C++ Lead Engineer | HFT Trading Systems | London or Remote (EU) | Up to £220,000 + Bonus

Albert Bow is working with a systematic trading firm building high-performance, latency-critical systems powering global strategies. They’re looking for a senior C++ engineer to lead a segment of their trading infra team , taking ownership of architecture, optimisation, and system design while collaborating across trading, quant research, and infra.

This is a full-stack systems engineering role: from kernel tuning and memory models to live strategy deployment and technical mentorship.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build performance-critical, low-latency trading systems in modern C++
• Lead technical strategy, code reviews, and engineering standards across the team
• Optimise across the stack: CPU cache usage, memory layout, NIC tuning, networking
• Translate quant research into robust, deployable code with full-stack awareness
• Mentor engineers and drive team-wide improvement in system design and debugging
• Coordinate closely with trading and quant research teams on feature delivery and infra upgrades

Requirements

• 6+ years of professional C++ development (C++17/20/23) with deep systems experience
• Proven leadership in engineering, architecture, technical direction, mentoring
• Solid grasp of OS internals, CPU architecture, and systems-level performance
• Experience building fault-tolerant, throughput-heavy applications
• Strong communication skills, able to align across trading, research, and infra

Nice to Have

• Background in low-latency or high-frequency systems
• Python for scripting, research pipelines, or glue code
• Experience with networking (TCP, UDP, L1/L2 stack)
• Familiarity with x86 assembly, memory barriers, and CPU profiling
• Participation in CTFs or algorithmic programming contests (IOI, ICPC, Hashcode)

What’s on Offer

• Senior technical ownership in a lean, high-impact trading team
• Up to £220,000 base salary + bonus
• Health insurance, sports reimbursement, tuition and training budget
• Flat team structure with direct access to CTO and trading leads
• Flexible workflow and remote setup across Europe
• Minimal process, no red tape, and full engineering autonomy

If this sounds like a fit, send over your CV or reach out directly – chrisgorry@albertbow.com. First meetings already underway.