Principal Software Engineer, Trading Systems (Chicago)

Principal Software Engineer, Trading Systems

Chicago

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JOIN US ON OUR MISSION TO BECOME THE #1 RETAIL TRADING PLATFORM IN THE WORLD

Welcome to the dynamic world of NinjaTrader! As an industry-leading trading platform and futures broker, we're empowering traders to take control of their financial destiny. How do we do it? We provide cutting-edge products and services that enhance the trading journey. Whether a seasoned pro or just starting out, NinjaTrader equips traders with award-winning software and brokerage services to navigate the world's leading financial markets with confidence.

Our growth story is nothing short of exhilarating. Since 2003, NinjaTrader has been dedicated to understanding and supporting traders on their journey toward trading triumph. Through those efforts, our user base has grown to over 2 million users and we have become the number one rated futures brokerage worldwide.

But we're not stopping there. We're constantly evolving, pushing boundaries, and modernizing the futures industry. Our commitment to innovation means users will always have access to dynamic tools, real-time support, and a community of like-minded traders.

So, why work at NinjaTrader? Here, you're not just part of a team; you're part of a movement. We empower employees to reach new heights in their careers by providing a dynamic culture focused on social connection, professional development, and employee recognition initiatives. Sounds too good to be true? Take it from our employees.

Join us as we redefine what's possible in trading, advocate for our customers, and continue our journey toward becoming the world's top retail-focused trading platform in the world.

What you’ll do:

In this pivotal role on our Trading Services team, you will design, evolve, and optimize our core trading infrastructure. You will help scale and enhance our highly scalable, low-latency trading system, ensuring it meets the highest standards of performance, scalability, and reliability. Your work will directly impact our ability to support rapid growth in the retail futures trading space.

In this role you will:

• Design, develop, and optimize our Scala-based trading services for high-volume, low-latency, 24x7 environments
• Lead architectural strategy for future-state scalability and performance optimization
• Mentor and guide junior engineers, promoting best practices and technical excellence
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, operations, and security teams to translate business requirements into robust and secure technical solutions
• Optimize system performance, with focus on JVM tuning for Scala/Akka-based distributed system
• Enhance monitoring and observability of services for real-time trade execution and operational transparency
• Ensure compliance with security policies, regulatory standards, and industry best practices

What we look for:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• Extensive experience with high-performance, high-concurrency distributed trading systems
• Proven expertise in JVM and performance tuning for high-performance environments
• Experience supporting 24/7 production systems, ideally in trading environments
• Deep knowledge of networking and protocols ( WebSockets, DNS, TCP/IP)
• Experience with CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions)
• Strong troubleshooting and debugging skills in high-pressure, real-time conditions
• Excellent communication skills, capable of clearly articulating technical concepts to diverse stakeholders
• Experience in functional programming languages within exchange/trading environments

Bonus Points for:

• Experience in low-latency, lock-free development and design
• Strong experience with multithreading and concurrency in high-performance environments
• Familiarity with binary or custom trading protocols
• Strong knowledge of messaging frameworks (Kafka, RabbitMQ) and network protocols (UDP, TCP)
• Hands-on experience implementing REST APIs, OAuth, gRPC, and Redis APIs
• Deep understanding of order handling/matching engines
• Extensive experience with FIX or other market data/order-entry protocols
• Practical hands-on experience with cloud-native technologies (Kubernetes and Docker)
• Solid grasp of network communications, particularly IP multicast and TCP protocols used in market data feeds

Compensation:

The salary range for this role will be $195,000.00 - $220,000.00 USD annually. In addition, this position will also receive an annual target bonus of up to 15%. Bonus pay at NinjaTrader is based on individual performance (50%) as well as company/team performance (50%).

Salary and bonus earnings are only two components of the total compensation package offered by NinjaTrader. Additional details on our total compensation package and benefits are listed below.

Our Core Benefits Include:

• Generous PTO
• 7 Paid Holidays Annually + 5 Conditional Holidays Annually
• 1 Service Day Annually
• 401k with 3.5% Company Match
• Life and Disability Insurance Covered 100% by NinjaTrader

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.