Software Engineering Intern - Waterloo University

Brave

United States

Remote

USD 150,000 - 210,000

Full time

12 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Health benefits on day 1

New hire home-office setup: USD 500

Monthly stipend: USD 150

Job summary

Alpaca is a next generation securities broker for algo traders. You will build Alpaca’s trading platform, architecting across frontend and backend to satisfy users who expect high performance and reliability.

As an experienced engineer, you will write substantial code, shape platform decisions, and tackle distributed systems with a focus on low latency, concurrency, and scalable data models. This role calls for broad expertise across CPU‑level to service‑oriented architectures.

Qualifications

Strong experienced software engineer with lead experience.
Coding skills in both low and high level languages around C/C++, Go, Zig, Rust, Java, Scala, Python.
Low latency and high throughput optimization.
Experience with messaging queues and message brokers.
Analytical data‑oriented mindset and skills.
Knowledge of algorithms, distributed systems, scalability, high availability, databases, low latency systems and concurrency control.
System design skills with object‑oriented data modeling, service‑oriented architectures, system abstraction.
Experience with the development and implementation of Order Management systems (OMS) and Risk Management systems (RMS)

Responsibilities

Build Alpaca's algo trading platform to satisfy our users who expect high quality and performance.
Write tons of code and make critical decisions about delivering the best experience to our customers.
Work across frontend, backend, databases, and distributed systems to deliver robust solutions.
Ensure high availability and low latency in a scalable platform.

Skills

Lead experience

C/C++

Rust

Python

Distributed systems

Low latency

Messaging queues

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

OSS/Open APIs

Job description

Who We Are

Alpaca is a US California headquartered brokerage infrastructure technology company and self‑clearing broker‑dealer, delivering execution and custody solutions for Stocks, ETFs, Options, Cryptocurrencies, and more, and has raised over $170 million in funding. Amongst our subsidiaries, Alpaca is a licensed financial services company in multiple countries, and we serve hundreds of financial institutions globally such as broker‑dealers, investment advisors, hedge funds, and crypto exchanges. Alpaca s globally distributed team members bring in diverse experiences such as engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals to achieve our Mission of opening financial services to everyone on the planet. We are also deeply committed to open‑source contributions and fostering a vibrant community. We will continue to enhance and improve our award‑winning developer‑friendly API and the infrastructure behind it.

Our Team Members

We are a team of 150+ globally distributed members who love working from our favorite places worldwide. Our team spans the USA, Canada, Japan, Hungary, Nigeria, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and more! We are looking for candidates eager to join Alpaca s growing organization, who are excited about our Mission of “Open financial services to everyone on the planet” and share our Values of “Stay Curious,” “Have Empathy,” and “Be Accountable.”

Your Role

Alpaca is a next generation securities broker for algo traders. With a clear vision and the right timing, we are a growing FinTech startup tapping into a new market in retail trading. Our target users are tech savvy and analytical problem solvers who appreciate a modern technology stack and an innovative business model that helps to empower them to move beyond old school financial services. We look for engineers who think the same way. Your job is to build Alpaca s algo trading platform to satisfy our users who expect high quality and performance from their brokerage service. This opportunity is similar to joining AWS or Heroku in their early days, designing and architecting our platform by wearing many different hats in our small team. As an experienced engineer, you will write tons of code and make critical decisions about delivering the best experience to our customers. This certainly requires deep knowledge in both frontend and backend, databases and distributed systems, as well as broad experience from low to high level in CPU‑level hardware for high throughput, robust concurrency system design, abstract distributed system architecture for high availability and object‑oriented data modeling with long term growth in mind. Joining an early stage startup, the payoff to this highly demanding environment will be worth the effort. You must have previous software engineering experience with trading or exchange systems (OMS, EMS, exchanges, market making, algorithmic trading, quant trading).

Requirements

Strong, experienced software engineer with lead experience is preferred
Coding skills in both low and high level languages around C/C++, Go, Zig, Rust, Java, Scala, Python
Low latency and high throughput optimization
Experience with messaging queues and message brokers
Analytical data‑oriented mindset and skills
Knowledge of algorithms, distributed systems, scalability, high availability, databases, low latency systems and concurrency control
System design skills with object‑oriented data modeling, service‑oriented architectures, system abstraction
Experience with the development and implementation of Order Management systems (OMS) and Risk Management systems (RMS)

Nice to have