Senior Backend Engineer II (Team Lead) - US Stocks

Role Overview

As a Sr. Backend Engineer II - TL in the US Stocks team, you are the technical lead of a squad that builds the backend for trading US stocks. You lead design, delivery and code quality for the squad, and you stay hands-on in the code. You are not a people manager: you guide the work and the engineers technically, while the Engineering Manager owns hiring and performance. You partner with Product, Operations, Compliance and our US brokerage partners to deliver features that are accurate and reliable.

• Lead the technical design for your squad's features, write design documents and run design reviews.
• Break down epics into clear tasks, give realistic estimates and keep delivery on track, unblocking engineers when needed.
• Stay hands-on: build the most critical and complex parts of the system yourself.
• Set and uphold code quality standards through code review, testing practices and coding guidelines.
• Make correctness the first rule of the squad: accurate money and quantity handling, idempotent requests, safe retries and audit trails.
• Lead integrations with US brokerage and custody partners, including reconciliation of our records with theirs.
• Lead incident response and root cause analysis for your squad's services, and drive lasting fixes.
• Manage technical debt openly and negotiate trade-offs with Product and the Engineering Manager.
• Coach and mentor engineers in the squad and help them grow technically.
• Work with the Engineering Manager, Staff Engineers and Architecture on technical direction across teams.
• Design and implement Smart Order Routing (SOR) logic or multi-venue execution strategies to optimize fill rates and latency across different Liquidity Providers (LPs) and exchanges.
• Define and enforce strict API contracts and WebSocket streaming standards between the backend trading engine and the frontend/mobile teams to ensure real-time UI responsiveness.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience: 6+ years of professional backend engineering, including 1+ year leading a squad or project technically.
• Languages: Highly proficient in Java, Go or another modern backend language.
• System Design: Strong in microservices, event-driven design, reliability and observability, with a record of writing and defending design documents.
• Data & Messaging: Solid experience with relational databases (query tuning), Kafka and Redis.
• Infrastructure: Experience running services on cloud platforms (GCP or AWS) with CI/CD.
• Leadership: Able to plan and deliver work with a team, give clear technical direction and mentor engineers, without needing formal authority.
• Mindset & Domain: Ownership mindset and clear communication. Experience in brokerage, trading, payments, cross-border money movement or another regulated environment is a strong plus.
• Direct experience integrating with modern API-first brokerage platforms (e.g., Alpaca, DriveWealth, Interactive Brokers) or crypto exchanges.

Benefits

• Performance Bonus - Get rewarded for the impact you make
• Private Insurance - Comprehensive health coverage for you
• Paid Time Off - Take the time you need to recharge and come back stronger
• Learning & Development - Company-sponsored training, courses, and professional certifications
• Hybrid Work Arrangement - Enjoy the flexibility of working both remotely and from the office
• Career Growth - Work closely with experienced leaders and take on meaningful ownership as we scale
• Employee Perks - Enjoy exclusive discounts, partnerships, and lifestyle perks
• Collaborative & High-Ownership Culture - Work with smart, driven people in cross-functional teams, take ownership, and make a meaningful impact for our users.