C++ Software Engineer 3
Summary
Hands-on C++ engineering roles at Tier One proprietary trading firms in Sydney: building and optimising low-latency trading systems (trading engines, exchange connectivity, market data, order and risk systems) in modern C++ on Linux, working directly with traders. Paid base salary plus cash bonus; full relocation and visa sponsorship available.
I’m working with several Tier One proprietary trading firms in Sydney that are hiring experienced C++ software engineers to build and optimise their low-latency trading systems.
These are hands-on individual contributor roles. You’ll write production C++ that runs directly in the market, across trading engines, exchange connectivity, market data handling, order management and risk systems. Performance matters here in microseconds and nanoseconds, and correctness matters every time. You’ll profile, measure and optimise the code, and you’ll see the impact of your work in live trading quickly.
You’ll work directly with traders and researchers to turn trading ideas into fast, reliable production systems. There’s no ticket queue or product manager sitting in between.
Why these firms:
Some of the best engineers on the planet work here. The hierarchy is flat and everyone is technical, from the top down. There are no layers of management to hide behind and no politics. If you’re good, it’s visible straight away.
You’ll own your systems end to end. There are no external customers and no product roadmap set by sales. The only customer is the trading business. The technology budget is effectively unlimited, so if the right hardware or tooling makes the system faster, you get it.
Compensation is market-leading, paid as base salary plus bonus, all in cash. There’s no diluted equity, no paper options and no waiting years for a liquidity event that may never come.
Relocation:
Full relocation and visa sponsorship are available for the right candidate. The firms are particularly interested in hearing from Australian expats looking to come home, and from anyone with a genuine reason to settle in Sydney.
What they’re looking for:
Strong modern C++, including C++17 or C++20, templates, memory management and concurrency, with several years writing it in production. A solid understanding of how software runs on hardware: caches, memory layout, the cost of allocations and branches, and how to measure all of it. Linux experience, and ideally exposure to networking and systems performance. Experience with low-latency systems, kernel bypass or exchange protocols is a strong advantage but not essential.
Above all, they want engineers who care about performance, write precise code and take genuine ownership of what they ship.
These roles won’t suit engineers whose C++ is mostly legacy maintenance, whose recent work is mainly in managed languages or cloud services, consultants, contractors or anyone with a run of short tenures. They suit people who enjoy hard technical problems and want their work to have direct, measurable impact.