Trading System Engineer

Tokka Labs; Singapore; On-site; SGD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Tokka Labs in Singapore seeks a Trading Systems Engineer to build low-latency systems powering on-chain and traditional markets. You will work with quantitative traders and researchers to push performance, reliability, and AI-driven enhancements on the trading stack.

You will shape how AI agents are integrated into the SDLC, set rules for autonomous actions on the live path, and mentor the team on engineering practices that enable faster, safer execution.

Qualifications

• Proven track record in building low-latency systems for algorithmic trading.
• Strong understanding of trading system architecture and market connectivity.
• Experience collaborating with traders or researchers on strategy or tooling.
• Hands-on system-level performance tuning, monitoring and debugging.
• Genuine interest in AI and deploying agents in production.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop low-latency, high-throughput systems for trade execution, market data, and connectivity.
• Optimize performance and ensure operational stability through profiling and architectural improvements.
• Lead by example in using AI agents to ship faster while maintaining reliability.
• Shape the self-learning loops in the SDLC: evals, telemetry, and feedback signals.
• Define acceptable autonomy: which agents can act and where human review is required.
• Collaborate with quantitative traders to translate ideas into production-grade systems and deploy AI-driven enhancements.

Skills

Low-latency design

Algorithmic trading

AI in engineering

Performance tuning

Tools

C/C++

Linux

Profiling tools

Job description

About Tokka Labs

Tokka Labs is a Singapore-based proprietary trading firm and market maker in digital assets and tokenized real-world assets, bringing traditional instruments into markets that never close.

Our team has built and run trading businesses at top-tier global firms, and we bring that rigor to on-chain markets, where continuous trading and evolving market structure create problems with no existing playbook.

We build our systems and strategies in-house and stay deliberately lean and flat. Traders, researchers and engineers work side by side, and good ideas reach live trading quickly. With AI and agentic tooling central to how we work, each person has the leverage of a much larger team and focuses on the hardest problems.

We look for curiosity and ownership. We give strong people the room to act on their ideas and see their impact directly.

The Role

We are looking for a Trading Systems Engineer to build and scale the low-latency systems that power our high-frequency trading across on-chain and traditional markets, working closely with our quantitative traders and researchers. Your work will show up directly in faster, more reliable trading and in how the whole team builds with AI.

Trading systems engineering, from core infrastructure to the desk, still largely works the way it did a decade ago. We think AI changes that. Our engineering is AI-native: we are building self-learning loops into how we design, build, test and ship software, so our systems improve with every change. You'll engineer latency-critical systems and help decide how trading engineers should work in the age of AI: what agents should own, what they should never touch, and how we know the difference. This role is for engineers who have built and run trading systems in production and want to use AI to change how the craft is done. If you have strong views on this, this is the place to put them into practice.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop low-latency, high-throughput systems for trade execution, order management, real-time market data and exchange connectivity.
• Optimize performance and ensure operational stability through profiling, tuning and architectural improvements.
• Challenge how trading systems and desk engineering are done, and lead by example in using AI agents to ship faster without compromising reliability, so your practices become how the whole team works.
• Shape the self-learning loops in our SDLC: the evals, telemetry and feedback that turn production signals into better agent context, tooling and tests.
• Set the rules for where agents can act on their own and where human review is required, especially for code on the live trading path.
• Work alongside our quantitative traders and researchers to turn trading ideas into production-grade systems, and bring AI into how those ideas are researched, tested, deployed and monitored.

Requirements

• A strong track record of building and maintaining low-latency systems for algorithmic trading.
• Deep understanding of trading system architecture, including exchange and broker connectivity, order management, pricing and risk engines, and smart order routing, and of how the strategies running on them make and lose money.
• Experience working directly with traders or researchers on strategies, research or simulation tooling.
• Strong low-level systems engineering skills, with hands-on experience in system-level performance tuning, monitoring and debugging.
• A genuine, demonstrated interest in AI: you use agents seriously in your own engineering work and have pushed them beyond autocomplete.
• Strong, well-reasoned opinions on how AI should change trading systems engineering, and on where it shouldn't be trusted. You're comfortable challenging convention, arguing your case, and changing your mind when the evidence says otherwise.
• Sound judgment about risk: you know when numbers, code or AI output can't be trusted, and you act to limit the damage.
• You'd rather own a problem end to end, across team boundaries, than hand it off, and you do your best work when priorities shift quickly.
  Prior experience in digital-asset markets is not required.

Why Join Us

• Build with real backing. Leadership is investing heavily in AI and agentic tooling as core strategy, not a side project.
• Work alongside people who have built and run trading businesses at top-tier global firms.
• Real stakes. Your code runs on the critical path, and its impact shows up directly in P&L.

Tokka Labs does not accept unsolicited resumes.

Any form of candidate introduction shared without the prior approval of the talent acquisition team will be deemed free to contact by Tokka Labs without restriction or liability. No placement fee of any kind will be paid in the event the identified candidate is hired by Tokka Labs.