Sr. Software Engineer II, Exchange Connectivity

NinjaTrader•Chicago, IL

1d•$140,000 - $190,000•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Sr. Software Engineer II with deep expertise in exchange connectivity and high-performance trading systems. This is a high-impact role focused on interfacing directly with multiple exchanges, handling real-time market data, order routing, and trade processing with low latency and high reliability. You’ll be part of the Exchange Connectivity team, owning the software that communicates directly with exchanges worldwide.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in the trading industry, ideally with C++ or Rust
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
Proven experience building exchange connectivity and market data systems across multiple venues
Strong understanding of network programming, multicast UDP, TCP, and asynchronous I/O
Deep knowledge of trading industry specifications (FIX, SBE, market data formats, etc.)
Strong communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to mentor others and drive change across teams
Experience supporting live trading systems in production — diagnosing connectivity issues, latency anomalies, and failover events
Strong sense of ownership, with the ability to deliver robust, tested, and observable software in mission-critical environments

Nice To Haves

Capital markets experience
Performance profiling and tuning using perf, VTune, Wireshark, or similar tools to analyze and reduce latency
Low-latency systems development with deep experience optimizing for performance, throughput, and determinism in production trading environments
Building and maintaining real-time feed handlers for exchange protocols (ITCH, OUCH, FIX/FAST, CME MDP, Eurex ETI, etc.)
Familiarity with U.S. and international exchange APIs and connectivity protocols (CME, ICE, Eurex, CBOE, Binance, etc.)
Expert-level Linux knowledge, including performance tuning, kernel parameters, NUMA, and clock synchronization (PTP)
Building resilient distributed systems that handle failover, recovery, and state synchronization
Expertise in concurrency, multi-threading, and asynchronous programming
Familiarity with IBM MQ for exchange data transfer
Experience with low-latency networking, kernel bypass, or FPGA acceleration

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and support exchange connectivity components across multiple asset classes and protocols
Develop and maintain market data handlers, order gateways, and contract/instrument reference data processors
Create APIs to expose exchange services to the broader organization via REST, WebSocket, event bus, or other mechanisms
Collaborate closely with the Trading OMS, FCM, and infrastructure teams
Optimize for low latency, high throughput, and fault tolerance across all trading and data flows