Senior Software Engineer - Market Data (Low-Latency Trading Systems)

Senior Software Engineer - Market Data (Low-Latency Trading Systems)
Department: Technology
Employment Type: Full Time
Location: Chicago, IL
Description
We are seeking an experienced and highly skilled Senior Software Engineer with a proactive growth mindset to join our core trading technology team as a Technical Lead. In this critical role, you will be instrumental in designing, developing, and optimizing the ultra-low latency, high-throughput systems that power our trading strategies. This is a unique opportunity to work across the full software development lifecycle while closely collaborating with quantitative researchers to improve our ability to provide low latency intelligence to our trading systems.
As a Senior Engineer, you will guide technical direction and mentor team members, driving the evolution of our trading infrastructure. While prior experience with market data is a plus, it is not a requirement for this role. We are looking for someone with strong operational expertise who is capable of ensuring reliable and performant systems, efficient troubleshooting, and driving improvements in our production environment to support trading opportunities. This is an opportunity to directly impact our trading capabilities and contribute to a team that pushes the boundaries of speed and efficiency in financial markets.
Key Responsibilities

• System Design & Development: Lead the architectural design and hands-on implementation of core components for our electronic trading platform, including exchange connectivity, market data handlers, order execution engines, and risk management systems.
• Performance Engineering: Drive initiatives to continuously optimize the latency and throughput of our trading applications. This involves deep performance analysis, profiling, and tuning at all levels of the stack - from operating system interactions and network protocols to efficient algorithm design and hardware utilization.
• Collaboration & Innovation: Partner closely with quantitative researchers and traders to translate sophisticated trading strategies into highly optimized and reliable software, ensuring technical solutions align directly with business goals. Research and evaluate new technologies to keep our trading infrastructure at the forefront.
• Reliability & Support: Build fault-tolerant and resilient systems. Participate in the entire software lifecycle, including deployment, monitoring, and providing expert-level support for critical production systems to ensure maximum uptime and stability.
• Code Quality & Best Practices: Uphold and champion high standards for code quality, testability, and maintainability through rigorous code reviews, automated testing, and adherence to modern software engineering principles.
• Mentorship: Act as a technical leader and mentor to less experienced engineers, sharing knowledge, guiding development efforts, and fostering a collaborative and growth-oriented environment.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related technical field.
• 5+ years of professional experience in software development, with a strong emphasis on high-performance, low-latency systems.
• Expert-level proficiency in modern C++ (C++17/20 preferred), with a deep understanding of multi-threading, concurrency, memory management, and optimization techniques.
• Solid understanding of operating system internals (Linux preferred), network programming (TCP/IP, UDP, multicast), and hardware interactions.
• Experience with hardware acceleration (FPGA/GPU programming).
• Exposure to distributed systems and messaging technologies.
• Demonstrated experience with system-level debugging, profiling, and performance tuning tools.
• Strong foundation in data structures, algorithms, and computational complexity.
• Experience with scripting languages like Python for automation, analysis, and tooling.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to troubleshoot complex issues in a real-time, demanding environment.
• Strong communication skills, capable of effectively collaborating with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proactive, self-motivated, and able to take ownership of projects from concept to deployment.

Job Benefits
Our flat organizational structure promotes teamwork across the Firm and offers easy access to senior staff. While we work exceptionally well as a team in the office, our bonds are further strengthened through company events, activities and giving back. Volleyball, soccer, hockey, 5K runs, picnic, parties, and trivia nights provide friendly competition and build better relationships. By getting out of our usual environment and doing out-of-the-ordinary things together, we foster creativity and broaden our imaginations to accomplish new challenges.
Benefits:

• Highly competitive salary & bonus opportunity
• Generous paid time off and flexible scheduling
• 100% coverage of medical, dental, vision, life, and disability benefits for single coverage
• Generous Paid Parental Leave
• Retirement Plans: 401K and Roth 401K
• Profit sharing plan
• Long- and short-term disability

Additional Perks:

• Free breakfast and lunch from our in-house kitchen with rotating menus (including snacks!)
• On-site gym with a subsidized membership
• Frequent company outings
• Opportunity to give back to organizations that help individuals in need in the Chicagoland area

Professional Development:

• In-house education team - classes and resources are offered for continuous learning opportunities
• Mentorship Program through your first six months of employment

The base compensation range for this role is approximately $125,000-$180,000 contingent on experience. Wolverine Trading's total compensation model includes base salary and an annual discretionary bonus.