Junior Software Engineer
$80k - $130k USD
Founded in 1999, Geneva Trading is a premier global principal trading firm with strategically located offices in Chicago, Dublin, and London. Our relentless focus on trading excellence combined with technological innovation has equipped us with a best-in-class proprietary trading platform, enabling us to compete at the highest levels in the global markets. Rooted in a culture of integrity, collaboration, and an unwavering passion for progress, we foster an environment of personal and professional excellence. Our nimble organizational structure and entrepreneurial spirit attract top-tier talent with a passion for innovation, laying the foundation and driving our consistent success in the industry.
Junior Software Engineer (Trading Systems & OS)
Location: Chicago, IL (Loop)
Team: Proprietary Trading Group
The Opportunity
Geneva Trading is seeking a Junior Software Engineer with a systems-programming pedigree to join our Chicago headquarters. In this role, you will be an integral part of a specialized development staff that works side-by-side with Traders and Quantitative Researchers. We aren't looking for a "back-office" developer; we need a problem solver who wants to sit at the intersection of code and the markets. You will use your understanding of Operating Systems and low-level architecture to ensure our strategies are the fastest and most reliable in the world. This role is for the curious mind—the engineer who doesn’t just want to write a strategy but wants to understand exactly how the Linux kernel handles every packet that strategy sends.
Core Responsibilities
- Collaborative Development: Work daily within a tight-knit unit of Traders and Quants to translate high-frequency strategies into production-ready code.
- Systems-Level Optimization: Build and tune trading applications using Modern C++, with a heavy focus on OS-level performance (e.g., CPU affinity, memory management, and kernel bypass).
- Research & Diagnostic Tooling: Leverage Python to build high-speed data pipelines, backtesting frameworks, and real-time monitoring tools to analyze strategy behavior.
- Deep-Dive Problem Solving: Act as the "systems expert" for the desk—diagnosing jitter, race conditions, or latency spikes by digging into the Linux stack (schedulers, interrupts, and syscalls).
- Execution Excellence: Maintain a "zero-error" mindset, ensuring the absolute correctness of trading logic in a high-stakes, real-time environment.
The Technical Profile
- Education: BS/MS in Computer Science or Computer Engineering with a strong academic focus on Operating Systems.
- Language Proficiency: C++: Professional-level understanding of pointers, memory layout, and concurrency.
- Python: Ability to write clean, efficient code for data analysis and automation.
- OS Fundamentals: Deep knowledge of Linux/Unix internals. You should understand how the OS manages hardware resources and how to optimize that interaction for speed.
- The "Curious" Mindset: A natural drive to deconstruct complex systems. You are the person who reads the man pages and enjoys figuring out the "why" behind a system's behavior.
The Geneva Environment
- High-Touch Collaboration: You are part of the trading desk’s heartbeat, where feedback loops between code and market impact are measured in microseconds.
- Intellectual Rigor: Solve non-trivial puzzles alongside some of the brightest minds in the industry.
- Chicago Culture: Work in our state-of-the-art Chicago office, enjoying the energy of the trading floor combined with a flat, meritocratic structure.
Compensation
Base Salary Range: $80,000 – $130,000, plus eligibility for a performance-based bonus.
Final compensation will be determined based on the candidate’s skills, experience, education, and qualifications. In addition to base salary, Geneva Trading offers a competitive total rewards package, including a comprehensive benefits program. Learn more about our employee incentives here: https://www.genevatrading.com/employee-incentives/
Application expected to close on 5/15/26
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.