Staff Software Engineer, FCM

NinjaTrader is a retail trading platform and futures broker focused on providing software and brokerage services for financial markets. The Staff Software Engineer will own the technical architecture of the Transaction Ledger and Treasury system within the cloud-native FCM platform, ensuring financial correctness, reconciliation integrity, auditability, and resilience. The role also establishes engineering standards, mentors engineers, guides modernization, and partners with leadership, compliance, product, and brokerage operations.

Responsibilities:

• Define and own the foundational architecture of NinjaTrader’s cloud-native FCM platform on GCP/Kubernetes, including concurrency models, data consistency guarantees, service boundaries, and integration contracts across clearing, risk, and reporting systems
• Architect systems that process high-throughput trade flows with deterministic behavior under concurrency, partial failure, and asynchronous clearing acknowledgments across a 24/7 trading window
• Serve as the technical north star for the FCM engineering team by conducting deep, meaningful code reviews, pairing on complex problems, and leading architecture and design sessions that elevate the engineering bar
• Establish and enforce best practices across the FCM platform, including API design standards, testing strategies (unit, integration, contract, chaos), observability and SLI/SLO frameworks, CI/CD standards, and infrastructure-as-code patterns
• Define what excellence looks like for regulated financial systems and hold the team accountable to those standards
• Champion the responsible use of AI-assisted coding, testing, and code review workflows to increase velocity and reduce defects while preserving strict financial and audit constraints
• Design compliance-critical systems where regulatory requirements are treated as first-class architectural constraints, embedding audit trails, segregation controls, and compliance checkpoints directly into platform design
• Partner with engineering leadership, including the CTO and Director of Engineering, to shape broader technical strategy and govern system-of-record architecture, ledger data models, fund movement APIs, reconciliation workflows, and cross-service balance interactions
• Represent the FCM platform in cross-functional architecture forums and drive alignment across teams
• Take ownership of the most complex and high-impact technical challenges, transforming ambiguous problems into well-defined, executable plans

Requirements:

• 8–12+ years of progressive software engineering experience, with demonstrated impact at the Staff level or equivalent scope of influence
• Deep expertise designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems in cloud environments (GCP strongly preferred; AWS or Azure acceptable)
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, event-driven architectures, and infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform
• Strong proficiency in modern backend languages such as Python, C++, Go, or similar, with the ability to make thoughtful technology decisions grounded in trade-offs
• Experience leveraging AI-assisted development tools, including code generation, static analysis, and automated test synthesis, to increase productivity and system quality in production environments
• Experience in financial services, capital markets, or brokerage technology, including trade lifecycle systems, clearing and settlement, and building systems where correctness and auditability are non-negotiable
• Proven track record as a technical authority and mentor who has raised the engineering bar of their teams
• Experience designing distributed systems where financial correctness, reconciliation, segregation of funds, and audit integrity are non-negotiable architectural constraints
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to engineers and non-technical stakeholders
• Demonstrated ownership of initiatives end-to-end, from problem framing and design through implementation, deployment, and operational maturity
• This role is based in Chicago, IL
• We follow a hybrid work schedule: In-office Tuesday through Thursday, with remote work on Mondays and Fridays
• Direct experience at a futures commission merchant (FCM), clearing firm, or broker-dealer operating under CFTC/NFA or SEC/FINRA regulatory frameworks
• Experience with CME clearing operations or self-clearing implementations
• Familiarity with treasury and money movement systems, including ACH, wire transfers, fund hold logic, and account segregation
• Track record of leading successful platform modernization or cloud migration programs in regulated financial environments
• Passion for futures, derivatives, and trading technologies and for democratizing access to these markets for retail traders