Principal Software Engineer; Trading Platform, Scala​/Java​/C++

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

• 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 (HTTP/HTTPS, Web Sockets, DNS, TCP/IP)
• Experience with CI/CD tools (Jenkins, Git Hub 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 Java/Scala/Rust/C++ or functional programming languages within exchange/trading environments

• 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 HTTP/Web Sockets, 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

The salary range for this role will be $ - $ USD annually. In addition, this position will also receive an annual target bonus of up to 15%. Bonus pay at Ninja Trader 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 Ninja Trader. Additional details on our total compensation package and benefits are listed below.

• Hybrid schedule with extra remote flexibility (totaling over 55% remote time)
• Generous PTO
• 7 paid holidays annually + 5 conditional holidays annually
• 1 service day annually
• 401(k) with 3.5% company match
• Health, vision, dental coverage
• Life and disability insurance covered 100% by Ninja Trader
• Flexible spending accounts for transit and parking
• Gym membership

This role is based in Chicago, IL. There may be remote flexibility for exceptional candidates in the following states:
California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.

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.