the critical middleware and API layers using Python and .NET (C#) to retrieve, transform, and serve complex financial data from Impala, Oracle, and SQL Server to user-facing front-end applications.
  • Business Alignment: Collaborated directly with business owners to translate complex Prime Brokerage requirements into efficient technical specifications, delivering clean, well-documented web applications that optimized user workflows.

RBC CAPITAL MARKETS | Toronto, ON

Big Data Developer Expert July 2018 – Dec 2021
  • Regulatory Reporting Frameworks: Architected and developed a QA automation framework for the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) and FINRA OATS regulatory auditing systems. Validated massively parallel ETL jobs processing FIX data feeds and outgoing audit trails using PySpark, Scala, and Hadoop.
  • Massively Parallel ETL: Engineered robust frameworks to validate complex data operations, including overnight transitions, order entry, and FIX messaging integration across distributed Hadoop clusters.
  • Technical Consulting & Mentorship: Acted as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on QA best practices, training the team on advanced Big Data tools (Python, PySpark, Scala) and driving the adoption of secure coding standards.
  • SDLC & DevOps Optimization: Consulted on and improved the software development lifecycle by implementing Agile methodologies and introducing comprehensive CI/CD pipelines to streamline deployment and testing.

QUESTRADE INC. | Toronto, ON

Automation Team Lead (QA Chapter Lead) 2014 – 2018
  • C++ Server Automation:Architected a custom Python-based automation framework designed to interface directly with high-performance C++ trading servers, enabling end-to-end validation of server-side logic and message processing.
  • Leadership: Established formal QA governance and automation best practices for the Electronic Trading Platform, managing a team of engineers to ensure the stability of high-volume transaction flows.
  • Microservices Architecture: Led the QA strategy for a greenfield OpenShift/Docker microservices infrastructure, developing a custom Python testing framework to validate API performance.
  • System Reliability: Developed a comprehensive Batch Automation framework to validate overnight clearing and settlement processes (Security Master, Corporate Actions, Account Positions).

QUESTRADE INC. | Toronto, ON

Senior QA, Trading Platforms 2011 – 2014
  • Backend Integration Testing: Validated core trading engine components written in C++, focusing on the accuracy of Order Management System (OMS)order routing, execution reports, and real-time portfolio management.
  • Trading Systems Testing: Executed functional testing for real-time trading components, focusing on order routing, execution reports, and portfolio management.

ALLIED TESTING LLC | Chisinau, Moldova

Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) Jan 2010 – Feb 2011
  • Automated Test Frameworks: Developed a comprehensive automated test suite using the PyQt framework to validate complex C++ Qt desktop applications, ensuring functional stability and UI responsiveness.
  • Server-Side Automation: Engineered server-side automation scripts using Bash and Python to streamline backend testing and deployment processes.

ENGINEERING LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY

Global Team Management:

  • Proven track record of leading and mentoring hybrid teams of engineers (onshore/offshore), fostering a culture of technical excellence through performance coaching and architectural guidance.

Strategic Modernization:

  • Spearheaded large-scale digital transformation initiatives, including migrating legacy CI/CD pipelines to cloud-native standards and leading RHEL8/Azure infrastructure strategies.

Stakeholder & Business Alignment:

  • Expert at collaborating with business owners to translate complex financial and quantitative requirements into robust technical specifications and scalable product roadmaps.

QA Governance & Standards:

  • Established formal QA governance and automation best practices at the organizational level, driving the adoption of secure coding standards and modern Agile methodologies.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

  • Facilitated high-impact collaboration between Quant, Dev, and DevOps teams to ensure regulatory compliance (FINRA/CAT) and operational stability for Tier-1 capital markets firms.

Education

Technical University of Moldova

Licensed Engineer
Bachelor's Degree in Systems and Computer Engineering 2005 – 2009
  • Core Focus: Information Technologies applied to Economics and Finance.
  • Achievement:Completed the pre-Bologna 5-year curriculum on an accelerated timeline. Evaluated as Master of Science (M.Sc.) equivalent.

Certifications

Languages

Spoken: English (Fluent), Russian (Native), Romanian (Native)

Technical Skills Inventory

Languages: Python, Java, Scala, C++, C# (.NET), SQL, Bash/Shell.
Python Distributions: Anaconda, Miniconda, PyPy. Poetry, pyenv, pipenv.
Python Data/ML: Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn, PyOD, PySpark, Featuretools.
Java Distributions: Maven, Gradle, Ant
Web & Frameworks: Django, Flask, SQLAlchemy, Graphene (GraphQL), Flask-GraphQL, Graphene-SQLAlchemy.
Big Data Ecosystem: Apache Spark, Hadoop (HDFS/Hive), Kafka, Airflow, Impala.
Database: Sybase ASE, Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MemSQL, MongoDB.
Trading Protocols: FIX 4.2/4.4, SWIFT, OATS/CAT formats.
DevOps & Tools: GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Ansible, Docker, Kubernetes/OpenShift.

Appendix A: Advanced Data Engineering & ETL

PySpark & Big Data: Engineered and optimized massively parallel ETL jobs using PySpark to process high-volume FIX data feeds and regulatory audit trails (CAT/FINRA) across distributed Hadoop clusters.
Pipeline Orchestration: Architected scalable batch data pipelines by integrating Python with Airflow for automated scheduling and MongoDB for metadata management.
Custom ETL Validation: Developed a bespoke Python-based framework for functional and performance testing of transformations handling >1TB of data, utilizing Py4J to bridge Python automation with legacy Java components.

Appendix B: Backend & Systems Integration

API & Middleware: Designed and engineered critical middleware layers using Python to retrieve, transform, and serve complex financial data from Impala, Oracle, and SQL Server to front-end applications.
Full-Stack Tooling: Developed internal reconciliation tools using Django and Flask to validate regulatory error files, featuring Jinja2 templating for rapid front-end delivery.
Database Synchronization: Built "DB SYNC," a specialized Python utility to synchronize data between MS SQL and MemSQL/MySQL to maintain consistency across lower environments.

Appendix C: Automation & Testing Infrastructure

Hybrid C++/Python Frameworks: Engineered specialized testing wrappers to facilitate communication between Python automation suites and backend C++ server components, ensuring seamless data exchange and performance benchmarking.
Microservices Testing: Established a pure Python testing stack—leveraging Requests, PyYAML, SQLAlchemy, and Graphene (GraphQL)—to validate API performance within OpenShift container environments.
QA Framework Leadership: Acted as a Subject Matter Expert (SME), training global teams on advanced Python and PySpark best practices while driving the adoption of secure coding standards.
Observability Tools: Created a custom service-health reporting module using Flask and Bootstrap to provide real-time visualization of microservices status.

Appendix D: Technical Project Highlights

Selected detailed architectural contributions and frameworks developed.

Big Data & Regulatory Compliance (CAT/OATS)
Designed the data validation fabric for the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) using Cloudera/Hortonworks.
  • Leveraged Apache Spark (PySpark/Scala) for large-scale SQL batch processing and machine learning.
  • Utilized HDFS as the primary storage layer and PyMongo for interaction with MongoDB metadata layers.
  • Integrated Py4J to bridge Python automation with legacy Java components.
Custom ETL Validator Framework
Architected a bespoke framework for functional and performance testing of ETL transformations handling >1TB data volumes.
  • Key Capabilities: Cluster-ready execution, regression testing, and data transformation validation.
  • Code Base: Python, PySpark, Java, Py4J, SQL, Bash, HDFS.
DB Sync & Performance Frameworks
Developed "DB SYNC", a tool to synchronize distinct database engines (MS SQL to MemSQL/MySQL) for lower-environment data consistency.
  • Built the Electronic Statements Performance Framework, designed to execute custom stress tests on SQL Stored Procedures and queries across Sybase ASE and MS SQL Server.
Microservices & OpenShift Architecture
Engineered the testing infrastructure for a new OpenShift container environment.
  • Developed a pure Python testing stack using Requests, PyYAML, SQLAlchemy, and Graphene (GraphQL).
  • Created a custom reporting module using Flask, Jinja2, Bootstrap, and HTML5 to visualize service health.
Web & Reconciliation Tools
Developed full-stack internal tools to reconcile regulatory error output files against internal RBC input files.
  • Stack: Django/Flask for backend REST APIs and Jinja2 for fast frontend templating.
  • Impact: Used directly by the RBC CAT production support team for error resolution.