Role: High-Frequency Trading Software Engineer

Location: Austin, Chicago, New York, Miami

Responsibilities:

Design and implement ultra-low latency trading systems: Develop and optimize code for high-performance trading components, ensuring execution times are minimized to the microsecond or nanosecond level.
Optimize critical code paths (hot path): Focus on intensive code sections that directly impact trade execution speed, applying advanced optimization techniques to achieve minimal latency.
Work with real-time market data feeds: Process and analyze high-frequency market data streams in real-time, identifying trading opportunities and executing trades with minimal latency.
Implement complex trading algorithms: Translate sophisticated mathematical models and trading strategies into highly efficient code, ensuring optimal performance under high-pressure market conditions.
Employ performance optimization techniques: Utilize techniques like cache optimization, memory management, algorithm design, single-threaded execution models, lock-free and wait-free algorithms, and efficient synchronization primitives to maximize system throughput and minimize latency.
Manage concurrency and parallelism: Implement multithreading and concurrency patterns, ensuring proper synchronization and avoiding race conditions and deadlocks.
Collaborate with quantitative researchers and traders: Work closely with quantitative researchers to implement their models and with traders to meet their system requirements.
Implement efficient data structures and algorithms: Select and design data structures and algorithms optimized for low-latency operations, prioritizing access times and minimizing overhead, including the use of lock-free queues and concurrent data structures.
Mitigate collision and contention: Design systems that minimize or avoid collisions and contention in shared resources, such as memory or network interfaces, to ensure consistent and predictable performance.
Adhere to the KISS principle: Prioritize simplicity and clarity in code design and implementation, avoiding unnecessary complexity that can hinder performance and maintainability.
Collaborate effectively: Work closely with colleagues to design, implement, and optimize complex trading systems, sharing knowledge and expertise to achieve common goals.
Dive deep into low-level details: Demonstrate a willingness to analyze and understand code execution at the hardware and assembly level, identifying and addressing performance bottlenecks at their root cause.
Build big systems with small building blocks: Adopt a modular and composable approach to system design, creating reusable and testable components that can be easily integrated and scaled.
Analyze and discuss trade-offs: Evaluate and communicate the impact of different design choices on system performance, considering factors like latency, throughput, and resource utilization.
Focus on nanosecond-level optimizations: Possess a deep understanding of how code optimizations impact execution time at the nanosecond level, identifying and implementing improvements that can make a significant difference in trading system performance.

Requirements:

Expert knowledge of C++ or other low-latency languages: Deep understanding of language features, libraries, and performance optimization techniques.
Strong understanding of computer architecture: Familiarity with hardware architecture, memory management, and operating system internals to write highly efficient code.
Experience with high-performance computing: Knowledge of techniques used in high-performance environments, such as parallel programming and distributed systems.
Experience with network programming: Familiarity with low-latency network protocols and techniques for optimizing network communication.
Strong mathematical and analytical skills: Ability to understand and implement complex mathematical models and algorithms.
Experience with trading systems or financial markets (preferred): Prior experience in the financial industry, particularly with trading systems or market data, is highly desirable.
Understanding of colocation strategies: Knowledge of how physical proximity to exchange servers impacts network latency and trading system performance.
Familiarity with profiling and measurement tools: Experience in identifying performance bottlenecks and evaluating the impact of code optimizations.
In-depth knowledge of concurrency and synchronization: Expertise in handling race conditions, deadlocks, and other concurrency challenges.
Understanding of lock-free and wait-free algorithms: Ability to design and implement algorithms that minimize or eliminate the need for locks, improving performance in multithreaded environments.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills: Ability to work effectively in a team, clearly articulate technical ideas, and engage in constructive discussions about design choices and performance trade-offs.

Additional Considerations:

Problem-solving skills: Ability to analyze complex problems, identify bottlenecks, and develop creative solutions to optimize system performance.
Attention to detail: High level of precision and meticulousness in coding and debugging to ensure system reliability and accuracy.
Passion for performance: A strong drive to continuously improve system performance and push the boundaries of low-latency computing.

Target candidates: Software engineers with 4-7 years of experience in:

High-Frequency Trading (HFT) firms
High-Performance Computing teams at Google, Meta etc working on performance engineering in C++ for distributed systems

Key skills and experience:

C++ expertise: Deep understanding of language features, performance optimization techniques, low-level programming, and hardware interaction.
Low-latency systems: Proven ability to design, implement, and optimize systems where microsecond or nanosecond delays matter.
Concurrency and parallelism: Experience with multithreading, synchronization primitives, lock-free/wait-free algorithms, and handling race conditions.
Distributed systems: Knowledge of building and optimizing large-scale systems with many interconnected components.
Performance analysis and optimization: Proficiency in profiling, identifying bottlenecks, and implementing performance improvements.

Mindset and approach:

"Keep it simple, stupid" (KISS): Preference for simple, maintainable solutions over overly complex ones.
Collaboration: Ability to work effectively in teams, sharing knowledge and expertise.
"In the weeds" mentality: Willingness to dive deep into low-level details and understand code execution at the hardware/assembly level.
"Big systems, small building blocks": Modular and composable approach to system design.
Trade-off analysis: Understanding the impact of design choices on performance, latency, throughput, etc.
Nanosecond focus: Obsession with optimizing code execution time at the finest granularity.

Additional Notes:

Salary Range: $500,000 - $750,000 per year
Potential for Higher Earnings: Exceptional performers ("superstars") could earn over $1,000,000 annually
Bonus Structure: All bonuses are paid in cash; no stock options (RSUs) are offered
First-Year Guarantee: The total compensation package for the first year is guaranteed
Work Location: This position is strictly for on-site employees only; no remote work options
Ideal Candidate: We are actively seeking individuals who are hands-on and results-oriented. This role is not suitable for those primarily interested in management responsibilities.

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