Always Innovating

C++ Engineer

Volant Trading was founded in 2006, and is one of the elite High-Frequency Trading firms doing FPGA-hardware-accelerated ultra-low-latency trading, where a handful of nanoseconds (literally) can make the difference between being profitable and not. Our trading systems are written in C++ and run on Linux, interfacing with and controlling the FPGA designs written in System Verilog.

Being consistently successful is not the result of one or two systems working well – a plethora of things must be operating well concurrently, each with their own blend of optimisation criteria – for latency, throughput, developer productivity, maintainability, agility, testability, robustness, operational supportability, and all the properties that support those like concision, self-documenting expressiveness, modularity, and abstraction/encapsulation. This requires discerning, targeted application of modern C++ - and more generally software-engineering - best practices. We want people who understand – or have an aptitude for – Design Principles and Patterns, and modern C++ idioms and usage.

You might be expecting us to make the HFT-industry-standard disingenuous unsubstantiated waffling claims about innovation and a culture of excellence. Instead, here are some concrete, differentiating qualities that should actually help you decide if this is the job for you...

About the role

• Architecting/design, development, testing, deployment, operation, support and trouble-shooting of our trading systems and all in-house libraries and tooling supporting them; everything's decided and done locally in Hong Kong by the small, tight-knit, in-office team of Linux/C++ and Verilog/FPGA engineers that you'll be joining; we are not current open to remote work
• You'll not just have a spot at the table while the IT team and traders make key decisions - we hope you'll be helping set the agenda and in the thick of things, suggesting solutions for emerging business issues and opportunities
• As engineers - tempered only by common sense and practicalities - we can empower ourselves with the latest tooling: compilers (we're using GCC 13.1), coding techniques, IDEs (most of us choose CLion), devops tooling (we've been an Atlassian shop, but will trial JetBrain's Space), hardware (from getting the latest Ryzens and core-i9s as we need them, to dual-AMD-EPYC 9684Xs), Linux Distros (RHEL 9.3), 3 rd party libraries (e.g. boost 1.81), and utilities; if you know a smarter way to work, we'll want to explore it and empower you and each other
• Our existing team members and traders will help you develop an holistic understanding of how things fit together, as well as low level details, to make informed architecture, design, and implementation choices; you won't get the chance to develop this kind of understanding of a complete, mature, successful trading operation at many companies
• You don't need to be self-dependent - collaboration and knowledge sharing help us perform optimally as a team - but you will need to be largely self-motivated and self-organising, and have confidence in the impact you're making; while someone (including you) might throw a task description into a JIRA or similar if organisationally helpful to the interested parties, or required for Compliance with regulatory, exchange- or broker-specific policy, there are no IT or project managers wanting to be between you and your users, or breaking down your tasks into week-sized chunks and JIRA subtasks that get ticked off like homework with a pat on the back
• Similarly, there are no quants writing financial libraries; no testing teams, project managers, operations or N-th level support, database admins, approval committees or advisory boards, R&D or procurement teams; no other team responsible for fixing or enhancing library "X" that you'll have to wait for; we do everything, everywhere; you'll do everything; you'll need to want to, like us
• This job requires actual shut-out-the-world old-fashioned thinking - sometimes systematically, sometimes creatively, and a practical ability to optimally model problem domains in code; stackoverflow and chatgpt won't carry anyone here
• We have an unapologetically tough candidate process – we need to hire better people than our competitors to evolve faster than them, so we must screen and select more discerningly; feel free to be tough on us too - we want people who want good colleagues

To apply, email careers@volanttrading.com

Quantitative Trader (Hong Kong office)

Volant is a technology-driven trading firm composed of quantitative traders and technologists who work together as a single team. For more than 16 years, we have specialized in automated options, futures and equities trading. We pride ourselves on our entrepreneurial culture, exceptional people and ability to adapt.

This role is on our trading team analysing activity with the goal of increasing the effectiveness of our trading systems. Our team of traders drive innovation in all areas of the firm, constantly striving to improve, automate, and simplify.

Quantitative Traders build, pilot, and improve our trading and risk systems. This involves detailed research and analysis of live trading strategies as well as investigating new strategies or business opportunities. As a Quantitative Trader, you will have the opportunity to:

• Apply a data-driven approach to trading
• Create systematic trading strategies, utilizing the firm’s superior technology
• Use analytical methods to identify market inefficiencies, streamline trading systems and improve risk management techniques

Qualifications:

We are looking for candidates who have proven:

• Ability to apply quantitative skill and logical reasoning to solve complex problems
• Knowledge of statistical methods
• Capacity to work in a professional and highly collaborative team environment
• Graduates are welcomed
• Proficiency in at least one of Python, R or C++

To apply, email careers@volanttrading.com