Director Data & Analytics API Experience - Data Services

Director Data & Analytics API Experience  - Data Services

Background:

CME Group runs some of the world’s largest and most important trading venues, including derivatives exchanges, FX/FI platforms. The trading participants include leading investment banks, hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, investment managers, and retail traders, as well as additional stakeholders such as independent software vendors (ISVs) and data redistributors. To support our unique data and analytics products, we are now building a unified API-first distribution framework, simplifying consumption and value extraction.

The Role:

We are seeking a key stakeholder for the CMEG External Data-Analytics (DA) APIs and distribution services. This is a high-impact, individual contributor (IC) role for an individual who can navigate complex enterprise systems and deliver a modern, developer-first experience. This customer-facing role serves as the technical link between our APIs and the customer, acting as a high-level practitioner who crafts SDKs and delivery mechanisms to make complex market data easy to consume. You will translate direct customer feedback into refined requirements for the product team while solving integration hurdles firsthand. By bridging these gaps, you will ensure our technical ecosystem is both highly functional and seamless for clients to adopt. 

Our API First Vision

• Our external API is the singular point where our strategy, technology, and customer experience converge to create value.

• Our corporate DA strategy focuses on "activation," which involves externalizing proven internal IP and exposing it through a simple, consumable API, as well as adding net-new IP jointly developed with our customers.

• The API is our "single, unified distribution channel". It serves as the "handover point" where internal engineering ends and the customer or partner ecosystem begins. 

• The API provides a "single 'front door'" for customers. By using a "unified API”, barriers to consumption are removed, integration time is reduced, development costs lowered, and a consistent experience provided across all data latencies (Real-time, Recent History, and Deep History), data types (time series, metadata, unstructured) and services. 

• Internal users are recognized as ultra-valuable sources of feedback. By mandating both internal and external DA workflows through the same SDK, we create a shared experience for both sets of users.

• In summary, our API is the "final product" and the “primary tool” moving CMEG up the value curve from a raw data producer to an invaluable source of insights for our customers.

What you Will be Doing:

The focus of the work is on activation and will be organized across four strategic pillars designed to continue to build the foundation, enhance the customer experience, and align all our public offerings.

• Developer Experience

  • "North Star" Activation: Build a high-performance Python SDK that mimics the industry's best "one-line-to-insight" user experiences. Your goal is to move the user from installation to action in seconds. 

  • Lighthouse Deliverable: This SDK will serve as the technical and UX benchmark for how all future CMEG IP is externalized and consumed. It will be the first deliverable and form your MVP. 

  • Internal User Parity: The SDK must provide a 'single front door' for internal users, allowing them to 'pip install' and access BigQuery datasets through the same idiomatic Python patterns designed for customers.

  • Release Open-Source SDKs: Develop and maintain a suite of SDKs in popular languages like Python and C++ to make integrating with our APIs as simple as possible.

  • Public Schema Registry: Implement a publicly accessible registry (e.g., Protobuf, JSON or Avro) that allow internal teams and partners to generate their own client software.

• Developer Collateral

  • Simplify Public Messaging: Partner with internal stakeholders to clearly communicate CME Group’s D&A value proposition.

  • Technical Documentation: Evaluate,  implement and maintain  an API documentation library and migrate existing fragmented solutions to it.  

  • Publish Reference Docs: Create first-class, detailed technical reference documentation that serves as the definitive contract for all API behaviour and usage.

  • Accelerate Time-to-Value: Develop practical tutorials, code samples, and dashboard templates to empower customers to self-serve and validate products rapidly.

• Data Plane

  • Expand Cloud Distribution: Work with our customers and product teams to extend our existing data offerings to meet customer cloud demand. Abstracting cloud specific technologies away and provisioning a common messaging layer.  

  • Abstraction Layers: Work with our customers to better understand if/how we can improve data delivery for deep history and data sharing services so that accessing large datasets feels identical to a standard, programmatic API call..

  • Enforce Schema Consistency: Use a centralized schema registry to ensure identical data models and field names across different services and latency tiers.

• Control Plane

  • Normalize Authentication: Work with our central technology team to ensure a unified CMEG credential system that retires legacy approaches and hides cloud-specific complexity from the user.

  • Downstream Distribution Technologies: Support external facing distribution technologies to provision products, including Bobsled, SFTP, Curl, email, etc. 

  • Implement Group Wide Telemetry Tracking: Work with business intelligence teams to build the capabilities to track user activity  With the goal to generate insights into user activity and product value.

  • Full-Stack Execution: Be a key stakeholder in the "plumbing" of the API lifecycle, including GitHub governance, and CI/CD pipelines for PyPi publishing.

• Unified API Strategy

  • Technical audit: Work with stakeholders across the organization to conduct a survey of existing APIs (RPC over HTTP, JSON, XML Query, REST, WebSocket, S3, Pub-Sub, etc) across the business, to identify fragmentation, authentication gaps, and areas for consolidation. Survey peers and partners to identify best-practice in API design and user experience. 

  • Establish Versioning Models: Work with stakeholders to define and document the hybrid versioning model to manage API updates while ensuring stability for partners and customers.

Time Line

Major milestones for the work are split into three,

• Short (1yr): Publish the MVP of the SDK on github and PyPI, including support for Looker dashboards and other upstream uses. 

• Medium (2-3yr). Design and publish a normalized multi cloud distribution framework.

• Long (3-5yrs): Work as a stakeholder across the organization to streamline the process of normalizing APIs across CME Group Data Services and the wider organization.

Who are we looking for? 

• Exceptional Achievers & Problem Solvers: We are looking for high-capacity individuals who are driven to be elite at what they do. You must possess a strong technical foundation and a genuine interest in the mechanics of capital markets—understanding how data is used through futures, options, and cash markets.

• API-First Mindset: You are obsessed with developer experience (DX). You believe the API is the product and should be as easy to use as a "pip install" command.

• Cloud-Native Builders: Experience using, designing, and  building  SDKs and APIs in the cloud

• Polymathic Ability: You are comfortable bridging the gap between business strategy,  engineering, and technical writing.

• Python Expertise: Highly proficient in Python, with the ability to write clean, idiomatic, and robust code for public consumption.

Technical Stack

• Environment: Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Apigee.

• Protocols: WebSockets, REST, GCS.

• Tooling: Python (Expert), OAuth 2.0, GitHub, Protobuf/Avro, SQL.

Company Benefits:

• Bonus Programme

• Equity Programme

• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)

• Private Medical and Dental coverage

• Mental Health Benefit Programme

• Group Pension Plan

• Income Protection

• Life Assurance

• Cycle To Work

• EV Car Benefit Scheme

• Gym Membership

• Family Leave

• Education Assistance – MBA/Advanced Degree/Bachelor Degree

• Ongoing Employee Development Training/Certification

• Hybrid Working

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CME Group: Where Futures are Made

CME Group is the world’s leading derivatives marketplace. But who we are goes deeper than that. Here, you can impact markets worldwide. Transform industries. And build a career by shaping tomorrow. We invest in your success and you own it – all while working alongside a team of leading experts who inspire you in ways big and small. Problem solvers, difference makers, trailblazers. Those are our people. And we’re looking for more.

At CME Group, we embrace our employees' unique experiences and skills to ensure that everyone’s perspectives are acknowledged and valued. As an equal-opportunity employer, we consider all potential employees without regard to any protected characteristic.

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