Staff Software Engineer

About the role

Alpaca is seeking a seasoned Staff Software Engineer to architect and build critical financial infrastructure for the Japanese market. You will play a key role in ensuring the reliability and scalability of our brokerage services, while also bridging technical development with local regulatory and business needs. This position offers significant autonomy and the chance to shape the future of our platform in Japan.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Construct highly available, large-scale brokerage systems tailored for Japan.
• Develop and improve middle and back-office platforms, including gRPC services, APIs, and integrations with Japanese financial vendors like JPX, JSCC, and JASDEC.
• Collaborate with core engineering teams to adapt our global framework for Japan-specific features such as NISA, MyNumber, withholding tax, and JP-GAAP accounting.
• Work with technical leaders in other regions through Slack and meetings to ensure global alignment.
• Translate requirements from Japanese regulators, vendors, and business partners into technical specifications for the engineering team.
• Address system incidents and bugs to maintain operational integrity.
• Participate in on-call duties to support production issues during Japan business hours.
• Contribute to Alpaca's growth in Japan by building scalable solutions and navigating local regulatory landscapes.

Requirements

• Native or JLPT N1 level Japanese proficiency, including professional written and verbal communication with regulators, vendors, and partners.
• Business-level English proficiency for effective collaboration in global team discussions, design reviews, and documentation.
• Demonstrated experience designing and building complex financial systems, ideally with a background in double-entry accounting.
• Solid understanding of accounting principles, ledger systems, and transaction reconciliation.
• Experience creating scalable, high-availability financial applications that manage multiple currencies.
• Familiarity with financial market regulations, with a preference for Japanese regulations like FIEA, FSA, JSDA, or JIPF.
• Proficiency in at least one statically typed programming language such as Go, Rust, Java, Kotlin, C#, Scala, or C++, with strong system architecture design skills.
• Experience integrating with financial APIs, market data feeds, and trade settlement systems.
• Excellent communication skills to facilitate understanding between Japanese and English stakeholders.
• Strong computer science fundamentals and proven experience in software architecture.
• Ability to work autonomously in a remote, global team and perform under pressure in a fast-paced setting.
• Capacity for strategic thinking and translating technical details into business objectives.
• Experience with domain-driven and event-driven design patterns.
• Strong problem-solving abilities and a proactive approach.
• Ability to lead incident and bug resolution during Japan business hours.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with Go, or a strong aptitude for learning it quickly, as it is Alpaca's primary backend language.
• Prior experience within the Japanese financial services industry, such as with securities firms, banks, brokerages, or fintech companies.

Skills & tools

• Go
• Rust
• Java
• Kotlin
• C#
• Scala
• C++
• gRPC
• REST APIs
• Domain-Driven Design
• Event-Driven Design

Practical notes

• Candidates must be fluent in Japanese at JLPT N1 level.
• This role requires business-level English fluency.
• Alpaca is a US-headquartered company with a global team and has secured $400 million in funding from prominent investors.