Low-Latency Java Engineers | FX & Rates

Low-Latency Java Engineers | FX & Rates

About the Opportunity

I’m partnering with a specialist technology engineering firm delivering complex, mission-critical trading systems for a leading global investment bank.

The firm is expanding its engineering capability across several front-office technology programmes and is looking to hire experienced Low-Latency Java Engineers on both a permanent and contract basis.

Opportunities span FX and Rates/Fixed Income , with separate workstreams covering greenfield development and the evolution of existing electronic trading infrastructure. The precise technical requirements will depend on the project.

The Role

You’ll be working on performance-critical systems within a Tier-1 electronic trading environment, where latency, throughput, determinism and reliability are central engineering considerations.

Depending on the workstream, you could be involved in:

• Designing and developing high-performance Java applications for electronic trading.
• Building greenfield trading systems or re-engineering existing platforms.
• Optimising market data processing, order routing, execution and trading connectivity.
• Investigating latency bottlenecks across application code, JVM behaviour, memory management and concurrency.
• Profiling performance, benchmarking changes and delivering measurable latency improvements.
• Collaborating with front-office developers, quantitative teams and trading technology stakeholders.

Essential Experience

• Strong Java and JVM fundamentals, with demonstrable experience engineering low-latency systems.
• A background in electronic trading, algorithmic trading or other performance-critical financial applications.
• Relevant domain experience in FX and/or Rates/Fixed Income , aligned to the specific project.
• Practical experience optimising latency, throughput, memory allocation or concurrency.
• The ability to articulate the engineering problem, your intervention and the measurable outcome.

This is not a generic Java development opportunity. I’m interested in engineers who understand the underlying performance constraints and can demonstrate what they have personally delivered.

Relevant Technologies

Depending on the project, useful experience may include:

• Messaging and transport: Aeron, Chronicle, Netty.
• Concurrency and performance: LMAX Disruptor, lock-free algorithms, ring buffers and zero-allocation programming.
• Trading protocols: FIX/FIXP, SBE and market connectivity.
• JVM optimisation: Garbage collection tuning, off-heap memory and allocation profiling.
• Performance analysis: JFR, async-profiler, JMH and Linux perf.

You do not need experience with every technology listed. Depth of understanding and demonstrable engineering impact are more important than keyword coverage.

Location & Engagement

• Location: London, minimum three days per week on-site.
• Permanent: Multiple opportunities across relevant workstreams.
• Contract: Multi-year engagement available.
• Eligibility: Existing UK work authorisation required.

Interested?

If you’re a Java engineer with hands-on low-latency experience in FX, Rates or Fixed Income trading technology, message me directly or send over your CV for a confidential discussion.

I can share further details on the relevant workstream, technical requirements and engagement structure before proceeding.