[Remote] Staff Software Engineer, Risk and Margin at Alpaca

Americas

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Not SpecifiedCompensation

Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level

Full TimeJob Type

UnknownVisa

FinTech, Brokerage, Financial ServicesIndustries

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent
10+ years of software engineering experience, with significant time in trading, fintech, or distributed systems
Deep expertise in Go, C++, or Java, with a track record of building low-latency, high-throughput systems
Strong foundation in operating systems internals, networking, and concurrency
Demonstrated experience with architecture & system design for trading systems
Strong knowledge of messaging, storage, and distributed computation frameworks (Kafka, RabbitMQ, Redis, Postgres, Aerospike)
Experience leading large-scale migrations/refactors in production-critical environments

Responsibilities

Own the architecture, design, and technical roadmap of the risk and margin platform
Lead initiatives on low-latency optimizations, deterministic performance, and resiliency
Guide integration with exchanges and liquidity venues (FIX, OUCH, ITCH, proprietary APIs) at scale
Establish best practices for high-frequency trading system development (testing, monitoring, incident response)
Partner with risk and compliance teams to embed real-time pre-trade risk, credit, and margin controls
Act as a multiplier: mentor engineers, perform design reviews, and elevate engineering standards
Lead architecture discussions and long-term system design for scalability and resilience
Drive cross-team projects that impact multiple trading desks (e.g., global order routing, fault-tolerant market data infra)
Proactively identify scalability bottlenecks and lead refactoring/redesign initiatives
Serve as a technical point of escalation for production trading issues

Skills

Low-Latency Systems

Trading Infrastructure

Software Architecture

Risk Management

Margin Systems

APIs

Distributed Systems

Alpaca

API-first brokerage for stock trading

About Alpaca

Alpaca Securities LLC operates in the stock brokerage industry by providing an API-first brokerage service that allows other businesses to create their own trading applications. This service enables companies to integrate stock trading functionality into their platforms without the need to become brokers themselves, saving them time and resources. Alpaca's API supports seamless trading experiences for users and includes features like Local Currency Trading, which allows international investors to trade US stocks in their local currency. Additionally, Alpaca offers crypto wallets and coin pair trading, expanding the financial services available to its clients. Unlike traditional brokers, Alpaca focuses on a business-to-business model, catering primarily to other companies that want to offer trading services to their customers. The goal of Alpaca is to simplify the trading process for businesses and their users while providing a secure and efficient platform for executing trades.

San Mateo, CaliforniaHeadquarters

2015Year Founded

$84.5MTotal Funding

CONVERTIBLECompany Stage

Fintech, Financial ServicesIndustries

201-500Employees

Benefits

Competitive salary & stock options

Medical, dental, & vision

Home office setup stipend

Monthly Brex Card stipend

Risks

Increased competition from fintech platforms like GUGU offering commission-free trading.

Potential regulatory challenges in international markets may complicate Alpaca's expansion.

Self-clearing transition introduces operational risks in managing settlement processes.

Differentiation

Alpaca offers API-first brokerage services, enabling businesses to build trading applications.

Alpaca supports local currency trading, simplifying US stock trading for international investors.

Alpaca provides crypto wallets and coin pair trading, expanding financial services for clients.

Upsides

Alpaca's self-clearing transition enhances asset transfers and securities lending opportunities.

Partnership with Derayah Financial accelerates Middle Eastern business expansion for Alpaca.

Alpaca's limit orders and extended hours trading for fractional shares lead retail trading.

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