C++ HFT Developer

Job description

Software Engineer – Low Latency / Trading Systems

London | Office-Based | Permanent

A high-performing proprietary trading firm is looking to hire a Software Engineer to join its core engineering team building the systems that power live trading across global electronic markets.

This is a strong opportunity for an engineer who enjoys performance-critical systems, close collaboration with highly quantitative teams and solving complex technical problems where speed, reliability and precision matter.

The business operates across multiple asset classes and regions, using data-driven and systematic trading strategies in a fast-paced environment.

The Opportunity

You’ll work on the firm’s core trading technology stack, helping design and optimise the infrastructure used for research, backtesting and live execution.

The role suits someone with strong systems-level engineering capability who wants to work on real-time platforms where code quality and performance have direct commercial impact.

You’ll partner closely with researchers and trading teams, contributing to architecture decisions, performance tuning and continuous platform improvement.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Develop and maintain core trading systems used across multiple asset classes
• Build high-performance, low-latency software in a production trading environment
• Work closely with quantitative researchers to support research and execution tooling
• Design scalable and resilient systems for live market connectivity and order flow
• Optimise code, infrastructure and architecture for speed and reliability
• Debug complex production issues and improve platform stability
• Contribute to internal tooling for testing, replay and diagnostics
• Improve performance across networking, concurrency and system resources
• Help shape engineering standards and technical direction within the team

What They’re Looking For

• Strong software engineering background in C++ or performance-focused systems development (2 - 6 years experience)
• Experience building low-latency or high-throughput backend systems
• Strong Linux systems knowledge
• Understanding of networking and server architecture
• Experience profiling, debugging and optimising production code
• Strong knowledge of concurrency, multithreading or lock-free programming
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-performance environment
• Strong problem-solving skills and technical curiosity

Desirable Experience

• Financial markets or trading systems background
• Experience with market data feeds or order entry protocols
• Packet capture / replay / network diagnostics tooling
• Exposure to quantitative research environments
• Hardware-aware optimisation experience

Package

• Competitive base salary
• Strong bonus potential
• Comprehensive benefits package
• High-impact work close to revenue generation
• Exposure to elite engineering and quantitative teams
• Long-term progression in a performance-led environment

Find Out More

For a confidential discussion and full details on the team, compensation and opportunity, get in touch with Ciara Clarke at Harrington Starr

Extra information

Status

Open

Education Level

Secondary School

Location

City of London

Type of Contract

Full-time jobs

Published at

27-04-2026

Profession type

Accountancy

Full UK/EU driving license preferred

No

Car Preferred

No

Must be eligible to work in the EU

No

Cover Letter Required

No

Languages

English