C++ Software Engineer

We're looking for a C++ Software Engineer who wants to build low-latency trading infrastructure on Linux. You'll work on the core components of our Switchboard trading platform - pricing engines, connectivity gateways, market-data systems, and the messaging layer that ties them together.

This is not a role where you write code and throw it over a wall. You build it, you test it, you deploy it, you support it in production, and you improve it. Our engineers own the full lifecycle - from design through to operational excellence. When something breaks at 4pm on a Friday, you're part of the team that investigates and fixes it.

Occasional hours outside the normal working day are required for production releases, scheduled maintenance windows, and Level 3 support during critical incidents. We keep this to a minimum and recognise the commitment - but owning a production trading platform means being there when it matters.

What You'll Work On

• Modern C++20 and Go on Linux - a modern software stack based on open source
• Cloud-native infrastructure on AWS with colocation in key data centres
• Microsecond-level latency optimisation and high-throughput messaging
• Market-data and reference-data pipelines across multiple asset classes
• FIX protocol integrations with global banks and liquidity providers
• Observability and monitoring - dashboards, alerting, and metrics that make system behaviour visible
• Production systems that handle real money - reliability is not optional

What We Need

Technical:

• Strong C++ with Linux systems programming (3+ years)
• Comfortable working close to the metal - you understand what's underneath your code
• Experience with performance-sensitive systems (profiling, optimisation, deterministic behaviour)
• Familiarity with networking fundamentals (TCP/UDP, socket programming)
• Go experience is a strong bonus - we use Go extensively for microservices and command-line tooling, and you'll be expected to work with it internally. If you don't know it yet, strong C++ engineers pick it up quickly
• Python for scripting, automation, testing, and data analysis - used across the platform for tooling and operational workflows
• Git and shell scripting
• Experience in financial services or trading technology is a plus but not essential

How you work:

• You ship. You're delivery-focused - you iterate, you improve, you get things into production
• You own it. When you build something, you take responsibility for its behaviour in production. You respond to incidents (15-minute acknowledgement SLA during working hours), investigate issues, and close the loop
• You write things down. Documentation is not an afterthought - it's how we scale knowledge across a distributed team. If it's not written down, it doesn't exist
• You communicate. We're a distributed team across multiple time zones. Clear, proactive communication - especially when things go wrong - is essential
• You care about quality. You write clean, testable code. You review your peers' work thoughtfully. You push for continuous improvement without gold-plating
• You embrace AI tooling. We use AI tools (Claude, Gemini) to amplify our engineering capability - from code review and debugging to incident investigation and documentation. You don't need to be an expert, but you should be curious and willing to learn