IT Engineer

Job Title: IT Engineer – Trading Systems & Back Office Integration

Location: Chicago, IL - Hybrid

Reports To: CTO

Employment Type: Full-time

Our client seeks a highly motivated, detail-oriented and skilled IT Engineer with a background in financial services to join their IT team. The ideal candidate should have hands-on software development experience connecting with back-office platforms, trading platforms and exchanges for a Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs). They will be responsible for ensuring the seamless and secure flow of data and information between various systems, optimizing connectivity, and troubleshooting technical issues in a fast-paced trading environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• System Connectivity and Integration: Design, implement, and maintain robust and efficient connections internal clearing operations, back-office systems (e.g., clearing, reconciliation, risk), and external parties such as trading platforms, exchanges, clearing firms, and market data vendors.
• Back-Office Systems Management: Support the operations of back-office systems, including accounting, reporting, clearing, and reconciliation platforms.
• Exchange and Counterparty Liaison: Collaborate with internal teams (business, developers, compliance) and external counterparties (exchanges, clearing firms, vendors) to resolve technical issues and ensure smooth operation of trading and settlement processes.
• Troubleshooting and Issue Resolution: Diagnose and resolve real-time trading issues, investigate compliance inquiries, and troubleshoot technical problems across various systems (clearing, databases, back-office).
• Performance Optimization and Monitoring: Monitor system performance, identify potential failures or bottlenecks, and implement proactive solutions to ensure minimal downtime and quick recovery from incidents.
• Documentation and Knowledge Sharing: Maintain comprehensive documentation of system architectures, workflows, troubleshooting procedures and support scripts to facilitate knowledge transfer and continuous improvement.
• Automation and Process Improvement: Develop and maintain automation scripts and tools to streamline repetitive business processes, IT support tasks, software deployment, configuration, and monitoring.
• Compliance and Security: Ensure adherence to regulatory compliance requirements (e.g., CFTC, NFA, SOC2) and implement robust security protocols to protect trading data and systems.
• Collaboration: Work closely with clearing, infrastructure, software development, and other teams to support and enhance the trading ecosystem in a 24x7 environment.

Qualifications:

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.

Experience:

• 3+ years of experience in the financial industry, preferably within a trading firm or FCM.
• Experience connecting with back-office platforms and financial exchanges.
• Experience developing and supporting mission critical systems that operate on a 24x7 basis.
• Experience developing analytical reports from large data sets.

Technical Skills:

• Strong scripting abilities in languages such as Python and Bash and C# a plus.
• Experience with protocols such as FIX, REST, SFTP, MQ and WebSocket APIs.
• Familiarity with SQL and relational databases.
• Experience with Windows/Linux operating systems and the command line.
• Familiarity with monitoring and alerting tools and concepts.
• Exposure to cloud platforms (AWS, Azure) and microservices architecture is a plus.

Soft Skills:

• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to effectively communicate technical information to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and troubleshooting skills.
• Have the desire to self-start, own and drive initiatives and solving for unknowns.
• Ability to work effectively in a high-stakes production facing environment.
• A service-oriented mindset and a collaborative approach to problem-solving.
• Tenacious in solving complex technical problems and passionate about continuous improvement.