Salary: up to £85k base
The Role
As an Execution Developer at one of the world’s largest hedge funds, you’ll be building the tools, platforms and algorithms that enable the investment engines to drive forward their centralised global trading operation.
Your challenges will be varied and might involve building new execution algorithms, the platforms on which they run, simulation environments, intelligent order routing, connectivity to execution venues and brokers, tools for high touch and quant traders, monitoring capability, post-trade performance analysis and software to optimise all aspects of the trading lifecycle.
As they are continually expanding the markets, asset classes and regions in which they trade, as well as the styles in which they trade them, this team is responsible for designing imaginative and flexible software and tools to keep pace with this change.
Looking to hire talented software engineers across the experience spectrum; previous experience with almost any asset class will be an advantage.
The Team
The team is currently undergoing significant investment in order to rationalise the trading capability across their investment engines. The engineering team works exceptionally closely with both the Trading Desk and the Execution Research team in order to design, build and maintain a world-class trading capability. There are trading floors in London, Hong Kong, Boston and New York responsible for trading in excess of 5 trillion dollars annually.
The Technology
Systems here are almost all running on Linux and most of the code is in Java, with some Python and Typescript.
They use Kafka as the backbone of the platform, Aeron, Git for source control, Jenkins for continuous integration, Grafana + Prometheus for metrics collection, Docker for containerisation, Ansible for architecture automation, and Slack for internal communication. That said, the technology list is never static: they are constantly evaluating new tools and libraries.
Working Here
This fund has a small company, no-attitude feel. It is flat structured, open, transparent and collaborative, and you will have plenty of opportunity to have enormous impact on the firm. They are actively engaged with the broader technology community.
- They host and sponsor London’s PyData & Machine Learning Meetups and open-source some of their technology, including parts of the Data Platform
- They regularly talk at leading industry conferences, and tweet about relevant technology and how they’re using it.
They have a fantastic open-plan office overlooking the River Thames, and continually strive to make the environment a great place in which to work. They offer flexible working, competitive compensation, a generous holiday allowance, health and other benefits. They’re also committed to continuous learning and development via coaching, mentoring, conference attendance and sponsoring academic and professional qualifications.
Technology and Business Skills
You’ll be an expert software developer and ideally have an understanding of the financial markets, with relevant electronic trading experience in at least one of the asset classes that we trade. You’ll be a member of a highly focussed team with an exceptionally broad responsibility, so great communication skills and an ability to work as part of a team are a must. You’ll possess a significant proportion of the following skill-set:
Required
- Expert proficiency in Java.
- Database / SQL skills.
- Great communication skills coupled with the ability to work closely with both technical and non-technical colleagues.
- A proponent of strong software engineering techniques and agile methods: continuous integration, code review, unit testing, refactoring and related approaches.
- Proficient working with Linux and Windows platforms.
Advantageous
- An excellent understanding of financial markets and instruments.
- Experience with FIX a significant advantage.
- Experience working closely with Quants and/or Traders.
- Python knowledge.
- Experience of front office software and/or trading systems development, e.g. in a hedge fund or investment bank.
- Expertise in building distributed systems with service-based or event-driven architectures, and concurrent processing.
- Experience of web-based development (Typescript).
- Relevant mathematical knowledge, e.g. statistics, asset pricing, time-series analysis optimisation algorithms.
Personal Attributes
- Strong academic record and a degree with high mathematical and computing content, e.g. Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering or Physics, from a leading university
- Craftsman-like approach to building software; you take pride in engineering excellence and instil these values in others
- Demonstrable passion for technology, e.g. personal projects, open-source involvement
- Intellectually robust with a keenly analytic approach to problem solving
- Self-organised, with the ability to effectively manage time across multiple projects and with competing business demands and priorities
- Focused on delivering value to the business with relentless efforts to improve process
- Strong interpersonal skills; able to establish and maintain a close working relationship with quantitative researchers, traders and senior business people alike
- Confident communicator; able to argue a point concisely and deal positively with conflicting views.
Work-Life Balance and Benefits
Proud to provide the best working environment possible for all of its employees, they are committed to equality of opportunity. They believe that a diverse workforce is a critical factor in the success of the business, and this is embedded in the culture and values. Running a number of external and internal initiatives, partnerships and programmes which help them to attract and develop talent from diverse backgrounds and encourage diversity and inclusion; they’re also a Signatory of the Women in Finance Charter.
They support many charities, and global initiatives. Professional training and development is supported too, as well as requests for flexible or part-time working. Employees are also offered two days of paid leave per year as part of their community volunteering programme.
They offer comprehensive, firm-wide employee benefits, including competitive holiday entitlements, pension/401k, life and long-term disability coverage, group sick pay, enhanced parental leave and long-service leave. Additional benefits are tailored to local markets and may include private medical coverage, discounted gym membership and wellbeing programmes.