Systems Engineer, R&D

Austin, TX; Chicago, IL; New York, NY, United States

A leading quantitative trading firm is looking for Systems Engineers to join its growing Research & Development team. This team builds and maintains exceptionally large and fast-growing distributed compute clusters, exabyte-scale storage layers, operating systems, automation software, and development tools. The firm operates some of the largest GPU and CPU compute clusters in the industry, running on globally distributed, purpose-built on-prem data centres, with dedicated teams focused on industry-leading compute, network, storage, and power optimisation. People and compute capability are the firm’s two most important differentiators, and they are the areas of heaviest investment.

As a full-time Systems Engineer on the OS Platform team, you will work on projects that directly impact live trading and research, enabling them to run with high performance, worldwide, 24/7. A typical day could include deploying customised versions of core packages, building new infrastructure to manage deployments, troubleshooting low-level issues, and designing scalable solutions for the future. The team is also the front line for supporting bleeding-edge hardware, taking engineering samples from vendors and ensuring maximum performance is ready before production hardware arrives.

Responsibilities

• Manage and optimise large-scale Linux distributed compute/HPC clusters
• Automate and troubleshoot a broad range of technical infrastructure, hardware, and software
• Performance testing and tuning across the entire stack
• Scripting and writing services to automate repetitive tasks
• Work across teams and with vendors to resolve issues
• Manage changes to core OS and platform components in a large distributed environment

Qualifications

• 5+ years of relevant experience
• Expertise in installation, configuration, and troubleshooting of Linux systems
• Experience with Debian/Ubuntu specifically is a plus
• Experience with configuration management tools (Salt, Chef, etc.)
• Python and shell scripting experience
• Basic C++ experience is a plus
• GPU experience is a plus (CUDA setup, basic debugging)
• Attention to detail needed to manage and debug production services
• Exceptional communication skills, as the role requires cross-collaboration with stakeholders across the firm
• Proactive problem-solver who acts with urgency, drives continuous process improvement, and actively pursues ongoing learning
• Proven ability to prioritise and context-switch across multiple simultaneous projects without sacrificing quality

The estimated base salary range for this position is 150,000 to 300,000 USD per year (or local equivalent). The base pay offered may vary depending on several individual factors, including location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The role is also eligible for discretionary performance-based bonuses and a competitive benefits package.