Python Platform Engineer

As an AHL Quant Platform Engineer in Man Technology, you will be working at the heart of our trading systems, from signal capturing to trade monitoring, across all asset classes traded by AHL. Your challenges will be varied, including implementing new trading functions, optimising and maintaining existing trading systems, contributing to their architecture, and providing second level support. The role is a unique opportunity to play a pivotal part in building a state-of-the-art systematic trading platform, aligning with our complex trading needs and advancing our multi-year business goals. It offers the chance to collaborate with quantitative researchers, industry leading electronic execution team, and a highly talented operations team. 

The Team 

AHL Platform Engineers are part of our Technology team, comprising over 130 individuals representing eighteen nationalities. We have varied backgrounds including Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering – even Classics – but what unifies us is a passion for technology and writing high-quality code. People often rotate teams to learn more about our systems, as well as find the position that best matches their interests. 

Our Technology 

Our systems are almost all running on Linux and most of our code is in Python, with extensive usage of open-source libraries such as pandas and numpy. We implement the systems that require the highest data throughput in Java. For storage, we rely heavily on MongoDB, Oracle and our own open-source high-performance timeseries database ArcticDB. 

We use Airflow for workflow management, Kafka for data pipelines, Bitbucket for source control, Jenkins for continuous integration, Grafana + Prometheus for metrics collection, ELK for log shipping and monitoring, Docker + Kubernetes for containerisation, infrastructure-as-code for server deployment, and Slack for internal communication. But our technology list is never static: we constantly evaluate new tools and libraries. We are actively adopting Generative AI and boosting developer productivity via Copilot. 

Working Here 

Man Tech has a small company, no-attitude feel. It is flat structured, open, transparent and collaborative, and you will have plenty of opportunity to grow and have enormous impact on what we do. We are actively engaged with the broader technology community. 

• We host and sponsor London’s PyData and Machine Learning Meetups 

• We open-source some of our technology including parts of our Data Platform. See https://github.com/man-group 

• We regularly talk at leading industry conferences, and tweet about relevant technology and how we’re using it. See @ManQuantTech 

We’re fortunate enough to have an office in the business district of Sofia (overlooking the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral) with easy access to transport and amenities, and continually strive to make our environment a great place in which to work. We offer flexible working, competitive compensation, a generous holiday allowance, health and other benefits. We are also committed to continuous learning and development via coaching, mentoring, conference attendance and sponsoring academic and professional qualifications. 

We are establishing a substantial presence in Sofia, where our operations, execution, and data teams will be collocated. This strategic setup is intended to develop a centre of excellence, fostering seamless collaboration and integrated workflows among teams. By attracting the best local talent, we aim to drive innovation and establish a leading edge in the industry. 

Technology and Business Skills 

We strive to hire only the brightest and best and most highly skilled and passionate technologists.  

Essential 

• Exceptional technology skills; recognised by your peers as an expert in your domain 

• A proponent of strong collaborative software engineering techniques and methods: agile development, continuous integration, code review, unit testing, behaviour driven development testing, refactoring and related approaches 

• Expert knowledge in one or more programming languages, preferably Python 

• Proficient on Linux platforms with knowledge of various scripting languages 

• Strong knowledge of one or more relevant database technologies e.g. Oracle and MongoDB 

• Proficient with a range of open-source frameworks and tools in scientific computing and web development 

• Familiarity with a variety of programming styles (e.g. OO, functional) and in-depth knowledge of design patterns 

• Experience with DevOps methodology and tooling in the software development 

Advantageous 

• Keen interested in financial markets and instruments 

• Experience of quantitative or automated trading systems development e.g. in a hedge fund or investment bank 

• Expertise in building distributed systems with service-based or event-driven architectures, and concurrent processing  

• A knowledge of modern practices for data engineering and stream processing  

• An understanding of financial market data collection and processing 

• Experience of web-based development and visualisation technology for portraying large and complex data sets and relationships 

Personal Attributes 

• Strong academic record and a degree with high mathematical or computing content e.g. Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering or Physics from a leading university 

• Self-organised with the ability to effectively manage time across multiple projects to meet business demands and priorities

• Focused on delivering value to the business with relentless efforts to improve process  

• Strong interpersonal skills; able to establish and maintain a close working relationship with quantitative researchers, traders and operations people alike

• Good at clear communication; skilled at presenting arguments and engaging constructively with diverse perspectives

• Intellectually robust with a keenly analytic approach to problem solving 

• Craftsman-like approach to building software; takes pride in engineering excellence and instils these values in others 

• Demonstrable passion for technology e.g. personal projects, open-source involvement