At a Glance
- Tasks: Build and optimise Alpaca's algo trading platform for high performance and user satisfaction.
- Company: Join a global leader in brokerage infrastructure with a diverse and dynamic team.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, stock options, health benefits, and a generous home-office setup.
- Other info: Work remotely with a vibrant team across the globe and grow your career.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in fintech by designing cutting-edge trading systems.
- Qualifications: Strong coding skills in Go, C/C++, and experience with distributed systems required.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
Alpaca is a US-headquartered, global leader in agent-first brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more. Amongst our subsidiaries, Alpaca is a licensed financial services company, serving hundreds of financial institutions across 40 countries with our institutional-grade APIs. This includes broker-dealers, investment advisors, wealth managers, hedge funds, and crypto exchanges, totalling over 10 million brokerage accounts. Our global team is a diverse group of experienced engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals who are working to achieve our mission of opening financial services to everyone on the planet. We're deeply committed to open-source contributions and fostering a vibrant community, continuously enhancing our award-winning, developer-friendly API and the robust infrastructure behind it.
Your job is to build Alpaca's algo trading platform to satisfy our users who expect high quality and performance from their brokerage service. This opportunity is similar to joining AWS or Heroku in their early days, designing and architecting our platform by wearing many different hats in our small team. As an experienced engineer, you will write tons of code and make critical decisions about delivering the best experience to our customers. This certainly requires deep knowledge in both frontend and backend, databases and distributed systems, as well as broad experience from low to high level in CPU-level hardware for high throughput, robust concurrency system design, abstract distributed system architecture for high availability and object-oriented data modeling with long term growth in mind. Joining an early stage startup, the payoff to this highly demanding environment will be worth the effort.
Who You Are (Must-Haves)
- Strong, experienced software engineer with lead experience is preferred
- Coding skills in both low and high level languages around Go, C/C++
- Low latency and high throughput optimization
- Experience with messaging queues and message brokers
- Analytical data-oriented mindset and skills
- Knowledge of algorithms, distributed systems, scalability, high availability, databases, low latency systems and concurrency control
- Experience with highly scalable distributed low latency systems
- System design skills with object-oriented data modeling, service-oriented architectures, system abstraction
Who You Might Be (Nice-to-Haves)
- Algo trading experience (either professional or personal)
- Experience with the development and implementation of Order Management systems (OMS) and Risk Management systems (RMS)
- FIX protocol knowledge
- Experience with trading or exchange systems (OMS, EMS, exchanges, market making, algorithmic trading, quant trading)
- Experience with observability, tracing, continuous profiling and benchmarking
- Financial market (exchange, broker-dealers, clearing, etc.) knowledge
- Experience with financial ledgers
- Statistical and quantitative analysis skills
- Experience with major cloud platforms (we primarily use GCP)
- Experience with Docker and Kubernetes
How We Take Care of You
- Competitive Salary & Stock Options
- Health Benefits
- New Hire Home-Office Setup: One-time USD $500
- Monthly Stipend: USD $150 per month via a Brex Card
Alpaca is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce.
Software Engineer - Core Trading employer: Alpaca
At Alpaca, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that fosters a collaborative and innovative work culture. Our commitment to employee growth is evident through continuous learning opportunities and the chance to work with cutting-edge technologies in a fast-paced environment. Located in a vibrant tech hub, we offer competitive benefits and a supportive atmosphere that empowers our team to thrive both personally and professionally.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Software Engineer - Core Trading
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Alpaca or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Alpaca.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Alpaca.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Alpaca that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Software Engineer - Core Trading
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Alpaca.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Alpaca and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Alpaca
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Alpaca uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
