Trading Engineer - Strategy

IMC Trading; Illinois; On-site; USD 175,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

IMC Trading is seeking a hands-on Trading Engineer to join the Strategy Development team in Illinois. You will own systems powering trading strategies, build automations, and keep operations resilient during fast markets.

Ideal candidates have an SRE/ops background, experience with Linux, Kubernetes, and Python, and a passion for real-time systems. You’ll work with traders, quants, and developers to improve reliability and performance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field.
• 3+ years in site reliability, systems engineering, or technical operations, ideally supporting high-performance or real-time systems.
• A software-development mindset applied to automating operational problems (Python required).
• Hands-on experience managing production Linux and Kubernetes environments.
• Familiarity with Prometheus, SQL/MongoDB, InfluxDB, Kafka, or similar technologies.
• A proactive, problem-solving mindset. We are looking for someone who thrives under pressure and enjoys learning new systems quickly.
• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative spirit.

Responsibilities

• Be on the front lines of trading: Monitor system health and performance in real time, respond to market-driven incidents, and ensure our systems stay up and fast during trading hours.
• Engineer away the pain: Build tools and automations that eliminate manual processes, scale our reliability, and free time for innovation.
• Collaborate across disciplines: Partner with traders, quants, and developers to deliver high-impact improvements to our trading stack.
• Continuously improve: Challenge existing processes, propose creative solutions, and drive reliability and performance through engineering excellence.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Prometheus

Kafka

MongoDB

InfluxDB

SQL

Job description

We’re looking for a hands‑on, entrepreneurial Trading Engineer to join our Strategy Development team. This role sits at the heart of IMC’s trading operation, where technology, data, and market strategy meet. You’ll own systems that power our trading strategies, build automations that make us faster and smarter, and keep our trading running smoothly under pressure.

This is an ideal opportunity for someone with an SRE or operations engineering background who wants to get closer to the action, where milliseconds matter and creativity drives impact.

What You’ll Do:

• Be on the front lines of trading: Monitor system health and performance in real time, respond to market-driven incidents, and ensure our systems stay up and fast during trading hours. Dive deep into distributed architectures to identify root causes and prevent recurrences.

• Engineer away the pain: Build tools and automations that eliminate manual processes, scale our reliability, and free time for innovation.

• Collaborate across disciplines: Partner with traders, quants, and developers to deliver high-impact improvements to our trading stack.

• Continuously improve: Challenge existing processes, propose creative solutions, and drive reliability and performance through engineering excellence.

What You Bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field

• 3+ years in site reliability, systems engineering, or technical operations, ideally supporting high-performance or real-time systems

• A software-development mindset applied to automating operational problems (Python required)

• Hands‑on experience managing production Linux and Kubernetes environments

• Familiarity with Prometheus, SQL/MongoDB, InfluxDB, Kafka, or similar technologies

• A proactive, problem‑solving mindset. We are looking for someone who thrives under pressure and enjoys learning new systems quickly

• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative spirit

Why It’s Exciting:

You’ll be part of a tight‑knit team that drives the heartbeat of trading, where your code and decisions directly influence market performance. You’ll gain exposure to both engineering and trading strategy, work alongside exceptional technologists and traders, and have the freedom to build, automate, and innovate in a fast‑paced, impact‑driven environment.

#LI-DNP

The Base Salary range for the role is included below. Base salary is only one component of total compensation; all full‑time, permanent positions are eligible for a discretionary bonus and benefits, including paid leave and insurance. Please visit Benefits - US | IMC Trading for more comprehensive information.

Salary Range

$175,000—$225,000 USD

About Us

IMC is a research-driven trading firm where quantitative modeling, machine learning, and engineering shape how modern markets are traded. A stabilizing force in markets since 1989, we provide liquidity across trading venues, delivering the best outcome in value and risk management to investors. Using our own technology and capital, we build proprietary systems and algorithms that operate across global markets. Our researchers, traders, and engineers work as a collective, combining rapid experimentation, advanced infrastructure, and real‑time feedback to turn insight into execution and execution into advantage.