Senior Software Engineer - Rust - Backend - Pro

Kraken; South Africa; On-site; ZAR 1,938,000 - 2,907,000; Full time

Job summary

Kraken is seeking a senior Rust engineer to design and implement robust services powering trading, payments, and crypto experiences. You will contribute to low-latency, scalable systems and collaborate with hundreds of engineers worldwide.

The role emphasizes ownership, mentorship, and a security-first mindset, with a focus on distributed architectures, RPC, Kafka, and event-driven design.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience.
• Experience building financial trading focused products.
• Proficient in writing network services or asynchronous code in Rust.
• Have a security-first mindset during system design to ensure robustness.
• Demonstrate the ability to autonomously debug issues across the stack (OS, network, application).
• Apply a solid understanding of distributed systems and technologies, including RPC protocols, Kafka, and Event-Driven Systems, to design scalable solutions.
• Collaborate effectively with product teams to gather requirements and constraints for designing appropriate systems.
• Take complete end-to-end ownership of systems and libraries.
• Provide mentorship to other engineers while contributing to defining the technical culture.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement robust Rust services and libraries powering trading, payments, and crypto experiences.
• Write reusable, testable, and efficient code that scales across teams and revenue-critical systems.
• Collaborate on large-scale distributed systems architecture to translate product requirements into resilient, low-latency solutions.
• Work with hundreds of Rust engineers in a high-performance, product-driven culture.

Skills

Rust

Distributed systems

Mentorship

Ownership

Networking

Tools

Kafka

RPC protocols

Event-Driven Systems

Job description

Building the Future of Open Finance

Payward - the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services and CF Benchmarks - has spent the last 15 years building one of the most modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms in the industry, built to advance an open, global financial system.

Before you apply, we encourage you to explore our culture page to understand what drives us and how we work.

The team

Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the world’s longest-standing crypto platforms, trusted by over 10 million individuals and institutions across the globe. It offers spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services, with products built for both individual investors and institutional clients.

The Pro team is responsible for everything to do with the trading backend services such as the matching engine, market data gateways, internal and external APIs, and various other trading services. The team is located globally and responsibilities are split into sub-teams, working with various tech stacks.

Our teams code in Rust and work agile around the globe.

The Opportunity

• Design and implement robust Rust services and libraries that power trading, payments, and crypto experiences with a focus on reliability, performance, and user impact.
• Write reusable, testable, and highly efficient code that scales across teams and supports revenue-critical systems without compromising safety or security.
• Collaborate on large-scale distributed systems architecture, translating evolving product requirements into resilient, low-latency solutions.
• Work alongside hundreds of experienced Rust engineers, contributing to a high-performance, product-driven engineering culture.

What You Bring

• 7+ years of software engineering experience
• Experience building financial trading focused products
• Proficient in writing network services or asynchronous code in Rust
• Have a security-first mindset during system design to ensure robustness
• Demonstrate the ability to autonomously debug issues across the stack (OS, network, application)
• Apply a solid understanding of distributed systems and technologies, including RPC protocols, Kafka, and Event-Driven Systems, to design scalable solutions
• Collaborate effectively with product teams to gather requirements and constraints for designing appropriate systems
• Take complete end-to-end ownership of systems and libraries
• Provide mentorship to other engineers while contributing to defining the technical culture.

Unless a specific application deadline is stated in the job posting, applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

Please note, applicants are permitted to redact or remove information on their resume that identifies age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, assessing candidates in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

Our commitment

Payward is powered by people from around the world and we celebrate the diverse talents, backgrounds, contributions, and unique perspectives that everyone brings to the table. We hire based on merit, seeking out people with the right abilities, knowledge, and skills for the job. We encourage you to apply for roles where you don't fully meet the listed requirements, especially if you're passionate or knowledgeable about crypto.

We may ask candidates to complete job-related skills or work-style assessments as part of our hiring process. These assessments evaluate competencies relevant to the role and are applied consistently across candidates for similar positions. Results are considered alongside experience and interviews, and are not the sole basis for any employment decision.

As an equal opportunity employer, we don't tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind, whether based on race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, and local laws.

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