Principal Developer – FX Trading Systems (Java / C++)

Location: London or Nottingham (Hybrid)

Rate: £490 per day (Outside IR35)

Contract: Initial contract until end of year, with strong likelihood of extension as part of a multi-year programme.

The Opportunity

An established financial services organisation is seeking an experienced Principal Developer to play a key role in the architecture and development of a high-performance FX Matching Venue. This is a senior technical leadership role within a large, multi-year programme focused on building next-generation trading infrastructure.

The successful candidate will combine deep Java expertise, exposure to C++, and strong experience delivering low-latency trading platforms, particularly within FX markets.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture and development of a high-performance FX Exchange platform using Java as the primary language, with some exposure to C++.
• Design scalable and resilient systems supporting FX Spot and FX Swaps trading while ensuring solutions meet operational, risk and regulatory requirements.
• Optimise applications and Linux environments to achieve low-latency trading performance.
• Promote best practices across the software development lifecycle, including code quality, automated testing and CI/CD pipelines.
• Drive continuous improvements in system performance, reliability and maintainability.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to Agile development teams.
• Collaborate with architecture, product and commercial stakeholders to align technology delivery with business objectives.
• Act as a technical subject matter expert for FX trading systems across the organisation.
• Support the development of a best-in-class FX matching platform across FX Spot and FX Swaps products.
• Contribute to innovation and platform improvements in performance, usability and operational stability.
• Deliver a robust and scalable FX matching platform covering FX Spot and FX Swaps.
• Drive improvements in software quality, platform performance and team productivity.

Required Experience

• Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline
• Extensive hands-on experience in low-latency Java development with exposure to C++
• Strong knowledge of multithreading and concurrency in high-frequency trading systems
• Experience implementing low-latency state machines
• Working knowledge of FIX protocol and binary market data protocols
• Strong experience working within Linux environments
• Proven track record building FX trading applications, particularly across FX Spot and FX Swaps
• Experience delivering systems within regulated financial services environments
• Experience working with Agile development methodologies
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and development tools such as Git, GitLab, Bamboo, Bitbucket and SonarQube
• Experience with application security tools such as Veracode, Coverity or Black Duck
• A pragmatic and automation-focused approach to engineering