Java Technical Specialist (Low Latency) TLNT1_NI in Belfast

At a Glance

Senior individual contributor role in a high-growth prediction markets trading firm.

Core stack: Java, Kafka, Aeron, FIX Protocol exchange and clearing infrastructure.

Salary: £80,000 - £95,000 + highly attractive bonus package.

5+ years experience required - strong fintech or financial markets background essential.

About the Company

Our client is a specialist prediction markets trading firm, operating at the frontier of financial markets in partnership with major institutional players. They are building the premier prediction market platform, empowering traders to take positions on real-world events and generating market-driven forecasts for decision makers. The engineering team is lean, highly skilled, and building infrastructure that operates at genuine exchange scale.

The Role

As a Java Technical Specialist you will contribute to the development of a high-throughput matching engine and clearing system at the core of the firm's trading platform. Working alongside Staff Engineers, you will take full ownership of significant components and features, with genuine input into architectural decisions. This role suits an engineer who is comfortable working in a production financial environment, motivated by complex performance challenges, and ready to operate with a high degree of autonomy.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute to the design and architecture of core exchange and clearing infrastructure.
• Design and implement features within the matching engine, order management systems and clearing workflows.
• Build ultra-low-latency messaging architecture using Aeron and related frameworks.
• Implement customer-facing API interfaces using FIX, REST and WebSocket protocols.
• Build fault-tolerant distributed systems using Kafka, PostgreSQL and in-memory data structures for hot-path processing.
• Profile, benchmark and tune system performance at the JVM level.
• Participate in on-call rotations and respond to production incidents requiring deep technical troubleshooting.
• Collaborate with product and business stakeholders to translate requirements into production-quality implementations.

What You'll Need

Essential:

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience building high-performance distributed systems.
• Strong Java proficiency including concurrency, memory management, JVM behaviour and performance optimisation.
• Experience with Kafka and relational databases, specifically PostgreSQL.
• Familiarity with low-latency or high-throughput production environments (10,000+ messages/second, low-millisecond latencies).
• Understanding of network protocols with experience implementing REST and WebSocket APIs.
• Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related discipline.
• Eligibility to work in the US on a permanent, indefinite basis (no visa sponsorship available).

Desirable / Nice to Have:

• Experience with Aeron or other low-latency messaging frameworks.
• FIX protocol experience in a trading or exchange environment.
• Exposure to derivatives, futures, options or prediction markets.

Why Apply?

• £80,000 - £95,000 salary with a highly attractive bonus and benefits package.
• Genuine architectural ownership at component level not a ticket-driven role.
• Work on exchange-grade infrastructure at real production scale.
• Join a well-backed, high-growth firm at an early and formative stage.
• Build alongside senior engineers from top-tier financial markets backgrounds.

How to Apply:

If you believe you meet the criteria for this role and are excited about the opportunity, please apply via the link. Alternatively, reach out to Phil Gamble directly for an informal chat via LinkedIn or WhatsApp.