Sr. Software Engineer, Backend - NT Connect

What you'll do:

NinjaTrader is seeking a Sr. Software Engineer to join our NT Connect team—our API-based brokerage integration layer that powers connections with introducing brokers, fintech partners, and third-party platforms. In this pivotal role, you will help design, build, and evolve the backend services that underpin our partner integrations, brokerage APIs, and trading infrastructure. As a senior engineer on the team, your work will have a direct impact on partner success, trader outcomes, and revenue growth.

You will collaborate closely with Engineering, Product, QA, and cross-functional partners to deliver high-quality, scalable solutions for our broker partners. If you are passionate about distributed systems, real-time systems, API platforms, and the intersection of technology and financial markets, this is an outstanding opportunity to make a meaningful impact.

In this role you will:

• Design, develop, and maintain high-quality backend services that power the NT Connect brokerage API platform, ensuring scalability, reliability, and low-latency performance
• Architect and implement RESTful and WebSocket APIs for partner integrations, including introducing brokers, fintech partners, and third-party trading platforms
• Deploy and manage backend services in a Kubernetes/GCP environment, with a focus on availability, resilience, and observability
• Implement robust monitoring, logging, and alerting solutions using industry-standard observability tooling (e.g., OpenTelemetry) to track and analyze system performance in real time
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to deliver end-to-end solutions that meet partner requirements, compliance standards, and business goals
• Uphold and elevate engineering quality through code reviews, test coverage, CI/CD pipelines, release readiness, and incident response
• Drive architectural decisions and technical roadmap planning, helping shape the evolution of the NT Connect platform
• Leverage AI coding agents (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code) and modern developer tooling to accelerate delivery, improve code quality, and raise the team’s engineering velocity

What you'll need:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
• 8+ years of software development experience with distributed, backend systems, preferably in a high-performance or near real-time environment
• Strong proficiency in one or more JVM-based languages (Scala, Java, or Kotlin); experience with reactive, message-driven frameworks is highly valued
• Proven experience designing and building RESTful APIs and WebSocket services for external partners or B2B platforms
• Experience with Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure (preferably GCP), with a focus on scalability and high availability
• Deep understanding of modern distributed systems and ability to troubleshoot across the full stack (HTTP/HTTPS, WebSockets, TLS, TCP/IP, DNS)
• Strong understanding of security best practices for exposed APIs and backend services: authentication, authorization, data isolation, encryption, and audit logging
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to take full ownership of projects—from design through deployment, maintenance, and iteration
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; a collaborative team player who seeks feedback and drives continual improvement
• Demonstrated use of AI coding agents and tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, or equivalent) to meaningfully improve personal and team productivity — treating AI-assisted development as a standard part of the modern engineering workflow

Bonus points for:

• Familiarity with financial systems and trading concepts: orders, fills, margin, account lifecycle, and regulated workflows (KYC/AML, reporting)
• Experience with FIX protocol, market data feeds, or brokerage integration patterns (FCM, clearing, or embedded finance platforms)
• Background in multi-tenant SaaS platform architectures, partner onboarding, and API rate limiting strategies
• Experience working in a regulated fintech, trading, or brokerage environment
• Familiarity with Pub/Sub messaging systems (e.g., GCP Pub/Sub) and event-driven architectures
• Familiarity with Node.js, particularly for API integration or SDK-adjacent backend work

Compensation:

The salary range for this role will be $100,000.00 - $150,000.00 USD. In addition, this position will also receive an annual target bonus of 10%. Bonus pay at NinjaTrader is based on individual performance (50%) as well as company/team performance (50%).

Salary and bonus earnings are only two components of the total compensation package offered by NinjaTrader. NinjaTrader offers a 401K plan through ADP under which the company will match up to 3.5% of employee contributions. Annual paid time off allowance accrues at a rate of 18 days per year (some positions may qualify for more) plus seven paid holidays.

Location:

This role is based in Chicago, IL. We are not open to remote candidates for this role

Hybrid:

For Chicago-based employees, we follow a hybrid work schedule: In-office Tuesday through Thursday, with remote work on Mondays and Fridays. In addition to these weekly remote days, we offer:

• 20 additional flex remote days annually
• 5 Company Wide Office-Optional weeks tied to major holidays