Principal Software Engineer, Trading Platform

Disclaimer: Please be advised that the most accurate and up-to-date information about our open roles—including job descriptions, compensation, and benefits—can only be guaranteed on our official job board. For the latest listings and details, please visit: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/ninjatrader . JOIN US ON OUR MISSION TO BECOME THE #1 RETAIL TRADING PLATFORM IN THE WORLD Welcome to the dynamic world of NinjaTrader! As an industry-leading trading platform and futures broker, we're empowering traders to take control of their financial destiny. How do we do it? We provide cutting-edge products and services that enhance the trading journey. Whether a seasoned pro or just starting out, NinjaTrader equips traders with award-winning software and brokerage services to navigate the world's leading financial markets with confidence.    Our growth story is nothing short of exhilarating. Since 2003, NinjaTrader has been dedicated to understanding and supporting traders on their journey toward trading triumph. Through those efforts, our user base has grown to over 2 million users and we have become the number one rated futures brokerage worldwide.   But we're not stopping there. We're constantly evolving, pushing boundaries, and modernizing the futures industry. Our commitment to innovation means users will always have access to dynamic tools, real-time support, and a community of like-minded traders.    So, why work at NinjaTrader? Here, you're not just part of a team; you're part of a movement. We empower employees to reach new heights in their careers by providing a dynamic culture focused on social connection, professional development, and employee recognition initiatives. Sounds too good to be true?  Take it from our employees.   Join us as we redefine what's possible in trading, advocate for our customers, and continue our journey toward becoming the world's top retail-focused trading platform in the world.   What you'll do: In this pivotal role on our Trading Services team, you will architect, evolve, and optimize the distributed systems powering NinjaTrader’s real-time trading platform. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will lead the long-term technical direction of mission-critical trading infrastructure operating in high-volume, low-latency, globally distributed environments. You will play a key role in modernizing our trading architecture, driving scalability and resiliency initiatives, and shaping the future of our platform as we continue to grow in the retail futures trading space. This role requires deep technical expertise across distributed systems, trading infrastructure, and real-time system design. You will serve as a technical leader on the team, influencing architecture, engineering standards, and platform strategy while mentoring engineers and partnering closely with product, operations, and executive stakeholders. In this role you will: Design, develop, and optimize our Scala-based trading services for high-volume, low-latency, globally distributed 24x7 environments Optimize system performance, with focus on JVM tuning and distributed systems performance for Scala/Akka-based services Define and lead the long-term architectural strategy for NinjaTrader’s trading systems and distributed infrastructure Drive modernization initiatives focused on scalability, resiliency, fault tolerance, and operational excellence Lead service decomposition and platform decoupling efforts to enable polyglot development, isolated deployments, and improved system agility Serve as a technical leader and trusted advisor across engineering teams, driving best practices and engineering excellence Mentor and guide engineers through architecture reviews, technical design discussions, and operational leadership Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, operations, and security teams to translate business requirements into robust and secure technical solutions Improve observability, monitoring, distributed tracing, and operational transparency across critical trading services Ensure compliance with security policies, regulatory standards, and industry best practices Lead technical decision-making during high-severity production incidents and real-time operational events Evaluate and introduce emerging technologies, frameworks, and architectural patterns to improve platform capabilities and engineering efficiency What you'll need: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field (or equivalent experience) Experience in Java/Kotlin/Scala/Rust/C++ or functional programming languages within exchange/trading environments Extensive experience designing and operating high-performance, high-concurrency distributed trading systems Deep expertise in low-latency system architecture, distributed systems design, and real-time event processing Proven experience leading technical strategy and architectural direction for mission-critical platforms Strong expertise in JVM internals, performance tuning, and optimization for high-performance environments Experience supporting highly available 24/7 production systems in trading or financial services environments Deep understanding of networking and protocols including HTTP/HTTPS, WebSockets, DNS, TCP/IP, and distributed communication patterns Proven ability to diagnose and resolve complex distributed systems, concurrency, and production performance issues Experience designing scalable, fault-tolerant microservices and event-driven architectures Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to clearly articulate technical concepts to engineers, leadership, and cross-functional stakeholders Deep understanding of trading infrastructure, order lifecycle management, market connectivity, and real-time system reliability Bonus points for: Background in capital markets, brokerage, or futures and derivati