TechShack are working with with a high-performing quantitative trading firm building out their HFT desk. They trade globally across major liquidity venues and are hiring a Front Office Trading Systems Engineer (Rust/C++) to work on the hot path - the systems closest to trading and PnL.

This is a Rust-first role (production Rust), but open to elite C++ engineers who are happy to work Rust day-to-day.

Location: London preferred (hybrid). Remote considered for exceptional profiles, but priority is London-based candidates.

Compensation: £150,000 - £250,000 basic + PnL bonus

What you’ll work on

You’ll sit with senior engineers and work directly with traders/quants to build and optimise the top layer of the stack:

• Hot-path trading systems: market data → strategy interface → order generation → risk checks → routing/execution.
• Tail latency / jitter work: profiling, instrumentation, removing bottlenecks, improving p99/p999 behaviour under load.
• Low-latency engineering: CPU affinity, memory layout, lock-free patterns, async/event-driven systems, network behaviour.
• Production outcomes: robustness, observability, and performance that holds up in live trading (not “lab only”).
• Desk adjacency: translating research/ideas into production trading behaviour alongside quants.

What we're looking for

• 3+ years in performance-critical systems.
• Proven low-latency / HFT trading background (prop, market maker, quant fund, or equivalent).
• Strong hands-on Rust or C++ in production (Go considered if the latency story is real).
• Evidence you’ve owned meaningful parts of FO systems (not just generic infra), e.g. market data handlers, order gateway, execution/routing, pricing/risk checks, simulation/backtesting support.
• Comfortable explaining what you changed, how you measured it, and the impact on latency/throughput/stability.

Nice to have:

• Exchange protocols (FIX, ITCH/OUCH/binary feeds, multiplexed WebSockets), colocation realities, Aeron/SBE.
• Kernel bypass / DPDK / tuning

Why this role

• Trading desk environment (fast feedback, clear ownership).
• Real upside tied to desk performance.
• Small, senior team - you’ll ship things that matter.

If you’ve built front-office trading systems in production (market data / execution / risk / routing), apply to this advert or reach out directly to discuss the details on a call.