Software Engineer - Options Trading Systems

About the Role

We are looking for an elite Software Engineer to join our options trading team with a heavy focus on technology, advanced statistics, massive time-series data, and high-performance systems. You will work side-by-side with traders and researchers to implement strategies, optimize trading systems, and expand the team’s core platform. This role requires both engineering rigor and strong interpersonal judgment: you will own key projects end-to-end, develop a deep understanding of stakeholder needs, translate trading and research requirements into clean technical designs, and deliver robust systems for real-world trading problems. This is a high-responsibility role for someone who enjoys solving complex, volatility-centric problems in a fast-moving, startup-like environment.

Responsibilities

• Build Trading Systems: Design, implement, and improve systems that support options trading strategies, research workflows, and live trading infrastructure.
• Own Core Projects: Take projects from ambiguous stakeholder need through design, implementation, testing, deployment, and iteration.
• Optimize Performance: Apply deep systems knowledge to improve latency, throughput, reliability, and scalability across performance-sensitive components.
• Engineer Clean Frameworks: Build reusable, maintainable software frameworks that accelerate trader and researcher experimentation.
• Work Close to the Desk: Collaborate directly with traders and researchers to understand strategy requirements, diagnose system behavior, and ship practical solutions.
• Solve Low-Latency Problems: Select appropriate data structures, algorithms, and architectural patterns for highly specific, performance-critical use cases.

The Tech Stack

• Core Languages: C++ is the primary language for performance-sensitive systems. Elite proficiency with modern C++, OOP, templates, and multithreaded programming is essential.
• Systems & Architecture: Modern computing systems, micro-architecture, concurrency, memory management, and high-performance design.
• Networking: Direct use of sockets and network programming APIs for latency-sensitive applications.
• Trading Infrastructure: Strategy implementation, research tooling, market data systems, and components that interface with live trading workflows.
• Data & Research Workflows: Large-scale time-series data, volatility-focused analysis, and systems that help traders rapidly explore and test ideas.

Requirements

• 5+ years of elite software engineering experience in production systems.
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline.
• C++ Expertise: Deep command of C++, object-oriented design, templates, concurrency, and multithreaded programming.
• Systems Fluency: Strong understanding of modern computing systems and micro-architecture.
• Networking Depth: Experience with network programming APIs, including direct socket-level programming.
• Computer Science Fundamentals: Ability to match the right data structures and algorithms to specific low-latency engineering problems.
• Architecture Judgment: Proven experience designing, improving, and maintaining clean, reusable frameworks.

Bonus Points

• Trading Systems Experience: Experience building automated trading systems, such as feed handlers, order management systems, market data systems, or strategy execution platforms.
• Low-Latency Optimization: A track record of intense performance tuning, profiling, and latency reduction.
• Product Ownership: Experience leading full product life-cycle development, from design through production deployment.
• Market Fluency: Familiarity with financial markets, options, volatility, or electronic trading.
• Advanced Education: Graduate degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.

Ideal Profile

• High Ownership: You are comfortable taking responsibility for important systems and driving projects through ambiguity.
• Performance-Minded Engineer: You care about correctness, latency, reliability, and clean abstractions — and you know how to make the right tradeoffs.
• Practical Systems Thinker: You can translate complex trading needs into systematic, maintainable engineering designs.
• Collaborative Builder: You enjoy working directly with traders, researchers, and engineers, and you communicate clearly across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Startup Mentality: You are energized by a fast-growing team where priorities evolve quickly and individual impact is high.
• On-Site Presence: Willingness to work in-office 4 days per week, driving impact through close collaboration with the team.

Pay

The anticipated base salary for this role is $175,000 - $250,000. This range is representative of starting base salaries at Summit Securities Group; the final offer and placement within this range will be based on job-related factors such as relevant experience, skills, and location. Please note that base salary is only one component of our total compensation package and does not include performance-based bonuses.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and 401(K) matching.
• Gender-neutral parental leave.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• In-office perks including lunch stipends, fully stocked kitchens, happy hours, and a great location with amazing colleagues.

Schedule

This role requires being in the office 4 days per week.