Senior Java Engineer (NYC) - Equities

Our client, a distinguished global hedge fund operating within the financial services industry, is seeking a Senior Low Latency Java Engineer to join their dynamic team. Renowned for technological innovation, collaborative culture, and commitment to excellence, they offer an environment where cutting-edge engineering and data analytics thrive. This pivotal role involves developing and maintaining their advanced in-house Order and Execution Management System, which executes trades across multiple asset classes in real time. Your work will be central to ensuring the platform's performance, scalability, and reliability, underpinning critical trading operations on a global scale. You'll work with state-of-the-art low latency practices, AI-first coding tools, and sophisticated performance tuning techniques — making a tangible impact on the firm's trading success.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and develop latency-sensitive components related to order lifecycle management, pre-trade risk checks, broker routing, and position calculations.
• Build and manage high-performance gateways for FIX connectivity and internal APIs.
• Apply advanced Java low latency techniques, including object reuse, off-heap buffers, and GC tuning to optimise system responsiveness.
• Measure, analyse, and enhance system latency using microbenchmarking and production profiling tools.
• Maintain and optimise Linux-based production environments through CPU pinning, kernel tuning, and network configuration.
• Collaborate closely with trading, quant, DevOps, and infrastructure teams to deliver robust and efficient solutions.
• Contribute to the automation, deployment, and operational stability of the platform with containerised services, CI pipelines, and cross-region disaster recovery plans.
• Utilise AI coding assistants to enhance development and review processes, ensuring high standards of low latency and correctness.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Extensive Java development experience, with at least 3 years in low latency trading environments.
• Deep knowledge of Java low latency practices and real-time system optimisation.
• Proven experience working on production trading systems, particularly with Linux performance tuning.
• Hands-on familiarity with Aeron, Agrona, Chronicle, or similar messaging frameworks.
• Proficiency in binary encoding protocols such as SBE or Protobuf, and FIX protocol integration.
• Strong understanding of sequencer architectures, consensus algorithms like Raft, and recovery mechanisms.
• Experience with profiling tools such as JFR or async-profiler.
• Practical knowledge of Linux kernel and network tuning, including IRQ affinity and huge pages.
• Working knowledge of Java NIO, Zero-Copy I/O, and relational databases like PostgreSQL.
• Experience with AI-driven development tools, including decomposing work for agents and verifying their outputs.

Desirable Skills & Experience

• Additional scripting experience with Python, TypeScript, or React for developing internal tools.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS and container orchestration.
• Knowledge of MCP integrations or large language model (LLM) developer tooling.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Demonstrated success owning and maintaining low latency trading systems on Linux.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, containerisation, and modern deployment practices.
• Strong problem-solving, communication, and team collaboration skills.
• A keen interest in how AI is transforming software development, with the judgment to use and oversee AI tools effectively.