Staff Software Engineer

Description:

CME Group is looking for a senior and experienced Staff Software Engineer to join a dynamic team responsible for our mission-critical Real-time Positions & Risk Management Systems. This role is pivotal in driving the evolution of our platforms by designing and delivering robust, high-performance software and leveraging the latest advancements in AI to enhance our capabilities.

The ideal candidate is a creative problem-solver and a proactive technical leader who will help shape the future of our technology stack. You will be instrumental in developing innovative solutions that are central to the stability and advancement of CME Group's core clearing and risk management functions.

Principal Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, design, and development of high-volume, low-latency Java applications on Google Cloud for mission-critical systems, ensuring high availability and performance.

• Translate complex business and functional requirements into well-designed, maintainable, and scalable solutions.

• Architect and maintain a robust CI/CD automation pipeline to ensure efficient and reliable software delivery.

• Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams, including product management, quality assurance, and operations, to deliver cohesive solutions.

• Mentor junior engineers, provide technical guidance, and lead by example in following agile best practices throughout the development lifecycle.
   

Core Technical Expertise

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Mathematics, Financial Engineering, or a related field.

• 8+ years of hands-on Java development experience.

• Exceptional problem-solving skills and a proven ability to communicate complex technical concepts effectively.

• Expert-level proficiency in Java, with deep experience in the Spring framework and building REST APIs.

• Experience with Python for scripting, data analysis, or machine learning.

• Proven track record designing and debugging multi-threaded concurrent applications, with deep understanding of memory models, lock-free data structures, thread pools and race condition diagnosis. 

• Strong experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services such as GKE, Pub/Sub, BigQuery, Cloud Run or Dataflow in production environments. 

• Experience with observability at scale (distributed tracing, SLO/SLI, chaos engineering)

• Experience with realtime message frameworks (Kafka, MQ, Flink, etc)

• Experience with SQL and Postgres DB.

AI-augmented Engineering

• High proficiency with modern GenAI code assistance tools (e.g., Gemini, CoPilot, Claude) to accelerate development and improve code quality.

• Ability to evaluate, integrate and champion AI tooling to accelerate team velocity while maintaining code quality and security standards.

• Demonstrated experience in building AI agents and agentic workflows. 

Staff-level Expectations

• Drive architecture decisions across team boundaries and be able to articulate tradeoffs clearly to both engineers and stakeholders. 

• Be able to operate under press and on-call for system where failure has direct financial or regulatory input 

• Raise the bar through code reviews, design reviews and mentorship

• Contribute to development tooling and engineering culture initiatives. 
   

Desirable Qualifications

• Experience developing software for financial risk management, trading, or clearing systems.

CME Group is committed to offering a competitive total rewards package for our employees that recognizes their contributions to the business and reflects our long-term investment in their future. The pay range for this role is $125,800-$209,600. Actual salary offered will be dependent on a wide array of factors including but not limited to: relevant experience, skills, education and comparison to internal employees (where relevant). Our compensation program also includes an annual target bonus opportunity for all employees, as well as the opportunity to become an owner in the company through our broad-based equity program. Through our benefits program, we strive to offer flexibility, value and choice. From comprehensive health coverage, to a retirement package that includes both a 401(k) and an active pension plan, to highly competitive education reimbursement provisions, paid time off and a mental health benefit, CME Group offers a holistic benefits package for our team and their dependents.

CME Group: Where Futures are Made

CME Group is the world’s leading derivatives marketplace. But who we are goes deeper than that. Here, you can impact markets worldwide. Transform industries. And build a career by shaping tomorrow. We invest in your success and you own it – all while working alongside a team of leading experts who inspire you in ways big and small. Problem solvers, difference makers, trailblazers. Those are our people. And we’re looking for more.

At CME Group, we embrace our employees' unique experiences and skills to ensure that everyone’s perspectives are acknowledged and valued. As an equal-opportunity employer, we consider all potential employees without regard to any protected characteristic.

Important Notice: Recruitment fraud is on the rise, with scammers using misleading promises of job offers and interviews to solicit money and personal information from job seekers. CME Group adheres to established procedures designed to maintain trust, confidence and security throughout our recruitment process. Learn more here.