Senior C++ Engineer

About the role:

We are hiring a senior hands-on C engineer to build and optimize the low-latency hot path for a top-tier global trading firm (name shared under NDA). This is a headhunting search for one exceptional engineer not a volume hire. You will own performance-critical trading and market-data systems in production working alongside traders and quant researchers.

If you are motivated by genuinely cutting-edge latency-obsessed engineering - not just comp - this is built for you.

Location and eligibility:

- Fully remote from the UK (primary) Netherlands or France
- You must already hold the right to work in your country of residence (no sponsorship offered)

Engagement:

- 12-month contract convertible to a full-time/permanent role after 12 months by mutual agreement
- Employment/engagement vehicle handled per country

Compensation:

- Highly competitive benchmarked to top-of-market trading-firm rates for senior low-latency engineers
- Exact range confirmed at screening

What you will do:

- Design build and optimize the low-latency hot path for automated/electronic trading in modern C (C17/20)
- Build and maintain market-data infrastructure: feed handlers ticker plant order-book construction and normalization
- Implement exchange connectivity and FIX-based order flow including smart-order-routing components
- Drive down tick-to-trade latency using lock-free data structures cache- and NUMA-aware design and kernel-bypass networking (Solarflare/Onload DPDK)
- Profile measure and eliminate latency and jitter across the full stack
- Translate strategy and execution needs from traders and quants into performant reliable production code
- Own components end-to-end: reliability observability and incident response

Required

- 6 years of professional C engineering in production low-latency systems
- Modern C: C17 minimum C20 preferred
- Low-latency experience from traditional financial services: proprietary trading firm market-maker HFT shop investment-bank e-trading desk or systematic hedge fund
- Direct market-data feed-handler or electronic-trading exposure
- Hands-on with lock-free programming multicast low-level networking and performance profiling
- Comfortable with fully remote work and a 12-month contract structure

Nice to have

- Kernel-bypass (Solarflare/Onload DPDK) and NUMA/cache-aware design
- Order book ticker plant smart-order-router and exchange connectivity
- Deep tenure in a single demanding low-latency environment

Not a fit

- Low-latency C experience derived solely from crypto exchanges or crypto market-makers (traditional trading backgrounds required)
- Purely academic or research C with no production low-latency systems
- A pattern of very short tenures with no depth in one low-latency environment

Screening focuses on

1. 6 years of professional C / low-latency engineering
2. Low-latency C built inside traditional financial services
3. Direct market-data feed-handler or electronic-trading experience
4. Current base in the UK NL or FR and openness to a remote 12-month contract

How we hire (AI transparency notice - EU AI Act & GDPR)

We use AI-assisted tools in parts of our recruitment process including candidate sourcing and initial screening line with the EU AI Act and GDPR we want you to know:
- Human oversight: A qualified human makes every shortlisting interview and hiring decision. No candidate is rejected or advanced by an automated system alone.
- No solely automated decisions: You will not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (GDPR Art. 22).
- Transparency: You will be told when you are interacting with an AI system (for example automated outreach or any AI-assisted assessment) and what it does.
- No prohibited practices: We do not use emotion-recognition or biometric-categorization tools in hiring.
- Fairness: Our screening is based on job-relevant skills and experience only; we monitor for and act against discriminatory outcomes.
- Your rights: You may request human review of any AI-assisted step an explanation of how it works and access to or correction/deletion of your personal data. Contact us at any stage to exercise these rights.