Technical Procurement Specialist - HPC Infrastructure

XTX Markets is a leading algorithmic trading firm which uses state-of-the-art machine learning technology to produce price forecasts for over 50,000 financial instruments across equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities and crypto. It trades over $250bn a day across 35 countries and has over 250 employees based in various locations including London, Singapore, New York, Paris, Bristol, Mumbai, Yerevan and Kajaani.

The technology and market data procurement department are responsible for achieving value for the firm in the execution of a budget in the hundreds of millions of pounds annually. This role is focused on technology research and IT deployment, supporting large-scale, high-performance environments and trading colocation contexts globally. The successful candidate will work closely with engineering and business stakeholders to identify, evaluate, and implement best-in-class technology solutions.

We are seeking a candidate with a deep understanding of IT infrastructure, systems, and vendor ecosystems, who is comfortable engaging with both technical and commercial stakeholders. A proactive approach to researching emerging technologies and driving deployment initiatives is essential.

• Research, evaluate, negotiate and procure IT hardware, HPC/GPU infrastructure, enterprise software, datacentre and colocation services, cloud services and related professional services.
• Support procurement and delivery of high-performance infrastructure projects, including compute, GPU, storage, network, power, cooling, datacentre capacity and exchange connectivity requirements.
• Run structured sourcing processes, including RFIs, RFPs, vendor evaluation, commercial negotiation, contract review, purchase approvals and implementation handover.
• Work with engineering and infrastructure teams to evaluate technical options, vendor roadmaps, availability, lead times, support models, deployment risks and total cost of ownership.
• Manage supplier relationships across OEMs, resellers, datacentre and colocation providers, network carriers, software vendors, cloud providers, market data vendors and professional services firms.
• Support technical project management and delivery across datacentre, exchange connectivity, data, network and infrastructure services.
• Manage hardware and enterprise software asset lifecycles, including renewals, maintenance, support, utilisation, refresh planning and decommissioning.
• Conduct cost reconciliation, spend analysis, budget tracking, vendor reporting and financial data administration.
• Improve procurement processes, documentation, governance and stakeholder workflows.

• Approximately 3 to 6 years of experience in technology procurement, IT infrastructure, technical project delivery, infrastructure sourcing or a related role.
• Deep familiarity with HPC/GPU infrastructure, accelerated compute, low-latency systems, collocated trading environments or direct liquid-cooled infrastructure.
• Deep understanding of IT infrastructure, systems architecture, datacentre environments, compute, storage, networking and deployment constraints.
• Proven project management experience delivering technical, infrastructure, datacentre, connectivity or enterprise technology projects.
• You are naturally organised and can manage multiple concurrent initiatives in a fast-moving environment.
• Commercially astute, with strong negotiation skills and the ability to assess vendor proposals, commercial models, contractual terms and total cost of ownership.
• Effective communicator, capable of translating technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders and commercial constraints for technical stakeholders.
• Collaborative, with strong stakeholder management and vendor management skills.
• Articulate, analytical and numerate, with strong verbal and written reasoning skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in an analytical, technical, engineering, scientific, financial or quantitative discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Benefits include onsite gym, sauna, and fitness classes at no charge, extensive medical benefits including an on-site doctor and therapist at no charge, breakfast and lunch provided daily, various supports for caregivers, 25 days paid holiday per year + statutory holiday and paid sick days, and generous pension contributions.