Engineering Lead- Options

Keyrock; Johannesburg; Remote; ZAR 1,400,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working hours & remote work

Competitive salary

Entrepreneurial team culture

Job summary

Keyrock is seeking an Engineering Lead to helm the Options Engineering team, driving the evolution of a Rust-native systematic options trading platform. The role focuses on automated quoting, execution, and risk controls, while partnering with traders, quants, and infrastructure teams to ensure reliability and performance.

Ideal candidates have 7+ years in systematic trading or low-latency systems, strong Rust/C/C++ skills, and a track record in options market-making.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in systematic trading, options market-making or low-latency trading systems.
• Hands-on experience with Rust, C++, or C.
• Willingness to become deeply proficient in Rust.
• Strong understanding of algorithmic options trading, including automated quoting, execution, pricing, risk controls, and market data workflows.
• Experience building or maintaining low-latency trading systems, ideally within options or derivatives markets.
• Experience with SQL databases in production (PostgreSQL preferred).
• Knowledge of distributed systems, service boundaries, and production reliability.
• Familiarity with gRPC and Node.js-based services is preferred.
• Experience with crypto exchange connectivity and/or FPGA technologies is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow an Options Engineering team of around 7 engineers.
• Provide technical direction across trading infrastructure and system design.
• Own and evolve the Rust-native options trading platform.
• Collaborate with trading, quant, product, risk, and infrastructure teams.
• Balance technical leadership with delivery ownership and operational discipline.

Skills

Rust

C++

C

SQL databases

PostgreSQL

gRPC

Node.js

FPGA

Tools

PostgreSQL

SQL

Rust-native platform

Node.js-based services

Job description

Engineering Lead: Options

About Keyrock

Since our beginnings in 2017, we've grown to be a leading change-maker in the digital asset space, renowned for our partnerships and innovation. Today, we rock with over 200 team members around the world. Our diverse team hails from 42 nationalities, with backgrounds ranging from DeFi natives to PhDs. Predominantly remote, we have hubs in London, Madrid, Brussels, Singapore, New York and Paris, and host regular online and offline hangouts to keep the crew tight. We are trading on more than 80 exchanges, and working with a wide array of asset issuers. As a well-established market maker, our distinctive expertise led us to expand rapidly. Today, our services span market making, options trading, high-frequency trading, OTC, and DeFi trading desks as well as asset and wealth management. Keyrock is looking to expand and establish itself as a full-service capital markets and asset & wealth management financial institution through both organic innovation and inorganic growth. But we’re more than a service provider. We’re an initiator. We have been pioneers in adopting the Rust Development language for our algorithmic trading systems, and champions of its use in the industry. We upgrade Web3 ecosystems by injecting liquidity into promising DeFi, RWA, and NFT protocols. And we push the industry's progress with our research and governance initiatives. At Keyrock, we're not just envisioning the future of digital assets. We're actively building it.

Mission statement

We are looking for a Head of Engineering / Engineering Lead with strong experience in systematic options trading to lead our Options Engineering team. In this role, you will be responsible for leading the Options Engineering team, driving continuous improvement across the trading infrastructure, and supporting the evolution of our systematic options trading platform. This includes areas such as automated quoting, execution, risk controls, pricing workflows, and production reliability. We are primarily looking for candidates based in European time zones or the US East Coast time zone.

We are looking for someone who can:

• Lead and grow an Options Engineering team of around 7 engineers
• Bring hands-on experience in systematic options trading, ideally including options market-making, automated quoting, execution, and risk management
• Own and evolve an existing Rust-native systematic options trading platform
• Provide strong technical direction across trading infrastructure, system design, performance, reliability, and risk controls
• Work pragmatically through complex engineering and trading-system challenges
• Partner closely with trading, quant, product, risk, and infrastructure stakeholders
• Balance technical leadership with people leadership, delivery ownership, and operational discipline

Required Experience

• 7+ years of experience in systematic trading, options market-making or low-latency trading systems
• Strong hands-on experience with Rust, C++, or C
• Willingness to become deeply proficient in Rust, if not already
• Strong understanding of algorithmic options trading, including automated quoting, execution, pricing, risk controls, and market data workflows
• Experience building or maintaining low-latency trading systems, ideally within options or derivatives markets
• Experience working with SQL databases in production environments, with PostgreSQL preferred
• Familiarity with functional testing, component testing, and production-grade validation practicesStrong understanding of distributed systems, service boundaries, and production reliability
• Strong knowledge of gRPC and experience working with Node.js-based services is preferred
• Previous experience with crypto exchange connectivity and/or FPGA technologies is strongly preferred

Leadership & Working Style

• Strong team player with the ability to lead, mentor, and guide engineers
• Pragmatic approach to problem-solving, system design, and implementation
• Able to balance latency, reliability, safety, complexity, and delivery speed
• Comfortable making technical decisions under uncertainty
• Demonstrates outside-the-box thinking while staying grounded in practical delivery
• Communicates clearly and effectively, especially in unfamiliar or ambiguous contexts where clarity is critical
• Able to work closely with traders, quants, risk, product, and infrastructure stakeholders
• Strong ownership mindset, especially for production trading systems

Our recruitment philosophy

We value self-awareness and powerful communication skills in our recruitment process. We seek fiercely passionate people who understand themselves and their career goals. We're after those with the right skills and a conscious choice to join our field. The perfect fit? A crypto enthusiast who's driven, collaborative, acts with ownership and delivers solid, scalable outcomes.

Our offer

• A competitive salary package
• Autonomy in your time management thanks to flexible working hours and the opportunity to work remotely
• The freedom to create your own entrepreneurial experience by being part of a team of people in search of excellence

As an employer we are committed to building a positive and collaborative work environment. We welcome employees of all backgrounds, and hire, reward and promote entirely based on merit and performance.

Due to the nature of our business and external requirements, we perform background checks on all potential employees, passing which is a prerequisite to join Keyrock.

https://keyrock.com/careers/