Job Application for Principal Engineer at Optimal Market Technologies, LLC

About Us:

Optimal Market Technologies is a FINRA-registered broker-dealer with an innovative platform of wholesale options and execution solutions designed to meet the needs of today’s dynamic market participants. Optimal can quickly and seamlessly enhance its platform, adapt to regulatory changes, and offer a more efficient implementation that scales as clients grow. Optimal is disrupting the US Options Wholesale landscape by introducing a Competition for Order Flow model through which market makers compete for retail flow on our platform based on best execution quality. Additional offerings include an Institutional Alternative Trading System (ATS) for discreet execution and price improvement and Execution Services for institutional-grade routing and algorithmic execution designed to balance price capture, speed, and market impact across trading objectives.

This is an opportunity to work for a fintech start-up and to be an integral part of growing a broker-dealer from the ground up. As a small, hardworking team, we pride ourselves on our entrepreneurial culture and cross-team collaboration. We recently raised funding from several strategic partners and are in a very exciting stage of growth.

Position: Principal Engineer

Company: Optimal Market Technologies, LLC (RQD* Clearing Spin-Out)

Location: Initially remote except for 2-day in-person per month in NYC, eventually Chicago hybrid or full-time in-person.
Compensation: $200,000 - $350,000 base salary, plus bonus and equity

About Us:

Position Overview:

We're seeking a Principal Engineer to own code quality, technical standards, and architecture decisions for our high-performance options trading platform. This is a hands-on role (90% coding in C++ and Python) with responsibility for driving technical excellence across our growing engineering team, currently 3 developers and 2 systems administrators.

Your Primary Responsibilities:

Technical Quality & Execution:

Own code quality standards, testing strategy, and deployment processes
Establish comprehensive testing framework
Make architectural and design decisions for our trading systems
Resolve technical debates and drive alignment across the team
Contribute directly to our C++ codebase and Python tooling
Participate in support rotation (starting 7:30am Eastern)

Strategic Architecture & Planning:

Lead rebuild-vs-evolve decisions and long-term architecture strategy
Develop technical proposals and roadmaps for CTO/CEO review
Own the platform evolution roadmap
Design interfaces and abstractions that enable semi-technical users to access data and write test cases
Systematize operational scripts and database processes into maintainable workflows

Developer Experience & Infrastructure:

Implement processes and tools to accelerate developer onboarding and productivity
Collaborate with systems engineering on infrastructure modernization (hardware, OS upgrades, colocation optimization)
Interact with clients to understand their needs and address technical questions

What We're Looking For:

8+ years of software development experience, with at least 3 years in senior/architectural roles
Expert-level C++ (C++11 or newer)
Some experience of Python and SQL development
Strong Linux environment experience
Proven ability to make sound technical and code-quality decisions
Experience designing and implementing automated testing frameworks
Demonstrated ability to evolve system architectures and modernize platforms
Strong communication and interpersonal skills
Ability to work effectively with experienced engineers
Aptitude for balancing innovation with stability in production environments

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience in financial services, particularly in trading systems
Experience with functional programming paradigms and stateless architecture design
Familiarity with any of the following technologies:

Financial Information eXchange (FIX) Protocol
GoogleTest unit testing framework
Linux systems administration
PostgreSQL
Middleware, ideally AERON
Microsoft Azure cloud computing services

Experience modernizing enterprise infrastructure, including hardware and OS upgrades
Background in scaling development teams and improving developer onboarding
Experience participating in a support rotation for critical production systems

What Makes This Role Critical:

You'll be the technical authority on implementation decisions and long-term architecture strategy. You'll need both strong technical judgment and the interpersonal skills to build consensus and navigate strong technical opinions from experienced engineers. This is not an ivory-tower role - you'll implement the architectural improvements you design.

Growth Potential:

Strong performers have a clear path to CTO role as current leadership transitions. This is a key role in the firm. As such, equity will be an important part of the compensation package.

Optimal is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Principal Engineer

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