Polymarket - Senior Backend Engineer, US Exchange

deCircle; New York (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading prediction market platform is seeking an experienced Backend Engineer to design and scale core exchange infrastructure. You will focus on high-performance backend systems that ensure reliability and low latency. The ideal candidate will have 4-7 years of experience, strong C/C++ skills, and a solid understanding of complex systems. This role emphasizes collaboration and ownership, with opportunities to work on cutting-edge technologies in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 4–7+ years of professional backend development experience.
• Strong proficiency in C/C++, Go, Rust, or Java.
• Solid understanding of algorithms, data structures, and concurrency.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable, low-latency backend services.
• Profile, tune, and debug systems for performance.
• Build robust APIs and data pipelines.

Skills

C/C++ proficiency

Understanding of algorithms

Concurrency

Memory management

Debugging production issues

Knowledge of low-latency systems

Tools

Kafka

Go

Rust

Java

gRPC

Protobuf

Job description

Polymarket is the world’s largest prediction market platform. We enable individuals to express views on real‑world events by trading on outcomes across politics, economics, sports, culture, and current affairs. Built as a peer‑to‑peer marketplace with no centralized “house,” Polymarket aggregates diverse opinions into transparent, market‑based probabilities that reflect collective expectations about the future.

We’re growing fast: both in volume ($21B traded in 2025) and in adoption as an alternative news source. Our ambition is to become a ubiquitous beacon of truth in global media, powered by fast, reliable, and deeply technical market infrastructure.

About the role

Polymarket is looking for a backend engineer to help build and scale the core exchange infrastructure that powers our markets. This role is focused on high‑performance, low‑latency backend systems that must be correct, fast, and resilient under real‑world trading load.

You’ll be a core individual contributor working with other senior engineers to design, implement, and optimize the systems that sit at the heart of Polymarket’s exchange. This is a high-ownership role with minimal bureaucracy and a strong bias toward execution.

We’re looking for an experienced backend engineer who enjoys working close to the metal and solving hard distributed systems problems.

• Build the exchange backend: Design and implement scalable, low-latency backend services that power Polymarket’s exchange, using C/C++ or other performance-oriented systems languages (Go, Rust, Java).
• Optimize for performance & scale: Profile, tune, and debug systems with a focus on latency, throughput, memory usage, and correctness in production.
• Design distributed systems: Build and operate robust APIs, data pipelines, and event-driven systems using messaging and streaming platforms (Kafka, Pulsar, RabbitMQ).
• Own reliability & operations: Reinforce security, availability, performance, and scalability across backend systems, and participate in diagnosing and resolving production issues.
• Collaborate cross-functionally: Work closely with engineers across product, infra, and data to ensure tight integration between the exchange and the broader platform.
• Contribute to code quality: Participate in code reviews, design discussions, and architectural decisions to maintain a high bar for engineering excellence.

What we’re looking for

• 4–7+ years of professional backend development experience, with strong proficiency in C/C++ (preferred) or another systems language (Go, Rust, Java).
• Solid understanding of algorithms, data structures, concurrency, memory management, and experience building low-latency, high-throughput systems.
• Comfortable working on complex systems end-to-end, debugging production issues on Linux, and taking responsibility for correctness and performance.
• (Plus) Experience in trading systems, HFT, gaming, telecom, or other latency-sensitive domains
• (Plus) Production experience with Kafka, Pulsar, or similar streaming platforms at scale
• (Plus) Familiarity with gRPC, Protobuf, ZeroMQ, or similar technologies
• (Plus) Experience deploying systems in cloud environments (AWS/GCP) and using containers