HFT Quantitative Developer

Flowdesk; United States; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% health coverage

Team events and offsites

Pension scheme

Learning and Development budget

International environment

Job summary

Flowdesk is seeking a hands-on Rust engineer to join our High-Frequency Trading team. You will own order management, feed handling, and strategy execution in production, developing systems close to market data and live trading P&L.

This role focuses on low-level networking, custom protocol parsing, and latency optimisations, with exposure to kernel-bypass techniques and high-throughput connections across FIX and WebSocket, in a fast-paced, globally distributed environment.

Qualifications

• Hands-on production experience with OMS, feed handlers, or strategy logic.
• Strong Rust – async and non-async experience valued.
• Low-level networking and latency-aware design.
• Fast parsing of binary protocols and custom formats.
• FIX protocol and WebSocket connectivity in production.
• Good understanding of distributed systems and state synchronization.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain Order Management System (OMS) components.
• Design and optimize feed handlers for high-throughput market data.
• Implement and integrate trading strategy logic with execution infrastructure.
• Write low-level networking code including protocol parsing and socket management.
• Build fast parsing pipelines for market data and orders.
• Ensure reliable exchange connectivity via FIX, WebSocket, and proprietary protocols.
• Conduct latency profiling, benchmarking and continuous performance improvement.

Skills

Rust

OMS

Feed handlers

Strategy logic

Networking

Parsing

FIX

WebSocket

Distributed systems

Tools

DPDK

RDMA

Lock-free data structures

C++

Job description

About Flowdesk

At Flowdesk, we are building the infrastructure powering the next era of global finance. As a full-service digital asset trading and technology firm, we provide liquidity solutions, OTC trading, and market infrastructure that connect digital assets to global markets with institutional-grade precision, transparency, and scale. Flowdesk combines expertise from traditional finance, algorithmic trading, and blockchain technology to deliver always-on trading capabilities across the digital asset ecosystem.

Founded in 2020, we have grown into a global team supporting institutions, exchanges, and token issuers worldwide as the financial system evolves toward tokenized markets.

Why join Flowdesk? You’ll be joining a company operating at the intersection of finance, technology, and crypto - solving complex market problems, building critical infrastructure, and helping shape how digital assets move globally. We move fast, think long term, and work with a strong ownership mindset across engineering, trading, product, operations, and business teams.

Role Description

Our technology team builds and maintains the low-latency trading infrastructure that powers our operations - from execution engines and exchange connectivity to risk and market data systems. We move fast, operate at scale, and expect our engineers to take direct ownership of production systems that impact live trading P&L.

We are looking for a hands-on Rust engineer to join our High-Frequency Trading team. This is a core technical role focused on the components that sit closest to the market: order management, feed handling, and strategy execution. The successful candidate will have direct experience building these systems in production and will be comfortable working at the systems level – networking, parsing, and latency optimisation.

• Order Management System (OMS) development and maintenance
• Feed handler design and optimisation - processing market data at high throughput
• Strategy logic implementation and integration with execution infrastructure
• Low-level networking code: custom protocol parsing, socket management, kernel bypass techniques
• Fast parsing pipelines for market data and order flow
• Exchange connectivity across FIX, WebSocket, and proprietary protocols
• Latency profiling, benchmarking, and continuous performance improvement

Requirements

Must Have

• Direct, hands-on experience building OMS, feed handlers, and/or strategy logic in a production environment
• Strong Rust - the primary language for this role. Experience with both async and non-async (synchronous / bare-metal) Rust is highly valued
• Low-level networking: socket programming, protocol implementation, latency-aware design
• Experience writing fast parsing code - binary protocols, custom formats, minimal-copy pipelines
• FIX protocol and WebSocket connectivity in production
• Strong understanding of distributed systems and state synchronization

Preferred

• TradFi or institutional crypto market-making background
• Experience with kernel bypass networking (DPDK, RDMA, or similar)
• Familiarity with lock-free data structures and wait-free concurrency
• Options or derivatives experience
• C++ background - useful where Rust experience is being built

Location

• London (primary preference)
• Dubai (also open)
• Remote: considered only for candidates with 1-2+ years at a recognised institutional trading firm

Person Profile

• Curious and autonomous
• Highly motivated and results-driven
• Strong maths and analytical skills
• Ability to successfully manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced collaborative environment
• Professional proficiency in English

Company Culture & Values

• Take Action & Own the Mission
• Be of Service & Contribute
• Innovate, Create Value, & Be Courageous
• Act with Integrity & Respect

Benefits

• International environment (English is the main language)
• 100% health coverage
• Team events and offsites
• Company Pension scheme
• Learning and Development budget

Recruitment Process

Our process is consistent across all engineering roles and is designed to assess genuine technical depth. Candidates should expect the following stages:

• Stage 1: First round interview with a member of our Talent Acquisition team (45 mins)
• Stage 2: Binance take-home assignment, AI-assisted + online technical screen AI-free.
• Stage 3: 30-45 mins with CTO - assessment of system design, technical experience, discussion of AI output.
• Stage 4: Online CoderPad interview with HFT team - Rust focused.
• Stage 5: In-person technical interview covering live-coding, data-structure & algorithms round, and background and goals alignment.

Stage 6: Round-Up meeting with Head of Talent Strategy.

FLOWDESK | www.flowdesk.co