Staff Software Engineer - Order Handling and Ledger Team

tastylive; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Discretionary performance bonus

Job summary

tastytrade is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for the Order Handling and Ledger Team in Chicago. You will design, build, and own backend systems behind order processing, ledger, and settlement, partnering with product to scope features and deliver scalable solutions.

You will lead technically, mentor junior engineers, conduct code reviews, and drive reliability through on-call duties. The role emphasizes performance, correctness, and clear technical leadership in a fast-paced, hybrid

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience as technical lead and mentor.
• Backend systems expert with idempotency, transactions, concurrency.
• Mastery of at least one language and framework and ability to learn new ones quickly.
• Able to absorb new information and work in unknown areas.
• Pragmatic use of AI for research, planning, coding, and reviews.
• Structured thinker with big-picture view and attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and stakeholder relationship skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own the backend systems behind order handling, ledger, and settlement flows.
• Partner with product to scope features and oversee implementation with cross-functional teams.
• Provide technical leadership through project oversight and mentoring.
• Deliver concise, thoughtful code reviews covering design, quality, and performance.
• Monitor tech landscape and experiment with new tools to improve solutions.
• Define engineering-wide standards and act as a go-to for critical decisions.
• Lead troubleshooting and resolution of production issues in collaboration with the team.
• Share ownership of production and participate in on-call as a design requirement.

Skills

Backend systems

Idempotency

Transactions

Concurrency control

Inter-service communication

Technical leadership

Mentoring

Code reviews

AI-assisted work

Communication

Tools

Ruby

PostgreSQL

RabbitMQ

Job description

Company Name: tastytrade

Role: Staff Software Engineer - Order Handling and Ledger Team

Location: Chicago, IL - Hybrid (3 days/week in office)

About the Role

The tasty family of companies empowers individual investors and traders by providing educational media, intuitive and powerful trading software, high-speed order execution, competitive pricing, and innovative financial products. The diversity of our offerings and the technology that powers them give our engineers exposure to a broad set of tools and the opportunity to dig deep into specific problems. We are an ideal environment for engineers who are self-motivated, pragmatic, and genuinely enjoy creating and operating large, highly available, performant systems. Our team is lean, and our management philosophy values the autonomy of our people.

At tastytrade, you'll be part of the team that builds our retail brokerage business. We care about the speed and stability of our backend systems. Our architecture evolves continually as the business grows and new technical challenges emerge, always with a focus on practicality and performance.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and own the backend systems behind our order handling, ledger, and settlement flows
• Partner with product to scope features, build implementation plans, and oversee execution in collaboration with cross-functional teams
• Provide technical leadership across the team, both by leading project teams and by mentoring more junior engineers
• Deliver concise, constructive, and thoughtful code reviews covering design and quality, business-domain correctness, stability, and performance
• Monitor the external technology landscape and experiment with new tools to solve hard problems or improve the quality of existing solutions
• Define engineering-wide standards and guidance, and be the person colleagues across the organization seek out for critical work and decisions
• Lead troubleshooting and resolution of complex production issues, collaborating with team members and stakeholders
• Share ownership of production by participating in on-call and treating operability as a design requirement

Who You are

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant time as a technical lead and mentor
• Deep expertise in building backend systems, with a strong grasp of concepts such as idempotency, transactions, concurrency control, and reliable communication between services
• Mastery of at least one language and framework, and the ability to jump into a brand-new one and quickly become productive following its best practices
• Quick to absorb new information and become conversant in unfamiliar concepts and technology, with the humility to acknowledge honestly when you're out of your depth
• Pragmatic in your use of AI for research, planning, coding, and code review
• Comfortable with ambiguity and able to work from loose concepts
• A structured thinker who sees the big picture and balances short-term needs with long-term goals
• Self-motivated and biased toward action, with the ability to set priorities and execute in a fast-paced environment
• Precise in your attention to detail, with high-quality standards
• An exceptional written and verbal communicator, skilled at distilling complex material into straightforward language that everyone in our business can understand
• A track record of building and managing relationships with technical teams, stakeholders, and external partners

Preferred Requirements

• Professional experience with Ruby, or with other parts of our stack, such as PostgreSQL and RabbitMQ
• Experience with ledgers, settlement, payments, banking, or another domain where money moves and must balance

Base Salary Range: $180,000-$230,000 The actual salary offered will be based on the candidate's level of experience and qualifications.

Discretionary Performance Bonus: 15-20% of base salary based on individual and company performance.

About IGNA + tasty

IG North America is home to tastytrade, tasty live & tastyfx-a family of brands built to democratize trading and empower individual investors. Founded in Chicago by the creators of thinkorswim, acquired by London-based IG Group in 2021, we combine startup innovation with the backing of a FTSE 100 fintech operating across five continents serving over 1.3m customers and handling billions of dollars in transactions - built on scale, trust, and proof.

From our headquarters in Chicago's Fulton Market, our team builds award-winning trading platforms, produces live financial education content daily, and creates technology that makes complex markets accessible. tastytrade is our retail brokerage for self-directed investing and trading, with tasty live providing content to educate our customers. tastyfx is the fastest-growing forex broker in the US. tastycrypto provides self-custody digital wallets for decentralized finance.

We're a lean, collaborative team that values autonomy, pragmatism, and impact. Whether you're building techno