Senior Backend Engineer – Trading Platform (NYC, In-Person)

Our client is building a new category-defining trading platform — a single app to discover, understand, and trade real-time trends. By fusing perpetual futures with real-time attention data from major social platforms, they are enabling users to measure and trade cultural mindshare at scale. It’s an ambitious and complex product, rethinking how attention can become an asset and how financial products can feel as intuitive and engaging as consumer apps.

About the Team

• A tight-knit team of six full-time employees, all based in New York City

• Fully in-person: engineers, designers, and product minds all work side-by-side

• Everyone contributes directly to shipping product, shaping vision, and learning from users

Core Values

• Invent, Don’t Optimize: The team is focused on first-principles thinking to build something entirely new — not just a better version of what already exists.

• Products That Teach People What They Want: The most powerful ideas often feel inevitable in hindsight. This team is betting on its ability to see around corners.

• No Passengers: Everyone is an owner. No layers, no handoffs. Fast execution, high trust, full commitment — all in one room.

The Role: Senior Backend Engineer

The team is looking for an experienced backend generalist to help design and build the infrastructure behind a fast, expressive trading experience. The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-moving, hands-on environment, and enjoys tackling tough problems around system design, performance, and scalability.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain secure, scalable backend services in a high-performance environment

• Design and build APIs and distributed systems to handle large volumes of real-time data

• Collaborate with a cross-functional team to shape features end-to-end

• Identify and mitigate technical risks early in the development cycle

Must-Have Qualifications

• 4+ years of backend engineering experience using Python, Java, or a modern backend language

• Strong grasp of software security, testing, and long-term maintainability in production systems

• Proven experience shipping backend systems at scale

• Extensive familiarity with AWS and modern cloud infrastructure

• Clear communication and ownership mindset

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with high-frequency trading (HFT), MEV, or similar low-latency systems

• Contributions to open-source projects

• Familiarity with Rust, or interest in learning it

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React (TypeScript), TailwindCSS, Vite

• Backend: Rust, Java

• Research & Prototyping: Python, PyTorch

• Infrastructure: AWS, Cloudflare

• Smart Contracts: Solidity, Foundry

Interview Process

1. Intro Call (45 mins) — Behavioral conversation with a founder

2. Technical Virtual Onsite — Includes live coding and system design

3. Reference Checks — 2–3 past collaborators or supervisors

4. Compensation Chat — Review of offer terms with a founder

Compensation

The role offers competitive base salary along with meaningful equity aligned with long-term company upside. Equity is offered on a standard four-year vesting schedule, in line with the rest of the founding team.