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- Tasks: Lead engineering strategy for institutional trading and build a high-performing team.
- Company: Join Alpaca, a pioneer in next-gen market infrastructure for traders.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, stock options, health benefits, and home-office setup.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with opportunities for rapid career growth.
- Why this job: Make a significant impact on the evolution of trading technology.
- Qualifications: VP-level engineering experience with a focus on complex trading systems.
The predicted salary is between 120000 - 180000 £ per year.
Your Role: Alpaca is building the next-generation market infrastructure for active and institutional traders. As VP of Engineering, Institutional Trading, you will lead the engineering strategy for expanding Alpaca’s industry-leading API-driven trading and brokerage platform into more sophisticated institutional use cases. Reporting to the CTO, you will build and scale a focused engineering organization responsible for institutional trading capabilities across multiple asset classes. You will work closely with the Global Head of Brokerage and other senior leaders to evolve Alpaca’s platform toward a multi-asset, cross-margining offering spanning FX, futures, and other derivatives alongside existing equities and options. This role is designed for a VP-level engineering leader who can extend a proven brokerage platform into a new institutional tier through strong architectural judgment, execution discipline, and team leadership.
Things You Get To Do:
- Define and own the engineering roadmap for Alpaca’s institutional trading platform
- Build, lead, and scale a high-performing team of engineers with a strong culture of ownership and execution
- Partner with the CTO and Global Head of Brokerage to align engineering priorities with institutional and prime brokerage strategy
- Lead the evolution toward a multi-asset trading architecture supporting cross-margining across equities, options, FX, futures, and other derivatives
- Design and deliver institutional trading capabilities, including but not limited to:
- Drive architectural decisions across trading APIs, execution systems, real-time risk, margin engines, and analytics platforms
- Set and enforce technical standards for performance, availability, scalability, and operational resilience in latency-sensitive systems
- Coordinate multiple concurrent initiatives across trading, risk, margin, asset classes, and customer-facing tooling
- Work cross-functionally with Product, Risk, Compliance, Operations, and Finance to deliver production-ready systems
- Represent institutional trading engineering in executive-level planning and decision-making
- Provide technical and architectural thought leadership in trading and brokerage technology, influencing direction internally and through industry engagement
- Hands-on engineering, such as writing PoC code, conducting code reviews, deploying to production, and providing an L3 escalation contact point.
Who You Are (Must-Haves):
- A VP-level (or above) engineering leader with experience owning critical, market-facing platforms
- Proven experience building and scaling engineering teams focused on complex, high-impact systems
- Deep understanding of institutional trading and brokerage technology, including execution systems, risk and margin platforms, and trading analytics
- Experience designing or operating systems that support cross-asset risk and margining across multiple asset classes
- Strong architectural judgment and the ability to balance speed, reliability, and control in regulated environments
- Deep knowledge of OS fundamentals and distributed systems, sufficient to set architectural direction and evaluate designs for performance-critical trading systems.
- Effective partner to senior business, brokerage, and product leaders
- Clear communicator with technical and non-technical stakeholders
Who You Might Be (Nice-to-Haves):
- Experience with algorithmic trading systems across multiple asset classes
- Exposure to portfolio margin or cross-margining methodologies
- Background supporting hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, or other institutional clients
- Experience contributing to architecture standards or externally visible technical initiatives
- Prior experience scaling trading platforms during periods of rapid growth
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
VP of Engineering, Institutional Trading in London employer: WorkInCryptoGlobal
Contact Detail:
WorkInCryptoGlobal Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land VP of Engineering, Institutional Trading in London
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to your connections in the industry, attend relevant meetups, and engage with professionals on LinkedIn. We all know that sometimes it’s not just what you know, but who you know that can help you land that VP role.
✨Tip Number 2
Prepare for those interviews by brushing up on your technical knowledge and leadership skills. We recommend doing mock interviews with friends or mentors to get comfortable discussing your experience with institutional trading systems and team management.
✨Tip Number 3
Showcase your expertise! Create a portfolio or presentation that highlights your past projects, especially those related to complex trading platforms. This will give you an edge and demonstrate your capability to lead engineering strategies effectively.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets noticed. Plus, we love seeing candidates who are proactive about their job search and genuinely interested in joining our team.
We think you need these skills to ace VP of Engineering, Institutional Trading in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your Application: Make sure to customise your CV and cover letter to highlight your experience in engineering leadership and institutional trading. We want to see how your skills align with our mission at Alpaca, so don’t hold back on showcasing relevant projects!
Showcase Your Achievements: When detailing your past roles, focus on specific achievements that demonstrate your ability to build and scale engineering teams. Use metrics where possible to illustrate the impact of your work – we love numbers that tell a story!
Be Clear and Concise: Keep your application straightforward and to the point. We appreciate clarity, so avoid jargon unless it’s necessary. Make it easy for us to see why you’re the perfect fit for the VP of Engineering role.
Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to submit your application directly through our website. It’s the best way for us to receive your details and ensures you’re considered for the role. Plus, it’s super easy!
How to prepare for a job interview at WorkInCryptoGlobal
✨Know Your Stuff
Make sure you have a solid understanding of institutional trading and brokerage technology. Brush up on execution systems, risk and margin platforms, and trading analytics. Being able to discuss these topics confidently will show that you're the right fit for the VP role.
✨Showcase Your Leadership Skills
Prepare examples of how you've built and scaled engineering teams in the past. Highlight your experience in fostering a culture of ownership and execution. This is crucial for a leadership position, so be ready to discuss your approach to team dynamics and performance.
✨Architectural Judgement is Key
Be prepared to talk about your architectural decisions in previous roles, especially in latency-sensitive systems. Discuss how you balance speed, reliability, and control in regulated environments. This will demonstrate your ability to lead the engineering strategy effectively.
✨Communicate Clearly
Practice explaining complex technical concepts in simple terms. You'll need to communicate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, so being clear and concise is essential. Think of examples where you've successfully bridged the gap between different teams.