Application Support Engineer (FIX Protocol)

firstPRO US; Somerville (MA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

firstPRO US is seeking an Operations Engineer in Somerville, MA to keep production platforms stable, fast, secure, and well‑documented. You will monitor live systems, execute defined operational procedures, and support client deployments of bridging, aggregation, and reporting components.

Collaborating with engineering and client teams, you will validate readiness, coordinate deployments, and enhance runbooks and monitoring to reduce recurring incidents while maintaining security controls.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in production operations, site reliability engineering, or technical support for mission-critical systems.

Responsibilities

• Monitor production systems and analyze alerts to determine severity and response.
• Investigate system anomalies by correlating logs, metrics, and traces to identify root causes.
• Execute corrective actions and coordinate with engineering teams when needed.
• Balance response speed with technical risk in remediation decisions.
• Evaluate incident severity and business impact to decide on escalation or action.
• Improve runbooks, procedures, and monitoring strategies over time.
• Plan deployments with risk assessment and validation strategies.
• Plan client implementations including readiness checks and data flow verification.
• Assess connectivity and infrastructure readiness for production transitions.
• Collaborate with client teams on risk, requirements, and handover readiness.
• Identify recurring patterns and design automation to improve efficiency.
• Document decisions and outcomes for auditability and improvement.
• Lead post-incident analysis and recommend improvements.
• Evaluate trading/connectivity issues and decide on remediation vs engineering escalation.
• Validate onboarding prerequisites and identify gaps to resolve.
• Assess liquidity provider connectivity issues and root causes.
• Respond to client inquiries with recommended solutions within SLA.
• Identify opportunities for documentation and process improvements.

Skills

Production operations

Linux administration

Monitoring & observability

Decision making

Communication skills

Automation scripting

Client integrations

Bridging patterns

Real-time data

Docker/Kubernetes

Kafka/Streaming

Security hygiene

MT4/MT5 admin

Job description

The Operations Engineer position helps keep our production platforms stable, fast, secure, and well‑documented by monitoring live systems, executing defined operational procedures, and assisting with straightforward improvements that reduce recurring issues. This position is also responsible for planning, deploying, and supporting client implementations of our products, including bridging, aggregation, and reporting systems—coordinating readiness checks, basic configuration validation, and initial data flow verification.

Duties

• Monitor production systems and analyze alerts to determine severity, business impact, and appropriate response strategy using technical expertise and operational experience.
• Investigate system anomalies by correlating logs, metrics, and traces to identify root causes and determine remediation approaches.
• Determine and execute appropriate corrective actions based on assessment of technical risk, business impact, and available remediation options (e.g., service restarts, failovers, configuration adjustments, rollbacks).
• Exercise independent judgment to balance response speed against technical risk when selecting among multiple remediation options in consultation with industry best practices.
• Evaluate incident severity and business impact to determine when immediate action is warranted versus when to coordinate with engineering teams for complex or systemic issues.
• Evaluate and enhance runbooks, operational procedures, and monitoring strategies based on operational experience and evolving system requirements.
• Plan and coordinate deployments by assessing risk, determining validation strategies, monitoring key performance indicators, and making go/no-go decisions during rollout phases.
• Plan and execute client implementations by evaluating readiness criteria, identifying technical dependencies, determining deployment sequencing, and designing validation strategies for bridging, aggregation, and reporting components.
• Assess client connectivity requirements and infrastructure readiness, making informed recommendations about configuration approaches and integration patterns to ensure successful production transitions.
• Partner with client-facing teams to assess operational risks, define technical requirements, and determine handover readiness for steady-state support.
• Identify recurring operational patterns and design automation solutions (scripts, tooling, monitoring enhancements) that improve efficiency and system reliability while maintaining appropriate safety controls.
• Analyze operational outcomes and document decisions, rationale, and results for auditability and continuous improvement.
• Lead post-incident analysis by evaluating contributing factors and recommending process improvements, monitoring enhancements, or architectural changes.
• Analyze trade execution issues, pricing anomalies, and connectivity problems by evaluating FIX/API message flows to determine whether issues require operational intervention or engineering escalation.
• Assess and validate client onboarding prerequisites (API credentials, connectivity parameters, spread and routing configurations), making informed judgments about deployment readiness and identifying gaps requiring resolution.
• Evaluate liquidity provider and platform connectivity issues, determining whether problems stem from configuration, network, or systemic factors.
• Respond to client inquiries by analyzing technical issues, determining appropriate solutions and providing guidance within SLA commitments.
• Assess recurring client issues and technical patterns to identify opportunities for documentation improvements, process enhancements or engineering solutions.
• Ensure operational activities adhere to security best practices and change management procedures, exercising judgment about appropriate controls for different types of changes.
• Handle sensitive client credentials and configuration data according to established security frameworks, making risk-based decisions about access and handling procedures.
• Exercise judgment in determining appropriate response urgency and escalation based on business impact, technical severity, and client criticality for issues including latency spikes, connectivity problems, trade discrepancies, and configuration gaps.

Required Skills

• 3+ years in production operations, site reliability engineering, or technical support for mission-critical systems.
• Basic Linux system administration skills and networking knowledge (diagnostics, troubleshooting, performance analysis).
• Experience using monitoring and observability tools to diagnose system behavior and performance issues.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze complex technical issues, evaluate remediation options, and make sound decisions under time pressure.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills for incident documentation, client interaction, and cross-team collaboration.
• Scripting (Python, Bash, PowerShell or similar) for simple automation and reporting.
• Direct experience supporting or onboarding technical client integrations (readiness checks, configuration validation, data flow verification).
• Familiarity with bridging, aggregation, and reporting integration patterns (or demonstrable ability to learn them rapidly).

Attractive Skills

• Exposure to real‑time data or financial technology environments.
• Container platform familiarity (Docker, For example, ECS, or Kubernetes).
• Streaming / messaging systems (Kafka, Kinesis, or similar).
• Basic performance troubleshooting (resource usage, latency, responsiveness patterns).
• Foundational security hygiene (least privilege, credential handling best practices).
• VMware virtualization exposure.
• Administering MetaTrader 4 (MT4, MT5) servers or related components.
• Advanced PowerShell or broader programming (Go, Java, .NET) for tooling enhancements.
• Supporting financial services clients in production triage contexts.
• Knowledge of core financial markets concepts (pricing, spreads, order flow).
• Brokerage middle or back office operational experience (trade capture, reconciliation, reporting).
• Experience automating repetitive operational tasks (scripted runbook wrappers, small tooling improvements).