Staff Software Engineer - New Markets Singapore/SEA

Alpaca; United States; Hybrid; USD 141,000 - 203,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive Salary & Stock Options

New Hire Home-Office Setup

Monthly Stipend USD 150

Job summary

Alpaca, a US-headquartered global brokerage infrastructure provider, seeks a Staff Software Engineer to establish the Singapore/SEA regional engineering lead. You will architect and implement scalable middle- and back-office systems, including customer accounts, KYC/CDD/AML, and pre-trade risk, while guiding cross-functional teams across SEA markets.

You will mentor engineers, drive architectural decisions, and ensure 24/7 reliability during regional hours.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience building broker-dealer middle- and back-office systems serving end investors.
• Architect complex financial systems with double-entry ledger and books-and-records model.
• Strong backend focus with Go or similar languages; REST and gRPC expertise.

Responsibilities

• Architect scalable brokerage systems spanning multiple products or services.
• Develop middleware and back-office components, APIs, and vendor integrations.
• Lead regional launches, recruitment, and engineering standards for SEA markets.

Skills

Go

REST

gRPC

Microservices

Distributed systems

Kubernetes

DDD

Regulatory domain

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Kubernetes

AWS

GCP

Docker

Job description

Staff Software Engineer - New Markets Singapore/SEA

Posted Today

Who We Are:

Alpaca is a US-headquartered, global leader in agent-first brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more.
Amongst our subsidiaries, Alpaca is a licensed financial services company, serving hundreds of financial institutions across 40 countries with our institutional-grade APIs. This includes broker-dealers, investment advisors, wealth managers, hedge funds, and crypto exchanges, totalling over 10 million brokerage accounts.
Our global team is a diverse group of experienced engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals who are working to achieve our mission of opening financial services to everyone on the planet. We're deeply committed to open-source contributions and fostering a vibrant community, continuously enhancing our award-winning, developer-friendly API and the robust infrastructure behind it.
Alpaca is proudly backed by $400 million in funding from top-tier global investors including Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, Social Leverage, Horizons Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, SBI Group, Derayah Financial, Unbound, Peak XV, Elefund, and Y Combinator.
Our Team Members:

We're a dynamic team of 400+ globally distributed members who thrive working from our favorite places around the world, with teammates spanning the USA, Canada, Japan, Hungary, Nigeria, Brazil, the UK, and beyond!
We're searching for passionate individuals eager to contribute to Alpaca's rapid growth. If you align with our core values—Stay Curious, Have Empathy, and Be Accountable—and are ready to make a significant impact, we encourage you to apply.

Your Role:

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting, designing, and implementing the systems and services that form Alpaca's foundation and empower millions of users who trade billions of dollars worth of assets. You will serve as a technical leader with extensive influence that goes beyond the immediate team to affect the entire product's technical direction. You will be the founding technical lead for Singapore and the broader SEA region: leading regional recruitment, leading cross-functional projects, mentoring talent on our engineering principles and practices, and fostering Alpaca culture in the region. As the lead, you will also serve as the operational reliability and engineering lead and the incident commander during regional business hours, ensuring proactive 24x7 stability.

For this role, we are seeking a backend engineer who has built the middle- and back-office systems that are a broker-dealer's system of record — customer account management and KYC, pre-trade controls such as buying-power validation, post-trade processing, double-entry ledgers and books-and-records, clearing and settlement, custody, corporate actions, reconciliation, and regulatory reporting — for a firm serving end investors. This is not a front-office trading-systems role: experience limited to sell-side market‑making, low‑latency/high‑frequency execution, quantitative trading strategy, or exchange-side trading infrastructure is not sufficient on its own. The ideal candidate has a track record of architecting solutions that span multiple products or services, acts as a mentor and consultant providing strategic technical insights, and can take a platform into new markets repeatedly as Alpaca expands across SEA.

Things You Get To Do:

Architect and design highly scalable, mission-critical brokerage systems spanning multiple products or services.

Develop and enhance middle- and back-office systems, including gRPC microservices, APIs, and third‑party vendor integrations.

Build customer account/PII systems, KYC/CDD/AML controls, and pre‑trade multi‑currency buying‑power and margin engines.

Partner with core teams to extend frameworks for regional languages, currencies, and regulations, starting with Singapore and expanding to SEA markets.

Provide strategic technical insights and mentor engineers to shape the long‑term engineering roadmap and foster technical growth.

Lead cross‑functional projects and establish engineering standards, code review practices, and decision‑making frameworks.

Serve as incident commander and operational reliability lead during regional business hours to ensure proactive 24/7 stability.

Participate in on‑call rotations and ensure timely response to production issues.

Attend meetings held during Singapore business hours and occasional meetings with teams in other regions (including Japan, US, and EU).

Lead technical integrations and recruitment for market launches, engaging with regional stakeholders and regulators like the MAS.

Who You Are (Must-Haves):

Business‑level English fluency, with the ability to collaborate effectively in English‑only team meetings, design discussions, code reviews, and written documentation.

Extensive hands‑on experience building broker‑dealer middle‑and back‑office systems of record (clearing, settlement, custody, corporate actions, reconciliation) serving end investors rather than trading desks.

Proven track record architecting and developing complex financial systems grounded in a double‑entry ledger and books‑and‑records model.

Deep experience engineering customer account management infrastructure with sensitive PII handling, alongside KYC/CDD/AML and sanctions screening across the full account lifecycle.

Demonstrated experience implementing pre‑trade risk and eligibility controls, including real‑time multi‑currency buying‑power calculation, margin requirements, and order validation.

Advanced proficiency in Go or similar modern backend languages, with extensive production experience designing high‑throughput REST and gRPC microservices.

Deep architectural background in domain‑driven design (DDD) and event‑driven distributed systems for high‑availability financial applications.

Thorough familiarity with Singapore regulatory requirements (MAS, Securities and Futures Act, MAS Notice SFA04‑N02 on AML/CFT) and broader Southeast Asian financial markets.

Working knowledge of regional data protection laws and compliance standards for sensitive client data, specifically the Singapore PDPA.

Proven ability to balance hands‑on architecture with leadership, mentoring engineers, driving technical decisions, and shaping roadmaps beyond the immediate team.

Ability to lead and troubleshoot incidents or bugs with authority during Singapore business hours.

Who You Might Be (Nice‑To‑Haves):

Residence in Singapore

Experience launching products in multiple SEA markets (e.g., Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines)

Proficiency in an additional regional language (e.g., Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia/Malay, Thai, Vietnamese)

Experience working in a startup or fast‑growing technology company

Experience managing vendors and organizational budgeting

Experience with microservices, service mesh, and distributed systems at scale; cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, Azure) and Kubernetes

How We Take Care of You:

• Competitive Salary & Stock Options
• New Hire Home-Office Setup: One-time USD $500
• Monthly Stipend: USD $150 per month via a Brex Card

Alpaca is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce.

AMPL API Management Backend Software Development Domain Driven Design Event-Driven Programming Financial Systems Go (Programming Language) Microservices Regulatory Compliance Software Engineering