Trading Application Specialist

P2P; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401k with company match

Disability insurance

Life insurance

Health Savings Account

Job summary

DRW in Chicago is seeking a Trading Application Specialist to drive onboarding and management of vendor-based front-office tools. You will liaise with ISVs, banks and internal teams to align technology with trading desks across equities, fixed income, FX, and more.

The role emphasizes analytics, onboarding, and ongoing platform optimization. The ideal candidate has experience with OMS/EMS, strong communication, and the ability to manage multiple requests in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Familiarity with AI-native toolkits to ingest and analyze trading data.
• Broad knowledge of trading strategies and markets.
• Understanding of execution, market data and risk concepts.
• Experience with OMS/EMS or front-office tech facing trading teams.
• Ability to juggle multiple requests with tight timelines.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to build analytical dashboards to compare vendor performance.
• Communicate with vendors on queries, requests, issues beyond frontline support.
• Analyze platform options for new trading opportunities, including cost and features.
• Assist onboarding of new platforms with traders, PMs, and ops teams.
• Provide platform demos to users highlighting trade-specific capabilities.
• Review vendor usage and identify optimization opportunities.
• Document vendor platforms and maintain an internal software catalog.

Skills

AI-native toolkits

Trading industry knowledge

OMS/EMS familiarity

Communication skills

Vendor/platform analysis

Tools

Front Office IT

Job description

DRW is a diversified trading firm with over 3 decades of experience bringing sophisticated technology and exceptional people together to operate in markets around the world. We value autonomy and the ability to quickly pivot to capture opportunities, so we operate using our own capital and trading at our own risk.

Headquartered in Chicago with offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, we trade a variety of asset classes including Fixed Income, ETFs, Equities, FX, Commodities and Energy across all major global markets. We have also leveraged our expertise and technology to expand into three non-traditional strategies: real estate, venture capital and cryptoassets.

We operate with respect, curiosity and open minds. The people who thrive here share our belief that it’s not just what we do that matters–it's how we do it. DRW is a place of high expectations, integrity, innovation and a willingness to challenge consensus.

The UP - Exchange and Vendor Management team is responsible for analysis, onboarding and continuous management of all vendor managed Front Office tools and platforms used within the firm. The team is largely focused on execution and order management systems and third-party electronic trading venue connectivity, but can also branch out into products covering functions from pre-trade risk to interoperability tools.

Due to continued growth in the firm, the team is looking to expand and bring on a Trading Application Specialist. The candidate will get exposure across the many trading business units in the firm as they assist with integrating best-in-class technology to the desks. This will lead the candidate to help steer projects along the different asset classes the firm trades in:

• Equities
• Commodities (physical and financial)
• FX
• Fixed Income & Rates based products
• Listed Derivatives (Futures & Options)
• Crypto-related products

To be successful, the candidate will need to form strong working relationships with ISVs (independent software vendors), banks, counterparties, service providers, along with internal DRW teams to deliver results at a high level.

Location:

• Chicago (hybrid - three days in office)

Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the build out of analytical dashboards to track and compare vendor and counterparty performance based on established industry metrics
• Initiate and maintain communication with vendors representing queries, requests and issues on behalf of DRW that fall outside of the scope of front-line production support duties
• Provide analysis to the business regarding platform options to support new trading opportunities, including analysis of cost, feature set and support requirements
• Partner with internal groups to support onboarding new platforms. These touchpoints may include:
• Traders and Portfolio Managers
• Trade messaging support (FIX, API)
• Middle Office / Operations
• Back Office (Accounting/Investment Book of Record)
• Project Managers and Business Management
• Provide platform demos to potential users, focusing on their specific trade
• Regularly review firm usage of vendor platforms and identify opportunities for optimization
• Maintain a wiki of vendor party platforms with detailed feature sets
• Assist in building a next-gen software catalog for vendor platforms that tracks user permissions, exchange and broker connectivity, and helps track operating expenses
• Help synthesize, document and implement best practice standards for vendor implementations and ongoing platform relationship management.

Requirements and Experience:

• Familiarity with Ai-native toolkits to ingest and analyze trading data
• Knowledge of the trading industry, particularly covering a breadth of trading strategies
• Knowledge of execution, market data and risk management terminology and concepts
• A background of working with order and execution management systems (OMS/EMS), either through Front Office, Front Office IT, or vendor/third party roles facing these teams
• Ability to manage multiple, unrelated requests from the business in a short timeline
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills

The annual base salary range for this position is $150,000 to $200,000 depending on the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and relevant skill set. The position is also eligible for an annual discretionary bonus. In addition, DRW offers a comprehensive suite of employee benefits including group medical, pharmacy, dental and vision insurance, 401k (with discretionary employer match), short and long-term disability, life and AD&D insurance, health savings accounts, and flexible spending accounts.

For more information about DRW's processing activities and our use of job applicants' data, please view our Privacy Notice at https://drw.com/privacy-notice.

California residents, please review the California Privacy Notice for information about certain legal rights at https://drw.com/california-privacy-notice.

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