NinjaTrader

Sep 1, 2026

Staff Software Engineer, FCM

HybridUnited States

Chicago, Illinois, United States

PythonAWSGCPKubernetesC++GoTerraform

Location

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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: job-boards.greenhouse.io/ninjatrader.

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This role is based in Chicago, IL.* We follow a hybrid work schedule: In-office Tuesday through Thursday, with remote work on Mondays and Fridays. In addition to these weekly remote days, we offer:

20 additional flex remote days annually

5 Company Wide Office-Optional weeks tied to major holidays

*There may be remote flexibility for exceptional candidates in the following states: California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois (outside the Chicago area), Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC, Wisconsin.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

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.

greatplacetowork.com/certified-company/7025362

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

We are looking for a Staff Engineer to serve as the technical domain owner for the Transaction Ledger & Treasury system within our FCM platform, accountable for the financial correctness, reconciliation integrity, and system-of-record architecture of our brokerage systems. This role will lead the evolution of our architecture, modernizing and consolidating ledger, fund movement, and reconciliation logic into a coherent, cloud-native foundation. You will also drive the thoughtful use of AI-assisted development and operational tooling to increase engineering leverage, improve review quality, and accelerate modernization without compromising financial correctness or regulatory integrity. These are mission-critical systems where every state transition must be financially correct, auditable, and resilient under failure—because design flaws directly impact customer funds, regulatory standing, and firm capital.

As a Staff Engineer, your work will have a profound impact on our core FCM infrastructure, directly influencing our business’s bottom line. You will set the technical standard for the FCM engineering organization: defining architecture patterns, establishing engineering best practices, mentoring and elevating the engineers around you, and making high-stakes design decisions that determine whether our platform scales to meet the demands of a rapidly growing, globally distributed customer base. You will partner closely with engineering leadership, product management, compliance, and brokerage operations to ensure that every system you design is auditable, resilient, and built to serve both customers and regulators.

In this role you will:

Define and own the foundational architecture of NinjaTrader’s cloud-native FCM platform on GCP/Kubernetes, including concurrency models, data consistency guarantees, service boundaries, and integration contracts across clearing, risk, and reporting systems

Architect systems that process high-throughput trade flows with deterministic behavior under concurrency, partial failure, and asynchronous clearing acknowledgments across a 24/7 trading window

Serve as the technical north star for the FCM engineering team by conducting deep, meaningful code reviews, pairing on complex problems, and leading architecture and design sessions that elevate the engineering bar

Establish and enforce best practices across the FCM platform, including API design standards, testing strategies (unit, integration, contract, chaos), observability and SLI/SLO frameworks, CI/CD standards, and infrastructure-as-code patterns

Define what excellence looks like for regulated financial systems and hold the team accountable to those standards

Champion the responsible use of AI-assisted coding, testing, and code review workflows to increase velocity and reduce defects while preserving strict financial and audit constraints

Design compliance-critical systems where regulatory requirements are treated as first-class architectural constraints, embedding audit trails, segregation controls, and compliance checkpoints directly into platform design

Partner with engineering leadership, including the CTO and Director of Engineering, to shape broader technical strategy and govern system-of-record architecture, ledger data models, fund movement APIs, reconciliation workflows, and cross-service balance interactions

Represent the FCM platform in cross-functional architecture forums and drive alignment across teams

Take ownership of the most complex and high-impact technical challenges, transforming ambiguous problems into well-defined, executable plans

What you'll need

8–12+ years of progressive software engineering experience, with demonstrated impact at the Staff level or equivalent scope of influence

Deep expertise designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems in cloud environments (GCP strongly preferred; AWS or Azure acceptable)

Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, event-driven architectures, and infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform

Strong proficiency in modern backend languages such as Python, C++, Go, or similar, with the ability to make thoughtful technology decisions grounded in trade-offs

Experience leveraging AI-assisted development tools, including code generation, static analysis, and automated test synthesis, to increase productivity and system quality in production environments

Experience in financial services, capital markets, or brokerage technology, including trade lifecycle systems, clearing and settlement, and building systems where correctness and auditability are non-negotiable

Proven track record as a technical authority and mentor who has raised the engineering bar of their teams

Experience designing distributed systems where financial correctness, reconciliation, segregation of funds, and audit integrity are non-negotiable architectural constraints

Excellent communication skills with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to engineers and non-technical stakeholders

Demonstrated ownership of initiatives end-to-end, from problem framing and design through implementation, deployment, and operational maturity

Bonus Points for

Direct experience at a futures commission merchant (FCM), clearing firm, or broker-dealer operating under CFTC/NFA or SEC/FINRA regulatory frameworks

Experience with CME clearing operations or self-clearing implementations

Familiarity with treasury and money movement systems, including ACH, wire transfers, fund hold logic, and account segregation

Track record of leading successful platform modernization or cloud migration programs in regulated financial environments

Passion for futures, derivatives, and trading technologies and for democratizing access to these markets for retail traders

Compensation

The salary range for this role will be $160,000.00 - $210,000.00 USD. In addition, this position will also receive an annual target bonus of 12%. Bonus pay at NinjaTrader is based on individual performance (50%) as well as company/team performance (50%).

Salary and bonus earnings are only two components of the total compensation package offered by NinjaTrader. NinjaTrader offers a 401K plan through ADP under which the company will match up to 3.5% of employee contributions. Annual paid time off allowance accrues at a rate of 23 days per year (some positions may qualify for more) plus seven paid holidays.

Our Core Benefits Include

Generous PTO

7 Paid Holidays Annually + 5 Conditional Holidays Annually

1 Service Day Annually

401k with 3.5% Company Match

Paid Parental Bonding Leave

Health, Vision, Dental Coverage

Life and Disability Insurance Covered 100% by NinjaTrader

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Staff Software Engineer, FCM

Location

What you'll do

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