Aquatic was founded with a shared passion for tackling some of the most complex challenges in one of the world’s most competitive arenas—global financial markets. From the very beginning, we have been driven by a deep commitment to applying cutting-edge scientific research and technological innovation to deliver unparalleled performance. Our journey is one of continuous growth and exploration, marked by a spirit of curiosity and relentless drive for excellence.
At Aquatic, we are actively recruiting for a Software Engineer to join our Engineering team in Chicago. We are investing in the production platform that carries our research and trading systems into live markets, and we are doing it while the firm expands globally. This role sits at the center of that effort: building the deployment, build, and observability systems the rest of the firm runs on, and owning how well they behave in production.
You will collaborate with researchers and engineers across Research, Execution, and Trading Operations. The work is hands-on, high-leverage, and visible: when the platform is good, everyone at the firm ships faster and sleeps better.
Role Details
- Ownership of the platform that moves code, models, and data from development into global live trading, with automated dependency resolution and safe, repeatable deployments.
- Own build and release tooling, including build pinning and approval, promotion workflows, and rollback paths that let engineers ship into production with confidence.
- Extend deployment orchestration and scheduling infrastructure across regions as we enter new markets, with regional parity as the default rather than the exception.
- Build observability into deployments and production services so engineers, researchers, and operations can see what is running, what changed, and what broke.
- Partner with Research and Trading Operations to replace manual operational processes with automation, eliminating toil at the source.
- Improve the reliability and operability of production systems: alerting, failure handling, fallback, and recovery.
- Set and hold engineering standards for the platform. Clean, maintainable Python, tested and documented, built to be supported by people who did not write it.
Technical Experience
- BS/MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 4+ years of professional software development experience. We are open to a range of experience levels for the right engineer.
- Strong python and familiarity with Java and C++ and a track record of building production-grade systems.
- Experience building and operating distributed systems, deployment pipelines, or internal developer platforms.
- Familiarity with CI/CD, configuration generation and management, workload orchestration (Nomad, Kubernetes, or similar), and production debugging.
- Comfortable operating in production environments where uptime, latency, and correctness are of highest importance.
- Helpful but not required: exposure to trading systems, market data, or model lifecycle management in production.
Candidate Qualities
- Strong bias for action
- Driven by accountability and internal urgency
- A builder's instinct for automation and toil elimination
- Desire to independently seek best solutions
- Preference for working in a team that focuses on delivering results aligned with Research and Development goals
- Comfortable providing and receiving actionable feedback in a collaborative team setting
- Motivated by an ambitious environment and driven colleagues
Compensation
The base salary for this role is anticipated to be between $150,000 and $300,000, which is based on information at the time of posting. This position may also be eligible for additional forms of compensation, such as a discretionary bonus, and benefits. Discretionary bonus can be a significant portion of total compensation. Actual compensation for successful candidates will be carefully determined based on a number of factors, including their unique skills, qualifications and relevant experience.
Benefits:
- Benefits: For full-time employees, fully paid medical, dental, and vision for employees and dependents, competitive 401k plan, employer-paid life & disability insurance
- Perks: Wellness programs, casual dress, snacks, lunch, game room, team and company events
- Development: Open environment to maximize learning and knowledge sharing
- Time: Generous PTO, paid holidays, competitive paid caregiver leaves
Aquatic Capital
This role represents a unique opportunity to join a quantitative investment manager in its early stage of growth. The firm’s culture will be shaped by collaboration, meritocracy, ambition, and calm determination.
Aquatic is a proud equal opportunity workplace. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics.
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
- 4+ years of professional software development experience
- Strong Python experience
- Familiarity with Java and C++
- Track record of building production-grade systems
- Experience building and operating distributed systems, deployment pipelines, or internal developer platforms
- Familiarity with CI/CD
- Experience with configuration generation and management
- Familiarity with workload orchestration such as Nomad or Kubernetes
- Experience with production debugging
- Comfort operating production environments where uptime, latency, and correctness are critical
- Exposure to trading systems, market data, or production model lifecycle management
What We Do
Aquatic manages systematic investment strategies, combining a high-performance research and development platform with disciplined risk management. Our team of best-in-class researchers and engineers are working together in a relaxed environment optimized for collaboration, creativity, and performance. Because we are small and nimble, every voice counts. We value diverse backgrounds and are rooted in collaboration, meritocracy, ambition, and steady determination.
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