Senior Java Systems Engineer - Exchange Accelerator / Matching Engine - NYC - Fintech

Description

WE ARE:

At Adaptive, we are a technology provider firm that partners with capital, commodity, and digital market participants to build custom front-office technology, messaging systems, and trading infrastructure. Our experienced teams design and deliver complex front-office technology solutions using our proven accelerators to create long-term competitive advantage.

Our clients include the world’s leading investment banks, investment managers, fintechs and capital market service providers. With a global reach, with offices in London, New York, Barcelona, Montreal, and Manila, we have a proven track record of delivering powerful, elegant and intuitive trading technology solutions, and we value technical pragmatism, collaboration, and clear communication.

We're looking for a Senior Java / Systems Engineer with significant experience in Platform Exchange Systems to design, deliver, and optimize production-ready, high-performance, low-latency technology using Aeron.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimise low-latency Java services and protocols for an Exchange Accelerator product across the delivery lifecycle.
• Define order, session, instrument, and account models alongside exchange integration boundaries.
• Develop automated testing strategies and perform evidence-based performance benchmarking and profiling.
• Collaborate directly with client teams, SREs, QA, and leadership to ensure exchange readiness and durable production fixes.
• Engage with client engineering and business stakeholders, communicating technical trade-offs clearly.
• Support the product in production across multiple client deployments.
• (And after six months)
• Independently own key technical workstreams from concept to production readiness.
• Deliver maintainable, observable, and well-tested systems aligned with core architecture.
• Establish trusted relationships with clients through clear communication and steady delivery.
• WHY US:
• To be immersed in high-standard engineering culture. Our fantastic team takes pride in crafting complex technical solutions but also loves sharing their knowledge and helping you grow professionally (we have extraordinary minds at Adaptive, you can learn from anyone here, which is the beauty of it).
• To take part in the growth and development of a great company.
• Our teams feel free to speak up, make suggestions and raise concerns.
• Collaborative team environment: we all work together, respect each other, and pitch in
• Great consideration for work/life balance (highly-flexible, hybrid working model, well-being benefits…). The balance between professional and personal life is massively important to us.
• We work hard to provide a positive, collaborative and inclusive culture and to positively impact our staff and local communities through different well-being, diversity and inclusion programmes.
• WHAT PEOPLE THINK OF US
• You can check our Glassdoor page

Requirements

• A hands-on engineer who enjoys designing and optimising low-latency Java services and protocols across the full delivery lifecycle.
• Someone with genuine experience building Matching Engines and Platform Exchange Systems.
• Driven by evidence-based engineering, automated testing, benchmarking, and profiling rather than guesswork.
• A clear, confident communicator who can work across domain boundaries in a collaborative Agile environment, rather than being siloed into a single technology stack.
• Strong server-side, low-latency Java expertise (concurrency, memory management, I/O, and performance profiling).
• Solid exchange, risk, or matching-engine experience.
• Hands-on experience building automated testing strategies, running performance benchmarks, and diagnosing production issues.
• Excellent technical communication and collaborative problem-solving skills.
• Experience with order entry and market data protocols (e.g. FIX, ITCH).
• Familiarity with low-latency frameworks such as Aeron, Chronicle, or LBM.
• An understanding of replicated state machines, event sourcing, or deterministic systems.
• Exposure to cloud environments (AWS/GCP), containers, Kubernetes, or observability tooling.

Benefits

• For permanents: We create benefits with YOU in mind.
• We create benefits with YOU in mind:
• Flexible hybrid working model
• Medical from the 1st of the following month of your start date (i.e. if you join on the 24th of July, it starts on the 1st of August). We have 6 Aetna plans to choose from as provided by our PEO, Justworks. We make a flat monthly contribution to your healthcare costs
• Dental and vision from the 1st of the month following your start date - we have 3 dental and 2 vision plans to choose from. We make fixed contributions to each
• 23 days of vacation per calendar year plus 11 public holidays
• Group disability insurance: short-term and long-term (60% and taxable)
• 401K safe harbor plan where we match contributions up to 5% of base pay on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis (you can opt-in after 90 days of service)
• Gym subsidy of up to $50 per month (and we pay the taxes on that so it's a real $50) post probation
• Life insurance at 2 x salary
• Commuter benefits
• Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Account
• Mental Health First Aiders
• THE PROCESS
• Long interview processes are stressful and boring and that is not us! We want to make sure that everything runs smoothly.
• So here you will have three-stage interviews:
• 1- A chat with one of our great recruiters.
• 2- A Zoom chat with one of our Java colleagues where they will ask you detailed questions about your experience.
• 3- A Face to Face interview (either in our office or via Zoom). ​​During this interview, we will dig even deeper and you will have a pair programming task to do.
• But don’t worry; everything will be explained to you step by step by your recruiter.
• A little tip for you during those stages:
• Collaboration is massively important to us, so don't hesitate to share your thoughts, ask questions, ask for help if needed, etc