Staff Software Engineer: Ultra-Low-Latency FinTech Architect

Paul Murphy Associates LLC; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Paul Murphy Associates LLC in Chicago or New York is seeking a technical leader to drive high-performance, low-latency exchange and clearing systems. You will architect, implement, and optimize core infrastructure for microsecond-precision at scale, with on-call involvement and production reliability.

The role demands strong Java expertise, concurrency mastery, and hands-on work with Aeron, Hydra, Kafka, and PostgreSQL within distributed architectures, including FIX protocols and real-time

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field.
• 5–8+ years in professional software engineering building high-performance distributed systems.
• Strong Java proficiency, concurrency, memory management, JVM behavior, performance optimization.
• Experience with REST and WebSocket APIs, FIX protocol, and low-latency environments.
• Hands-on with micro-services, Kafka and relational databases (PostgreSQL).
• Experience with derivative contracts (futures, options) and financial markets is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Architect, implement, and maintain core exchange and clearing infrastructure with high performance.
• Provide technical leadership and hands-on contributions to system design, patterns, and data architectures.
• Use Aeron and Hydra to build ultra-low-latency, high-throughput messaging architectures.
• Design storage/retrieval for market data, trade history, positions, and audit trails.
• Collaborate with Product and stakeholders to design technical solutions for new financial products.
• Participate in on-call rotations and respond to production incidents requiring deep troubleshooting.

Skills

Java concurrency

JVM performance

REST APIs

WebSocket APIs

FIX protocol

Low-latency systems

Distributed systems

High-throughput messaging

Reliability in production

Microservices

Kafka

PostgreSQL

DERIVATIVES familiarity

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/SE or related

Tools

Aeron

Hydra

Kafka

PostgreSQL

Job description

Paul Murphy Associates LLC in Chicago or New York is seeking a technical leader to drive high-performance, low-latency exchange and clearing systems. You will architect, implement, and optimize core infrastructure for microsecond-precision at scale, with on-call involvement and production reliability.

The role demands strong Java expertise, concurrency mastery, and hands-on work with Aeron, Hydra, Kafka, and PostgreSQL within distributed architectures, including FIX protocols and real-time