Senior Software Engineer

About the role

Join Alpaca to build the core of our algorithmic trading platform, serving users who demand top performance. This role offers a chance to architect and develop critical systems, similar to foundational work at early-stage cloud providers. You will write significant code and make key architectural decisions to enhance customer experience.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Design and build high-performance, low-latency trading systems.
• Develop and maintain distributed systems for high availability.
• Implement object-oriented data models for scalable growth.
• Contribute to the architecture of order and risk management systems.
• Optimize systems for high throughput and concurrency.

Requirements

• Extensive software engineering experience, with a preference for those with lead experience.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as C/C++, Go, Zig, Rust, Java, Scala, or Python.
• Proven ability in optimizing for low latency and high throughput.
• Experience with messaging queues and message brokers.
• Strong analytical and data-oriented problem-solving skills.
• Deep understanding of algorithms, distributed systems, scalability, high availability, databases, low latency, and concurrency control.
• Skill in system design, including object-oriented data modeling, service-oriented architectures, and system abstraction.
• Experience developing and implementing Order Management Systems (OMS) and Risk Management Systems (RMS).
• Prior software engineering experience in trading or exchange systems (e.g., OMS, EMS, exchanges, market making, algorithmic trading, quant trading).

Nice to have

• Experience with algorithmic trading, either professionally or personally.
• Familiarity with the FIX protocol.
• Experience with observability tools, tracing, continuous profiling, and benchmarking.
• Knowledge of financial markets (exchanges, broker-dealers, clearing).
• Experience with financial ledgers.
• Skills in statistical and quantitative analysis.
• Experience with major cloud platforms, particularly Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• Familiarity with Docker and Kubernetes.

Skills & tools

• C/C++, Go, Zig, Rust, Java, Scala, Python
• Messaging queues and brokers
• OMS, RMS
• Distributed systems
• Databases
• Low latency systems
• High availability systems
• Concurrency control
• Object-oriented data modeling
• Service-oriented architectures
• System abstraction
• FIX protocol
• Observability tools
• GCP
• Docker, Kubernetes

Practical notes

• Competitive salary and stock options.
• Health benefits.
• USD $500 one-time home-office setup stipend.
• USD $150 monthly stipend via Brex Card.
• Visa sponsorship is not explicitly mentioned as available.