C++ Ultra Low Latency Engineer

Selby Jennings; City Of London; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Performance bonus

Autonomy

Modern tooling

High-performance hardware

Job summary

Selby Jennings partners with a leading technology-driven hedge fund to hire an exceptional C++ engineer for ultra-low-latency trading systems. You will design and build high-performance software that sits on critical trading paths and processes market data with minimal latency.

Join a collaborative, engineering-led environment that values architecture, benchmarking, and cross-team collaboration with researchers and traders.

Qualifications

• Strong commercial experience developing software in modern C++ (C++17/20 preferred).
• Deep understanding of low-level systems programming and performance optimisation.
• Experience working on latency-sensitive or high-performance distributed systems.
• Strong knowledge of Linux environments, networking, and multithreaded programming.
• Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms, memory management, and concurrency.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and a genuine passion for engineering.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop high-performance C++ applications used in electronic trading environments
• Optimise latency-critical systems across software, networking, and infrastructure layers
• Build market data, execution, connectivity, and trading platform components
• Profile, benchmark, and tune systems to maximise throughput and minimise latency
• Contribute to architecture decisions and engineering best practices
• Collaborate closely with researchers and trading teams to deliver production-ready solutions

Skills

C++ (modern)

Low-level systems

Latency-sensitive systems

Linux & networking

Data structures & concurrency

Problem solving

Job description

We’re partnering with a leading technology-driven hedge fund that is seeking an exceptional C++ engineer to join a high-performance engineering team responsible for building some of the fastest and most sophisticated trading systems in the industry.

This is an opportunity to work at the intersection of software engineering, distributed systems, networking, and performance optimisation, where nanoseconds matter and engineering quality is a genuine competitive advantage.

The Role

You will design and build ultra-low-latency software that sits directly on critical trading paths. Working alongside experienced engineers, researchers, and trading teams, you’ll be responsible for developing highly optimised systems that process vast amounts of market data and execute trading decisions with minimal latency.

The environment is highly collaborative, engineering-led, and focused on solving complex technical challenges at scale.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop high-performance C++ applications used in electronic trading environments
• Optimise latency-critical systems across software, networking, and infrastructure layers
• Build market data, execution, connectivity, and trading platform components
• Profile, benchmark, and tune systems to maximise throughput and minimise latency
• Contribute to architecture decisions and engineering best practices
• Collaborate closely with researchers and trading teams to deliver production-ready solutions

Requirements

• Strong commercial experience developing software in modern C++ (C++17/20 preferred)
• Deep understanding of low-level systems programming and performance optimisation
• Experience working on latency-sensitive or high-performance distributed systems
• Strong knowledge of Linux environments, networking, and multithreaded programming
• Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms, memory management, and concurrency
• Excellent problem-solving skills and a genuine passion for engineering

Desirable Experience

• Electronic trading, market data, exchange connectivity, or financial systems
• Prior finance experience a plus
• Hardware acceleration, networking, or systems-level performance tuning
• Experience measuring latency at microsecond or nanosecond scale
• Exposure to Python or scripting languages

What You’ll Get

• Work on genuinely challenging technical problems with direct business impact
• Collaborate with some of the strongest engineers in the industry
• Flat organisational structure with significant ownership and autonomy
• Access to modern tooling, infrastructure, and high-performance hardware
• Highly competitive compensation package, including a substantial performance bonus
• A collaborative culture focused on engineering excellence rather than bureaucracy

If you’re passionate about building ultra-low-latency systems and want to work in an environment where engineering is a core differentiator, we’d love to hear from you.