Director - C++ Software Engineer

In the Technology division, we leverage innovation to build the connections and capabilities that power our Firm, enabling our clients and colleagues to redefine markets and shape the future of our communities. This is a Software Engineering III position at the Associate level, which is part of the job family responsible for developing and maintaining software solutions that support business needs.

Morgan Stanley is an industry leader in financial services, known for mobilizing capital to help governments, corporations, institutions, and individuals around the world achieve their financial goals.

Interested in joining a team that’s eager to create, innovate and make an impact on the world? Read on.

The Morgan Stanley Enterprise Application Infrastructure (EAI) group develops reusable solutions, libraries, and frameworks used across the firm. We consult with development teams, set firmwide technology strategy, and help drive modern approaches to application and infrastructure development. Our team is full of naturally curious, highly technical individuals who like to dig beneath the surface to understand how things work. We encourage people to generate ideas, lead initiatives, and find that individuals who enjoy solving complex problems flourish in our team.

The Role:
We're looking for an enthusiastic, detail-oriented developer with a passion for both systems infrastructure and high-performance application development.
This role offers a technically challenging environment and the opportunity to deliver immediate, far-reaching impact; EAI products are used across Morgan Stanley. You'll be supported by an established team with broad technical expertise and will have significant opportunities for growth, training, and future leadership.

What you'll do in the role:

• Design, implement, and maintain next-generation packaging and containerization infrastructure for C++ projects, integrating with modern build systems and developer environments.

• Design and develop modern C++ libraries and a low-latency networking stack, collaborating with a global team to ensure scalability, reliability, and performance.

• Identify current technology gaps and propose solutions that improve developer productivity and application performance firmwide.

• Evaluate, experiment with, and recommend technologies that will form the basis of the firm's next-generation systems.

• Collaborate closely with internal clients and development teams to understand requirements, improve build and runtime performance, and streamline developer workflows.

• Maintain and support existing C++ libraries and infrastructure components, ensuring stability and quality.

• Promote best practices in your own work and across the wider firm C++ community.

What you'll bring to the role:

• Experience developing on Linux, including hands-on work with build systems, packaging, and containerization (e.g., CMake, Conan/vcpkg, Bazel; Docker).

• Proficiency in Python for tooling, automation, and integration tasks; experience with other scripting languages is a plus.

• Solid modern C++ skills (C++20/C++23), with experience building high-performance systems, ideally including networking, concurrency, memory management, and low-latency optimization.

• Experience with C/C++ toolchains, compilers, linkers, and static/dynamic analysis tools.

• Strong collaboration and communication skills.

• A curiosity-driven mindset, comfortable with experimentation, deep dives, and pragmatic engineering trade-offs.

Desired skills:

• Experience with network protocols, kernel-bypass/zero-copy techniques, async I/O, and latency-sensitive systems.

• Background in CI/CD systems (GitHub Actions, Jenkins) or development environment tooling.

• Familiarity with performance profiling, benchmarking, and diagnostics across both build pipelines and runtime systems.

• Exposure to financial markets or algorithmic trading environments is a plus, but not required. What we're looking for

• Experience developing on Linux, including hands-on work with build systems, packaging, and containerization (e.g., CMake, Conan/vcpkg, Bazel; Docker).

• Proficiency in Python for tooling, automation, and integration tasks; experience with other scripting languages is a plus.

• Solid modern C++ skills (C++20/C++23), with experience building high-performance systems, ideally including networking, concurrency, memory management, and low-latency optimization.

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.

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Expected base pay rates for the role will be between 90,000$ and 150,000$ 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's goal is to build and maintain a workforce that is diverse in experience and background but uniform in reflecting our standards of integrity and excellence. Consequently, our recruiting efforts reflect our desire to attract and retain the best and brightest from all talent pools. We want to be the first choice for prospective employees.

It is the policy of the Firm to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, sex stereotype, gender, gender identity or expression, transgender, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, marital and civil partnership/union status, pregnancy, veteran or military service status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversifying its workforce (M/F/Disability/Vet).