Performance Engineer

Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Department: Development (Group)

Technology is at the heart of modern electronic trading. IMC is seeking highly driven individuals to apply quantitative research techniques and practical experimentation to the technology used by exchanges, connectivity providers, and our own systems. You will develop new strategies to outpace other market participants in the highly competitive world of ultra-low-latency trading.

As a Performance Engineer at IMC, you will play a pivotal role in analysing, optimising, and tuning our systems interaction with exchange systems holistically. Working closely with cross-functional teams, you’ll be tasked with uncovering performance improvements across the trading stack. This role combines technical ingenuity with creative problem-solving to outsmart competition in one of the most demanding technical landscapes.

Your Core Responsibilities

• Black Box Reverse Engineering and Analysis: Analyse and understand the behaviour of complex systems using black-box techniques, identifying performance bottlenecks and optimisation opportunities. Designing and performing statistical experiments to explain emergent real world phenomena.
• Quantitative research: use large datasets to understand exchange technology.
• Experimentation & Prototyping: Design, implement, and test innovative ideas, experiments and technologies. Develop quick internal prototypes to evaluate performance and real-world applicability.
• Collaboration & Communication: Liaise effectively with traders, software and hardware engineers, and infrastructure teams to share insights and implement solutions.
• System Analysis: Analyse terabytes of network data to identify patterns, validate hypotheses, and optimise system performance.

Your Skills and Experience 

• Proficient understanding of computer internals, networking and Linux (at least two out of three). Skilled in reverse engineering techniques.
• Inquisitive mind. Think Sherlock Holmes and the case of the missing microsecond.
• Understanding of complex, bespoke networks and networking stacks.
• Experience with data and system analysis in Python
• Be able to work self-sufficiently with minimal guidance after internal training
• Capable of working autonomously while contributing to a multidisciplinary team. Always looking for ways to gain an edge.