Software Engineer - Python

About Akuna:

Akuna Capital is an innovative trading firm with a strong focus on collaboration, cutting-edge technology, data driven solutions and automation. We specialise in providing liquidity as an options market maker – meaning we are committed to providing competitive quotes that we are willing to both buy and sell. To do this successfully we design and implement our own low latency technologies, trading strategies and mathematical models. At Akuna we have a flat structure, where the best idea wins.

Our Founding Partners, including Andrew Killion, first conceptualized Akuna in their hometown of Sydney. They opened the firm’s first office in 2011 in the heart of the derivatives industry and the options capital of the world – Chicago. Today, Akuna is proud to operate from additional offices in Sydney, Shanghai, Singapore, Boston and London.

What you’ll do as a Software Engineer at Akuna:
Akuna is looking for a Software Engineer/Python Developer to join our development team to build and enhance our Core Systems and Infrastructure. The Ideal candidate will work with developers, operations, and traders to build robust distributed systems, both on existing systems and new initiatives. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in Python programming, and a keen interest in designing and building microservices, and user applications. As a member of our development team, you will play a key role in designing, implementing, and optimizing our low latency trading systems. You will:

• Collaborate with traders, developers, and other cross-functional teams to understand the requirements for shared systems.
• Develop across the tech stack, from microservice back-ends to APIs, Front Ends, Data Infrastructure and Analysis, Automation, and more. Primarily using Python.
• Ensure the scalability, reliability, and performance of our trading systems to meet the demands of high-frequency trading.
• Implement and optimize configurations to support efficient trading operations.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues promptly to minimize impact on trading activities.
• Work with stakeholders across the business to understand business problems and propose technical solutions.
• Execute the full software development life cycle (requirements analysis, design, development, unit testing, execute and deployment, and post implementation support).
• Contribute innovative ideas and solutions to the team.

Qualities that make great candidates:

• BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Engineering or equivalent technical field.
• 2 - 5 years’ experience writing Python applications.
• Solid programming skills in Python, with a focus on high-performance and low-latency systems.
• Demonstrated delivery of software solutions which provide measurable business benefits.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration tools (e.g., Docker and Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with web development technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and relevant frameworks (e.g., React, Flask).
• Familiarity with trading and trading systems is a plus, though definitely not a requirement (we have internal training for this)
• Demonstrated success working on an Agile development team committed to applying software engineering best practices to every phase of the project lifecycle.