Job Specifications
Build real systems. Own real problems. Ship at scale.
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 Engineer 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.
We are looking for a strong backend engineer with around 5 years of hands -on experience building and operating production -grade services. This role is for engineers who enjoy thinking through ambiguity, designing clean abstractions, and understanding how systems behave under load, failure, and change.
If you like solving real engineering problems, not toy puzzles, and want to work close to distributed systems, APIs, data, and platform concerns, this role is for you.
What You’ll Work On
Designing and building new backend services and APIs from scratch
Working on distributed systems with real scalability, latency, and reliability constraints
Making thoughtful trade -offs across performance, consistency, and complexity
Writing clean, maintainable, and testable code that others enjoy working with
Owning services end -to -end: design → build → deploy → operate
Debugging production issues and improving system resilience over time
What We’re Looking For
Core Engineering Skills
Strong proficiency in Java as primary language (knowing python will be a huge plus)
Solid understanding of HTTP fundamentals
Strong grasp of object -oriented design, clean class modeling and design patterns
Good command of data structures and collections, and when to use them
Hands -on experience with multi -threaded and even driven systems
Awareness of memory usage, time & space complexity
Framework & Platform Knowledge
Experience with dependency injection and lifecycle management
Understanding of AOP concepts (advice, pointcuts, cross -cutting concerns)
Experience with transaction management
Familiarity with connection pools and resource management
System Design & Distributed Systems Exposure
Experience designing read & write APIs for stability, scalability and performance
Exposure to real world event -driven systems, pub -sub patterns, and fault tolerance
Familiarity with caching strategies (local and distributed)
Practical understanding to batch processing or data pipelines is a plus
Practical understanding of logging, monitoring, and observability
Working knowledge of security fundamentals (authentication, authorization, encryption)
How You Work
You are comfortable thinking out loud and reasoning through problems
You don’t need perfectly defined requirements to get started
You focus on clarity, correctness, and simplicity
You can explain why you made a design choice—not just what you built
You take ownership and follow problems through to resolution
Bonus Points
Using AI tools to accelerate development, debugging, or learning new domains
Mentoring junior engineers or being actively mentored yourself
What You Can Expect From The Interview Process
Hands -on, real -world problem discussions
No “tell me about yourself” or résumé walkthroughs
Focus on how you think, design, and reason
Interactive conversations, not trivia or puzzle solving
Why Join Us
Work on meaningful systems with real impact
Engineering culture that values depth over buzzwords
Opportunity to grow into system design and ownership roles
Smart peers, real problems, and room to think
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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About the Company
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in 42 countries, our firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals.
We are committed to maintaining the first-class service and high standard of excellence that have always defined the firm and everything we do is guided by our five core values: Do the right thing, put cl...
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