Senior Java Engineer - Trade Capture

CTC Lateral - Website & LinkedIn; New York, Chicago (NY, IL); On-site; USD 200,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous time off

Insurance coverage

Paid parental leave

Free breakfast and lunch

Wellness reimbursement

Job summary

Chicago Trading Company (CTC) seeks a Senior Software Engineer to join the TAPE team in New York. This pivotal role involves ensuring high-performance, resilient Java services for trade and position systems, developing scalable solutions, and proactively monitoring system health.

The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in Java development, JVM internals, and distributed systems. CTC offers a competitive salary and a hybrid work model with generous benefits.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in high-performance Java development in low-latency environments.
• Experience with JVM internals, GC tuning, and distributed systems.
• Strong problem-solving skills and proactive approach.

Responsibilities

• Architect and maintain high-performance Java services.
• Engineer scalable distributed systems for trade processing.
• Monitor system health and resolve performance bottlenecks.

Skills

High-performance Java development

Distributed systems design

GC tuning

Lock-free algorithms

Data structures

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Hazelcast

Oracle Coherence

Redis

Kubernetes

Job description

Chicago Trading Company (CTC) is a premier proprietary trading firm specializing in options market making. Our collaborative culture fuels innovation in quantitative research, systematic trading strategies, and cutting‑edge trading technology. For over three decades CTC has provided critical liquidity across derivatives exchanges worldwide – making markets fairer, more transparent, and more efficient.

We strive to be the most innovative firm in the industry today, tomorrow, and long into the future while upholding ethical excellence. CTC makes a positive impact on the markets, our employees, and the communities we serve.

The Role

We are seeking a talented and experienced Senior Software Engineer to join our TAPE team. The TAPE team owns and operates the firm’s critical trade and positions system, delivering real‑time risk awareness and seamless integration across every trading desk. As a key contributor to TAPE, our next‑generation platform engineered for enhanced scalability, volume capacity, and support for sophisticated trading strategies, you will drive the modernization of our core infrastructure.

What you’ll do

• Architect, develop, and maintain high‑performance, resilient Java services to power TAPE’s critical post‑trade processing workflows, including trade capture and position aggregation, with a relentless focus on latency, throughput, and system correctness.
• Engineer highly scalable distributed systems capable of processing millions of daily trades across multiple asset classes, with deep optimization at the JVM level—including garbage‑collection tuning, off‑heap memory management, and lock‑free/wait‑free data structures to achieve predictable, ultra‑low latency performance.
• Drive deep performance engineering across the stack—profiling, benchmarking, and tuning JVM internals (JIT compilation, memory models, thread affinity, CPU cache optimization) to meet stringent SLAs.
• Work closely with engineers and stakeholders within the CTC technology team to ensure seamless integration across the broader technology ecosystem.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams—traders, quant developers, and other technical groups—to design, build, and enhance client APIs in Java, C++, and Python.
• Leverage distributed caching solutions (e.g., Hazelcast, Oracle Coherence, Redis) and container orchestration with Kubernetes to optimize system performance and reliability.
• Proactively monitor system health, diagnose performance bottlenecks, resolve production incidents, and maintain detailed technical documentation to support 24/7 operations and regulatory compliance.

What we are looking for

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Deep expertise in high‑performance Java development in a high‑volume, low‑latency environment. Candidates must demonstrate hands‑on experience with:
  • JVM internals (JIT compilation, class loading, memory layout, thread scheduling)
  • GC tuning and GC‑free design (ZGC, Shenandoah, off‑heap allocation, object pooling)
  • Lock‑free and wait‑free algorithms, concurrent data structures, and the Java Memory Model
  • Distributed systems design—consistency models, fault tolerance, partitioning strategies, and distributed coordination.
  • Distributed caching solutions (Hazelcast, Oracle Coherence, Redis) and their performance characteristics under load.
  • Strong problem‑solving skills with a proactive, rigorous approach to tackling complex technical challenges.

Nice to have

• Experience with post‑trade processing systems, including trade capture, position management, settlement workflows, and real‑time risk calculations in capital markets environments.
• Understanding of trade lifecycle events, reconciliation processes, and integration between front‑office trading systems and back‑office settlement operations.
• Design and implement GC‑free or GC‑controlled Java components, leveraging technologies such as Chronicle Map, Agrona, or similar off‑heap libraries to eliminate stop‑the‑world pauses in latency‑sensitive processing paths.
• Proficiency in building and integrating APIs using Java, C++, and Python.

Compensation

Salary Range: $200,000 – $225,000 USD (annual). This role is also eligible for an annual discretionary bonus based on skills, experience, and firm performance.

Benefits

Most teams at CTC, with the exception of Trading, follow a hybrid workplace model subject to business need. We offer generous time off, insurance coverage, paid parental leave, free breakfast and lunch, wellness reimbursement, and a variety of other benefits to support you professionally and personally.

(Disclaimer: interns and contractors are not eligible for benefits at CTC – this applies only to full‑time employees.)

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We are an equal‑opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will provide reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities to enable participation in the job application process and performance of essential job functions.

To request accommodations, please contact us at [e-mail].