High-Frequency Quant Developer — Low-Latency Core Systems

About The Opportunity

Cake Recruitment Consulting is representing a high-frequency trading firm seeking a Core Developer to design, build, and own critical low-latency trading and research systems.

This is a role with real systems ownership, you will own designated core-system components end-to-end, from architecture through live operation, working directly with researchers and traders rather than sitting behind isolated tickets.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own low-latency trading and research systems — market data, order entry, simulation, monitoring, and research interfaces.
• Own critical components end-to-end: architecture, testing, production rollout, observability, and ongoing maintenance.
• Diagnose latency, throughput, stability, and correctness issues across networking, Linux, and application layers.
• Work directly with researchers and traders to translate performance and reliability needs into engineering solutions.
• Help shape engineering standards, architecture decisions, and the system roadmap as the business scales globally.

Qualifications

Required

• 3+ years of experience in low-latency, high-frequency, electronic-trading, or other performance-critical systems.
• Strong modern C++ (C++17/20) on Linux, with real depth in memory management, concurrency, and lock-free programming.
• Practical experience with low-latency networking and market-data systems; familiarity with kernel-bypass technologies (e.g., ef_vi) is highly relevant.
• Hands-on experience with eBPF, CPU/cache behavior, profiling, and hot-path optimization.
• Comfortable working at the nanosecond level in selected critical paths, though the role is defined by systems ownership, not a single marketing latency number.

Especially Relevant

• Core Developer background from firms such as HRT or Jump; comparable HFT/prop trading engineering backgrounds are also welcome.

Scope & Decision Rights

• Own designated core-system components from technical design through live operation.
• Have a direct voice in architecture, performance priorities, and engineering trade-offs.
• Help define engineering standards and the system roadmap as the global business expands