Sr. Software Engineer II, Platform/API

NinjaTrader; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous PTO

7 Paid Holidays Annually + 5 Cond. HOL

1 Service Day Annually

401k with 3.5% Company Match

Paid Parental Bonding Leave

Health, Vision, Dental Coverage

Life and Disability Insurance

Job summary

NinjaTrader is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to design, develop, and operate backend services in production. You’ll build Node.js and TypeScript systems for account creation, verification, and funding hand‑offs, leveraging event-driven patterns across queues and streaming platforms.

You’ll own multi-step flows, idempotency, and resilient orchestration while collaborating with cross‑functional teams in a hybrid Chicago-based role.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of professional software development experience building and operating backend services in production.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Deep Node.js and TypeScript expertise, with strong command of asynchronous patterns, concurrency, and backpressure.
• Proven production experience with event-driven architecture, including delivery guarantees and poison-message handling, on message queues, pub/sub, or streaming platforms such as Kafka or Google Cloud Pub/Sub.
• Demonstrated experience building idempotent, resumable workflows that stay correct under retries, partial failure, and out-of-order delivery.
• Strong SQL and schema design, plus hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and a major cloud platform.
• Demonstrated use of AI coding agents (Codex, Cursor, Claude Code) as a standard part of your engineering workflow, with the judgement to review and validate AI-assisted code before it ships.
• Excellent communication and the ownership to run a workstream end to end: design, implement, test, deploy, operate on-call, and iterate.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain Node.js and TypeScript services for account creation, identity verification, agreement handling, and funding hand-off.
• Build event-driven processing that moves applicant data between internal systems and external providers.
• Own correctness in long-running, multi-step flows with idempotency, retries, and deduplication.
• Design and evolve background task runners and job orchestration for downstream account creation and decisioning.
• Build tooling to diagnose stalled applications, including in-flight state inspection and safe requeue.
• Define SLAs and monitoring for flows you own, surfacing provider failures and drop-off risks.
• Design scalable, resilient service architecture using Google Cloud Platform and Kubernetes.
• Extend onboarding to new markets and brands with configurable jurisdiction-specific behavior.
• Coordinate technical direction with adjacent squads and mentor junior engineers.

Skills

Node.js & TypeScript

Event-driven architecture

SQL

Docker & Kubernetes

AI coding agents

Communication & ownership

Education

CS / Software Engineering degree

Tools

Kafka

Google Cloud Pub/Sub

Job description

About NinjaTrader

Welcome to the dynamic world of NinjaTrader! As an industry-leading trading platform and futures broker, we’re empowering traders to take control of their financial destiny. How do we do it? We provide cutting‑edge products and services that enhance the trading journey. Whether a seasoned pro or just starting out, NinjaTrader equips traders with award‑winning software and brokerage services to navigate the world’s leading financial markets with confidence.

Our growth story is nothing short of exhilarating. Since 2003, NinjaTrader has been dedicated to understanding and supporting traders on their journey toward trading triumph. Through those efforts, our user base has grown to over 2 million users and we have become the number one rated futures brokerage worldwide.

But we’re not stopping there. We’re constantly evolving, pushing boundaries, and modernising the futures industry. Our commitment to innovation means users will always have access to dynamic tools, real‑time support, and a community of like‑minded traders.

So, why work at NinjaTrader? Here, you’re not just part of a team; you’re part of a movement. We empower employees to reach new heights in their careers by providing a dynamic culture focused on social connection, professional development, and employee recognition initiatives. Sounds too good to be true? Take it from our employees.

What you’ll do

• Design, develop, and maintain Node.js and TypeScript services that orchestrate account creation, identity verification, agreement handling, and funding hand‑off.
• Build the event‑driven and asynchronous processing that moves applicant and verification data between internal systems and outside providers, using message queues, pub/sub, and streaming pipelines.
• Own correctness in long‑running, multi‑step flows: idempotency, retry and resumption semantics, deduplication, and reconciliation for steps that cannot simply be replayed.
• Design and evolve the background task runners and job orchestration that drive downstream account creation and decisioning.
• Build the operational tooling the squad needs when an application stalls mid‑flow: inspection of in‑flight state, targeted replay, and safe requeue.
• Define service‑level expectations for the flows you own, along with the monitoring and alerting that surface provider failures and applicant drop‑off before a customer reports them.
• Design and implement scalable, resilient service architecture, using cloud‑based infrastructure such as Google Cloud Platform and Kubernetes.
• Extend onboarding to new markets, brands, and account types, keeping jurisdiction‑specific behaviour configurable rather than forked.
• Coordinate technical direction with engineers on adjacent squads whose systems consume your events, and coach engineers at the Sr. Software Engineer I level through design review and pairing.

What you’ll need

• 6+ years of professional software development experience building and operating backend services in production.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Deep Node.js and TypeScript expertise, with strong command of asynchronous patterns, concurrency, and backpressure.
• Proven production experience with event‑driven architecture, including delivery guarantees and poison‑message handling, on message queues, pub/sub, or streaming platforms such as Kafka or Google Cloud Pub/Sub.
• Demonstrated experience building idempotent, resumable workflows that stay correct under retries, partial failure, and out‑of‑order delivery.
• Strong SQL and schema design, plus hands‑on experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and a major cloud platform.
• Demonstrated use of AI coding agents (Codex, Cursor, Claude Code) as a standard part of your engineering workflow, with the judgement to review and validate AI‑assisted code before it ships.
• Excellent communication and the ownership to run a workstream end to end: design, implement, test, deploy, operate on‑call, and iterate.

Bonus Points for

• Experience with identity verification, KYC/AML, or fraud and risk decisioning systems.
• Experience in fintech, trading, or brokerage, particularly in a regulated financial services environment.
• Experience integrating third‑party providers whose contracts and failure modes you do not control.
• Familiarity with workflow or saga orchestration frameworks, and with feature flagging platforms such as Statsig.
• Passion for futures, derivatives, and trading technologies is a strong plus.

Compensation

The salary range for this role will be $140,000.00 - $190,000.00 USD. In addition, this position will also receive an annual target bonus of 12%. Bonus pay at NinjaTrader is based on individual performance (50%) as well as company/team performance (50%). Salary and bonus earnings are only two components of the total compensation package offered by NinjaTrader.

Location & Hybrid

Location: This role is based in Chicago, IL. *There may be remote flexibility for exceptional candidates in the following states: California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC, Wisconsin. Hybrid: For Chicago‑based employees, we follow a hybrid work schedule: In‑office Tuesday through Thursday, with remote work on Mondays and Fridays. In addition to these weekly remote days, we offer: 20 additional flex remote days annually 5 Company Wide Office‑Optional weeks tied to major holidays

Benefits

• Generous PTO 7 Paid Holidays Annually + 5 Conditional Holidays Annually 1 Service Day Annually 401k with 3.5% Company Match Paid Parental Bonding Leave Health, Vision, Dental Coverage Life and Disability Insurance Covered 100% by NinjaTrader

Equal Employment Opportunity

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.