Senior Software Engineer

Understanding Recruitment; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Understanding Recruitment is seeking Senior C++ Engineers to join a global proprietary trading firm’s backend team. You’ll build and optimise low-latency infrastructure operating under real production load, focusing on performance, reliability, throughput, and scalability.

The role centers on core systems supporting live trading activity, including market data infrastructure and exchange connectivity. You’ll collaborate with trading and engineering teams to push performance and reliability to

Qualifications

• Strong modern C++ experience in backend or systems engineering.
• Experience building high-performance, low-latency, or high-throughput systems.
• Solid understanding of multithreading, concurrency, and distributed systems concepts.
• Experience working within Linux environments.
• Strong debugging and performance optimisation capabilities.
• Good understanding of networking and infrastructure-level engineering concepts.
• Exposure to trading systems, market infrastructure, HFT, or exchange environments.

Responsibilities

• Build and optimise low-latency backend infrastructure supporting live trading systems.
• Develop high-performance market data and exchange connectivity services.
• Improve throughput, latency, and resilience across distributed systems operating under real production load.
• Work closely with engineering and trading teams on performance-critical infrastructure initiatives.
• Debug and resolve complex systems and performance bottlenecks across live environments.

Skills

C++ backend

Low-latency systems

Multithreading

Distributed systems

Linux environments

Performance tuning

Networking concepts

Job description

We’re currently hiring Senior C++ Engineers to work on the systems underpinning a global proprietary trading firm.

This is a backend engineering role focused on building and optimising low-latency infrastructure operating under real production load. The work sits close to the trading side of the business and centres around performance, reliability, throughput, and systems scalability.

The environment is highly technical and engineering-driven, with a strong focus on solving complex infrastructure and optimisation problems.

The Role

You’ll be working on the core systems supporting live trading activity globally, including market data infrastructure, exchange connectivity, and performance-critical backend services.

The team is growing quickly from both a trading and infrastructure perspective, creating increasing demand for engineers who can design, optimise, and maintain low-latency systems at scale.

If you enjoy working on systems where microseconds matter and reliability is critical, this could be a strong fit.

Responsibilities

• Build and optimise low-latency backend infrastructure supporting live trading systems.
• Develop high-performance market data and exchange connectivity services.
• Improve throughput, latency, and resilience across distributed systems operating under real production load.
• Work closely with engineering and trading teams on performance-critical infrastructure initiatives.
• Debug and resolve complex systems and performance bottlenecks across live environments.

Required Skills & Experience

• Strong modern C++ experience within backend or systems engineering environments.
• Experience building high-performance, low-latency, or high-throughput systems.
• Strong understanding of multithreading, concurrency, and distributed systems concepts.
• Experience working within Linux environments.
• Strong debugging and performance optimisation capabilities.
• Good understanding of networking and infrastructure-level engineering concepts.
• Exposure to trading systems, market infrastructure, HFT, or exchange environments.

Why This Role

• Performance-critical engineering problems with direct business impact.
• Lean, highly technical environment.
• High ownership and autonomy.
• Close proximity to the trading side of the business.
• Flexible working hours and healthy work-life balance.
• Remote-first setup with globally distributed engineering teams.
• Yearly company vacations with the wider team.