Python / Solution Architect – Modernization, Cloud & AI Enablement Full Time

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services. The Firm’s employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments and individuals from more than 1,200 offices in 43 countries. As a market leader, the talent and passion of our people is critical to our success. Together, we share a common set of values rooted in integrity, excellence and strong team ethic. We provide you a superior foundation for building a professional career where you can learn, achieve and grow. A philosophy that balances personal lifestyles, perspectives and needs is an important part of our culture.

Technology at Morgan Stanley

Technology is the key differentiator that ensures that we manage our global businesses and serve clients on a market-leading platform that is resilient, safe, efficient, smart, fast and flexible. Technology redefines how we do business in global, complex and dynamic financial markets. We have many award-winning technology platforms that help to propel our Firm’s businesses to be the top in the market. We have built strong techno-functional teams which partner with our offices globally taking global ownership of systems and products. We have a vibrant and diverse mix of technologists working on different technologies and functional domains. There is a large focus on innovation, inclusion, giving back to the community and sharing knowledge.

Department Profile

Morgan Stanley is seeking an experienced and ambitious candidate to join their Record Archive Service (RAS) group. The group is responsible for managing and supporting multiple Archives platform (Archive 360, CMOD and ERA) to meet Firms Regulatory obligations.

Role Summary

This role is a VP Software Architect responsible for building, modernizing, and operating enterprise‑scale data records archiving solutions that support Morgan Stanley’s regulatory, legal, and data lifecycle obligations.

The VP will actively engineer and modernize platforms spanning Archive360 (A360), IBM CMOD and other internal tools (ERA, etc.), evolving legacy Perl/Java/Shell‑based ingestion, monitoring, entitlement, and disposition tooling into Python‑first, cloud‑ready, AI‑enabled solutions.

A core expectation of this role is to continuously improve efficiency—reducing cost, latency, manual effort, and operational friction while increasing throughput, reliability, and auditability.

Key Responsibilities

• Hands‑On Engineering & Delivery
• Build and modernize Python‑based services, tools, and automation for data records archiving platforms.
• Re‑engineer legacy Perl/Shell/Java tooling used for:
• Archive ingestion and reconciliation
• Drop‑zone hygiene and monitoring
• Entitlements and access controls
• Disposition, retention validation, and reporting
• Personally lead complex refactors, performance tuning, and production issue resolution.
• Implement CI/CD pipelines, test automation, and secure SDLC practices for archive‑related systems.
• Participate in incident response, RCA, and remediation for archive ingestion, retrieval, or compliance issues.
• Electronic Records Archiving Modernization & Migration
• Modernize archival workflows across Archive360, ERA, and IBM CMOD platforms.
• Drive migrations such as:
• ERA → Archive360 ingestion and metadata remediation
• Legacy batch/script pipelines → Python‑based orchestration
• File‑based/manual processes → resilient, observable services
• Ensure compliance with WORM, SEC 17a‑4, retention schedules, legal/tax holds, and disposition controls.
• Own migration execution artifacts: cutover plans, rollback strategies, reconciliation evidence, and audit support.
• Architecture & Design
• Define Python‑first, performance‑aware architectures for archiving platforms.
• Make design decisions that balance:
• Cost efficiency
• Processing speed and scalability
• Regulatory risk and auditability
• Produce concise architecture artifacts (C4, ADRs, ingestion/disposition flows) that directly support efficient delivery.
• Review designs and implementations to ensure efficiency considerations are embedded early—not added later.
• Cloud & Platform Enablement
• Design and implement cloud‑ready archive tooling (public/private/hybrid), including:
• Secure ingestion pipelines
• Metadata processing and enrichment
• Monitoring, alerting, and reporting
• Implement infrastructure‑as‑code and environment parity for archive platforms.
• Embed security controls: IAM, encryption, key management, entitlement enforcement, and audit logging.
• AI‑Assisted Engineering & Innovation
• Apply AI tools to accelerate:
• Code refactoring and modernization of legacy archive tooling
• Automated test generation for ingestion and disposition workflows
• Documentation and runbook creation
• Explore AI‑assisted automation for archive operations (triage, anomaly detection, reconciliation support).
• Ensure responsible AI usage with human oversight and compliance alignment.
• Collaboration, Governance & Influence
• Partner closely with Records Management, Legal, Compliance, Data Governance, and Platform teams.
• Mentor engineers on Python best practices, archive domain patterns, and regulatory‑aware design.
• Influence technical direction through execution quality and subject‑matter expertise.
• Communicate risks, tradeoffs, and progress clearly to senior technology leadership.

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of enterprise software engineering experience with strong modernization ownership.
• Advanced, hands‑on expertise in Python for building production services and automation.
• Proven experience modernizing records archiving or data lifecycle platforms.
• Strong working knowledge of Perl, Shell, and Java for legacy assessment and migration.
• Deep understanding of Unix/Linux, batch processing, and high‑volume file ingestion systems.
• Experience operating in regulated, audit‑heavy environments.

Technical Skills

Core (Python‑First)

• Python (advanced): services, tooling, concurrency, packaging, dependency management
• Testing: unit/integration/contract testing for ingestion and disposition flows
• APIs, messaging, batch orchestration, idempotency and error handling

Archiving Domain

• Archive ingestion, reconciliation, and retrieval patterns
• Retention schedules, legal/tax holds, WORM compliance
• Disposition workflows and evidence generation
• Platforms: Archive360, ERA, IBM CMOD (or equivalent)

Cloud & Operations

• Containers, orchestration platforms
• Infrastructure as Code
• Observability, performance tuning, RCA participation

AI & Automation

• AI coding assistants and refactoring tools
• Workflow automation and agent‑based tooling (nice to have)

What You Can Expect From Morgan Stanley

At Morgan Stanley, we raise, manage and allocate capital for our clients – helping them reach their goals. We do it in a way that’s differentiated – and we’ve done that for 90 years. Our values – putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back – aren’t just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what’s best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work-life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There’s also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

To learn more about our offices across the globe, please copy and paste https://www.morganstanley.com/about-us/global-offices into your browser.

Expected base pay rates for the role will be between $120,000 and $170,000 per year at the commencement of employment. However, base pay if hired will be determined on an individualized basis and is only part of the total compensation package, which, depending on the position, may also include commission earnings, incentive compensation, discretionary bonuses, other short and long-term incentive packages, and other Morgan Stanley sponsored benefit programs

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a workforce that is diverse in experience and background. Our recruiting efforts reflect our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion, where individuals are hired, developed, and advanced based on their skills and talents.

Our workforce reflects a broad cross-section of the global communities in which we operate, bringing a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives, and experiences.

For more information, please visit: https://www.morganstanley.com/people-opportunities/eeo.