Engineering Manager, Trading Backend & AI-Driven Engineering

JobCubby; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Payward, the parent of Kraken, is building a world-class Exchange team responsible for the trading backend services including the matching engine, market data gateways, and order entry systems.

The team works across Linux, with Rust, C++, Go, and Python, in a global, agile environment. You will lead a top-tier engineering group, drive performance improvements, and push forward AI-assisted engineering practices while collaborating with product and other pods.

Qualifications

• Experience managing engineering teams, with a preference for managers who stay technically engaged rather than purely administrative.
• Hands-on experience with Linux in distributed, highly-concurrent, or low-latency/high-volume environments.
• Proficiency in Rust and/or C++, comfortable with a team using C++, Rust, Go and Python.
• Demonstrated knowledge of order types, trading systems, and financial products.
• Experience with Aeron or similar messaging systems is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of 8-10 engineers owning core trading backend services, including the matching engine, market data gateways, and order entry systems.
• Guide the team through evolving trading stack from legacy systems to modern replacements.
• Stay technically close to the stack to unblock, review, and contribute to architecture discussions and coding where needed.
• Champion performance and market data, while supporting broader technical scope.
• Bring AI-assisted engineering practices into the team workflow and help engineers adopt them.
• Partner with product and other engineering pods to drive roadmap execution.
• Represent the team technically with peers and stakeholders, communicating tradeoffs and progress.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Distributed systems

Low latency

Rust/C++

Trading systems

Aeron messaging

Multicast data

Education

BS in technical field

Tools

Go

Python

C++

Job description

Payward, the parent of Kraken, is building a world-class Exchange team responsible for the trading backend services including the matching engine, market data gateways, and order entry systems.

The team works across Linux, with Rust, C++, Go, and Python, in a global, agile environment. You will lead a top-tier engineering group, drive performance improvements, and push forward AI-assisted engineering practices while collaborating with product and other pods.