Sr. DevOps production engineer W-2 ONLY

Job Description

Job Description

Hybrid 3 days onsite weekly in Houston, TX,

Can pay w-2 + per diem if you qualify.

NO SUBS, NO SPONSORSHIP, NO SUBCONTRACT COMPANIES

• Senior hands-on DevOps/production engineer with 8+ years supporting front-office commodity trading, derivatives, or capital markets systems;
• 10+ years of front-office application support and vendor management preferred.
• Must have strong FIX protocol engineering experience (8+ years), exchange connectivity and vendor certification, and knowledge of the exchange-traded derivatives lifecycle, including order execution, allocation, and settlement.
• Strong Python/PowerShell/C#/SQL scripting, production incident response, application deployment, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
• Experience supporting EMS/OMS platforms, trading networks, and business-critical trading environments.
• Knowledge of real-time market data feeds, multicast/TCP networking, and market data distribution platforms.
• Must be comfortable supporting live trading operations, working directly with traders, and participating in a global on-call rotation.

Automatic rejections reasons candidate not qualified for this role/team:

• General DevOps/cloud engineers with no front-office trading experience;
• candidates with only back-office or downstream trade processing experience;
• no FIX protocol engineering or exchange connectivity experience;
• infrastructure-only profiles without hands-on application support or scripting;
• trading analysts or business users without technical production engineering experience;
• no experience supporting live, business-critical trading systems;
• candidates unfamiliar with exchange-traded derivatives and order execution workflows;
• primarily managerial profiles without recent hands-on engineering experience;
• candidates unable to work on-site in Houston or participate in on-call support.

This hands-on engineering role focuses on maintaining production stability, supporting exchange connectivity, resolving complex technical incidents, and improving the performance and reliability of front-office trading applications.

The ideal candidate brings deep experience in commodity trading or capital markets, FIX protocol engineering, real-time market data distribution, and production application support.

Key Responsibilities

Trading Systems & Production Support

• Maintain the stability, availability, and performance of global derivatives trading applications.
• Provide rapid incident response and troubleshooting for business-critical trading systems.
• Support front-office trading workflows, including order capture, execution, allocation, and settlement.
• Work directly with traders, developers, and infrastructure teams to resolve production issues.
• Participate in a global on-call rotation to support trading operations.

DevOps & Application Engineering

• Improve application deployment processes, production monitoring, and system reliability.
• Develop scripts and automation using Python, PowerShell, C#, SQL, or similar technologies.
• Identify recurring incidents, perform root-cause analysis, and implement sustainable technical solutions.
• Support engineering improvements, application releases, and technical debt reduction.
• Collaborate with development and infrastructure teams to improve operational efficiency.

Exchange Connectivity & Market Data

• Support FIX protocol connectivity, exchange integrations, and vendor certification activities.
• Troubleshoot trading connectivity, messaging, and network communication issues.
• Support EMS/OMS platforms and third-party trading technologies.
• Maintain and troubleshoot real-time market data distribution systems.
• Support market data feeds, multicast messaging, and time-series analytics platforms.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in commodity trading, capital markets, or investment banking technology environments.
• Extensive experience supporting front-office trading applications and production environments.
• Strong hands-on FIX protocol engineering experience, including exchange connectivity and vendor certification.
• Understanding of global futures exchanges and exchange-traded derivatives workflows.
• Proficiency in scripting or programming languages such as Python, PowerShell, C#, or SQL.
• Experience with application deployment, production monitoring, incident response, and troubleshooting.
• Knowledge of EMS/OMS platforms, including Trading Technologies, NYFIX, Bloomberg, TradingScreen, or comparable systems.
• Strong understanding of network protocols, messaging systems, and trading application integrations.
• Ability to work directly with traders and technical teams in a high-pressure production environment.
• Willingness to participate in global on-call support.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting real-time market data distribution platforms, including RTDS, DACS, ADH, or ADS.
• Experience with time-series analytics technologies such as kdb+ or Shakti.
• Knowledge of multicast traffic management, message queuing, and TCP/IP troubleshooting.
• Familiarity with Bloomberg, Refinitiv, and liquidity aggregation platforms.
• Experience supporting algorithmic trading platforms.
• Knowledge of algorithmic trading regulations, audit requirements, and RTS 6 compliance.

Ideal Candidate

A senior, hands-on trading technology engineer who combines deep front-office production support experience with FIX connectivity expertise, strong scripting capabilities, and the ability to troubleshoot and improve complex, business-critical trading systems.