C++ Software Engineer - Options Trading Systems

Summit Securities Group; New York (NY); On-site; USD 175,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lunch stipends

Fully stocked kitchens

Happy hours

Great location with amazing colleagues

Job summary

Summit Securities Group is seeking an elite Software Engineer to join our options trading team, focusing on technology, statistics, time-series data, and high-performance systems. You will work beside traders and researchers to implement strategies, optimize trading systems, and expand the core platform.

This role requires engineering rigor and strong judgment: own key projects end-to-end, translate requirements into clean designs, and deliver robust systems for real-world trading challenges.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of elite software engineering experience in production systems.
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related engineering discipline.
• Deep command of C++, object-oriented design, templates, concurrency, and multithreaded programming.
• Strong understanding of modern computing systems and micro-architecture.
• Experience with network programming APIs, including direct socket-level programming.
• Ability to select data structures and algorithms for low-latency engineering problems.
• Proven experience designing, improving, and maintaining clean, reusable frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Build Trading Systems: Design, implement, and improve systems that support options trading strategies, research workflows, and live trading infrastructure.
• Own Core Projects: Take projects from ambiguous stakeholder need through design, implementation, testing, deployment, and iteration.
• Optimize Performance: Improve latency, throughput, reliability, and scalability across performance-sensitive components.
• Engineer Clean Frameworks: Build reusable, maintainable software frameworks that accelerate trader and researcher experimentation.
• Work Close to the Desk: Collaborate with traders and researchers to understand strategy requirements and ship practical solutions.
• Solve Low-Latency Problems: Choose data structures, algorithms, and architectural patterns for high-performance use cases.

Skills

C++ Expertise

Systems Fluency

Networking Depth

CS Fundamentals

Architecture Judgment

5+ Years Experience

Education

Undergraduate CS/CE degree

Job description

The Role

We are looking for an elite Software Engineer to join our options trading team with a heavy focus on technology, advanced statistics, massive time-series data, and high-performance systems.

You will work side-by-side with traders and researchers to implement strategies, optimize trading systems, and expand the team’s core platform. This role requires both engineering rigor and strong interpersonal judgment: you will own key projects end-to-end, develop a deep understanding of stakeholder needs, translate trading and research requirements into clean technical designs, and deliver robust systems for real-world trading problems.

This is a high-responsibility role for someone who enjoys solving complex, volatility-centric problems in a fast-moving, startup-like environment.

Responsibilities

• Build Trading Systems: Design, implement, and improve systems that support options trading strategies, research workflows, and live trading infrastructure.
• Own Core Projects: Take projects from ambiguous stakeholder need through design, implementation, testing, deployment, and iteration.
• Optimize Performance: Apply deep systems knowledge to improve latency, throughput, reliability, and scalability across performance-sensitive components.
• Engineer Clean Frameworks: Build reusable, maintainable software frameworks that accelerate trader and researcher experimentation.
• Work Close to the Desk: Collaborate directly with traders and researchers to understand strategy requirements, diagnose system behavior, and ship practical solutions.
• Solve Low-Latency Problems: Select appropriate data structures, algorithms, and architectural patterns for highly specific, performance-critical use cases.

The Tech Stack

We believe in using the right tool for the job. For this role, you will primarily work with:

• Core Languages: C++ is the primary language for performance-sensitive systems. Elite proficiency with modern C++, OOP, templates, and multithreaded programming is essential.
• Systems & Architecture: Modern computing systems, micro-architecture, concurrency, memory management, and high-performance design.
• Networking: Direct use of sockets and network programming APIs for latency-sensitive applications.
• Trading Infrastructure: Strategy implementation, research tooling, market data systems, and components that interface with live trading workflows.
• Data & Research Workflows: Large-scale time-series data, volatility-focused analysis, and systems that help traders rapidly explore and test ideas.

You Bring

• Experience: 5+ years of elite software engineering experience in production systems.
• Education: Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline.
• C++ Expertise: Deep command of C++, object-oriented design, templates, concurrency, and multithreaded programming.
• Systems Fluency: Strong understanding of modern computing systems and micro-architecture.
• Networking Depth: Experience with network programming APIs, including direct socket-level programming.
• Computer Science Fundamentals: Ability to match the right data structures and algorithms to specific low-latency engineering problems.
• Architecture Judgment: Proven experience designing, improving, and maintaining clean, reusable frameworks.

Bonus Points For

• Trading Systems Experience: Experience building automated trading systems, such as feed handlers, order management systems, market data systems, or strategy execution platforms.
• Low-Latency Optimization: A track record of intense performance tuning, profiling, and latency reduction.
• Product Ownership: Experience leading full product life-cycle development, from design through production deployment.
• Market Fluency: Familiarity with financial markets, options, volatility, or electronic trading.
• Advanced Education: Graduate degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.

Ideal Profile

• High Ownership: You are comfortable taking responsibility for important systems and driving projects through ambiguity.
• Performance-Minded Engineer: You care about correctness, latency, reliability, and clean abstractions — and you know how to make the right tradeoffs.
• Practical Systems Thinker: You can translate complex trading needs into systematic, maintainable engineering designs.
• Collaborative Builder: You enjoy working directly with traders, researchers, and engineers, and you communicate clearly across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Startup Mentality: You are energized by a fast-growing team where priorities evolve quickly and individual impact is high.
• On-Site Presence: Willingness to work in-office 4 days per week, driving impact through close collaboration with the team.

We Offer

The anticipated base salary for this role is $175,000 - $250,000. This range is representative of starting base salaries at Summit Securities Group; the final offer and placement within this range will be based on job-related factors such as relevant experience, skills, and location. Please note that base salary is only one component of our total compensation package and does not include performance-based bonuses.

• We offer competitive compensation, 401(K) matching, gender-neutral parental leave, and comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• In-office perks include lunch stipends, fully stocked kitchens, happy hours, and a great location with amazing colleagues.

We believe that working together in person is key to tackling the complex challenges we face, which is why this role will require being in the office 4 days per week.

Our top priority is our people. We invest in a culture that promotes togetherness — supporting one another through challenges and celebrating our collective successes. We believe that modern workplaces thrive on diverse, high-performance workforces across ideas, cultures, and experiences. We are committed to making this environment a daily reality and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.