Principal Engineer (Trading Systems)

OP RaaS; Chicago (IL); Remote; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

OP RaaS is seeking a Principal Engineer to design, optimize, and scale our core trading infrastructure. This role focuses on high-volume, low-latency systems and cross-functional collaboration to deliver robust solutions in a 24x7 production environment.

You will mentor engineers, drive architectural decisions, and ensure security and regulatory compliance while improving observability and performance across our JVM-based services.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/IT or related field or equivalent experience.
• Extensive experience with high-performance, high-concurrency distributed trading systems.
• Proven expertise in JVM and performance tuning for high-performance environments.
• Experience supporting 24/7 production systems, ideally in trading environments.
• Deep knowledge of networking, and protocols (HTTP/HTTPS, WebSockets, DNS, TCP/IP).
• Experience with CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions).
• Strong troubleshooting and debugging skills in high-pressure, real-time conditions.
• Excellent communication skills, capable of articulating technical concepts to diverse stakeholders.
• Experience in Java/Scala/Rust/C++ or functional programming languages within exchange/trading environments.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize Scala-based trading services for high-volume, low-latency environments.
• Lead architectural strategy for scalability and performance optimization.
• Mentor junior engineers and promote technical excellence.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, operations, and security to translate requirements into robust solutions.
• Optimize system performance with JVM tuning for distributed systems.
• Enhance monitoring and observability for real-time trade execution.
• Ensure compliance with security policies and regulatory standards.

Skills

Scala

Java/C++/Rust

JVM tuning

Low-latency systems

24x7 production support

Distributed systems

Networking protocols

Troubleshooting under pressure

Communication with stakeholders

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IT or related field

Tools

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

Kubernetes

Docker

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Job description

Principal Engineer (Trading Systems)

Chicago or Remote

We are looking for a highly skilled and experienced Principal Engineer to join our Trading Services team. In this pivotal role, you will be responsible for designing, evolving, and optimizing our coretrading infrastructure. You will help scale and enhance our highly scalable, low-latency trading system, ensuring that it meets the highest standards of performance, scalability, and reliability. Your work will directly impact our ability to support rapid growth in the retail futures trading space.

In this role, you will:

• Design, develop, and optimize our Scala based trading services for high-volume, low-latency, 24x7 environments.
• Lead architectural strategy for future-state scalability and performance optimization.
• Mentor and guide junior engineers, promoting best practices and technical excellence.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, operations, and security teams to translate business requirements into robust and secure technical solutions.
• Optimize system performance, with focus on JVM tuning for Scala/Akka based distributed system.
• Enhance monitoring and observability of services for real-time trade execution and operational transparency.
• Ensure compliance with security policies, regulatory standards, and industry best practices.

Key Position Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• Extensive experience with high-performance, high-concurrency distributed trading systems.
• Proven expertise in JVM and performance tuning for high-performance environments.
• Experience supporting 24/7 production systems, ideally in trading environments.
• Deep knowledge of networking, and protocols (HTTP/HTTPS, WebSockets, DNS, TCP/IP).
• Experience with CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions).
• Strong troubleshooting and debugging skills in high-pressure, real-time conditions.
• Excellent communication skills, capable of clearly articulating technical concepts to diverse stakeholders.
• Experience in Java/Scala/Rust/C++ or functional programming languages within exchange/trading environments.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in low-latency, lock-free development and design.
• Strong experience with multithreading and concurrency in high-performance environments.
• Familiarity with binary or custom trading protocols.
• Strong knowledge of messaging frameworks (Kafka, RabbitMQ) and network protocols (UDP,TCP).
• Hands-on experience implementing HTTP/WebSockets, REST APIs, OAuth, gRPC, and Redis APIs.
• Deep understanding of order handling/matching engines.
• Extensive experience with FIX or other market data/order-entry protocols.
• Practical hands-on experience with cloud-native technologies (Kubernetes and Docker).
• Solid grasp of network communications,