Lead C++ Engineer – Low-Latency Trading Systems (London)

£120,000 – £150,000 + bonus

Global Trading & Brokerage Technology | Low-Latency | High-Performance Systems

Canary Wharf | Hybrid

Overview

An exceptional opportunity has arisen for a Lead C++ Engineer to join one of the world’s most recognised financial technology powerhouses. This team designs and engineers ultra-low-latency trading infrastructure used across global markets, technology that underpins billions in daily trading volume.

This is an environment built around performance, precision, and engineering excellence, where developers work close to the metal on Linux, crafting systems optimised to the microsecond.

As a technical lead, you’ll take full ownership of design and implementation, mentor other developers, and play a key role in scaling next-generation market access and matching engine platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and optimisation of low-latency trading gateways and market data interfaces.
• Drive architectural improvements across high-performance matching engine infrastructure.
• Collaborate with quantitative teams, infrastructure engineers, and traders to deliver robust and scalable real-time systems.
• Guide code reviews, system design sessions, and ensure best practices for reliability and throughput.
• Troubleshoot, profile, and optimise critical trading components in production.

Core Technical Skills

• 10+ years of hands-on C / C++ development in performance-critical environments.
• Deep expertise in Linux systems programming – system calls, multi-threading, IPC, sockets, and schedulers.
• Strong grasp of network protocols – TCP/IP, UDP, Multicast, and Unicast.
• Proven experience building applications using FIX/ITCH/OUCH.
• Solid understanding of lock-free programming, circular buffers, and memory management.
• Familiarity with messaging systems such as Solace, 29West, or ActiveMQ.
• Experience optimising for NUMA architectures and in-memory data structures.

Desirable Experience

• Exposure to Fixed Income, Money Markets, or Derivatives products.
• Experience with kernel bypass drivers (e.g. Solarflare).
• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline.

Tech Stack

• Linux Red Hat, gcc, SunPro
• gdb, dbx
• Solace messaging
• Perforce

Projects You’ll Work On

You’ll join a team responsible for advancing the next generation of electronic trading infrastructure — projects may include:

• Building high-performance market gateways handling millions of messages per second.
• Enhancing a real-time matching engine used across multiple asset classes.
• Developing ultra-fast feed handlers for global exchanges and data providers.
• Designing internal tools and telemetry systems to improve resilience and observability across the stack.

Ideal Candidate

You thrive in low-latency, high-reliability environments, enjoy solving deep technical challenges, and want to lead others while staying hands-on with the codebase. You’re someone who values performance, understands the impact of nanoseconds, and takes pride in writing elegant, efficient C++.