Senior Software Engineer - Market Data

As a Senior Software Engineer - Market Data at Alpaca, your primary responsibilities will include influencing the overall architecture of Alpaca's market data systems, designing scalable systems, and implementing backend services. You’ll also participate in code reviews, troubleshoot incidents, and ensure software quality and test coverage.

To qualify for the Senior Software Engineer - Market Data role at Alpaca, you'll need at least four years of experience working on systems at scale, proficiency in compiled imperative languages (like Go or Rust), SQL skills, and solid knowledge of POSIX-like operating systems. Familiarity with cloud platforms and orchestration tools like Kubernetes is also crucial.

At Alpaca, we provide our Senior Software Engineers - Market Data with an innovative work environment that prioritizes collaboration, growth, and the implementation of high-quality solutions. Our team members benefit from competitive salaries, stock options, and health benefits from day one, alongside a monthly stipend for remote setup, fostering a supportive and empowering culture.

In the Senior Software Engineer - Market Data position at Alpaca, you will work with various technologies, primarily involving compiled imperative languages (Go, C, etc.), cloud platforms like GCP, and Kubernetes for orchestration. Familiarity with relational databases, networking protocols, and microservice architectures will also be beneficial.

Alpaca is an attractive workplace for Senior Software Engineers - Market Data due to its focus on innovation in fintech, diverse team dynamics, and commitment to supporting work-life balance with remote opportunities. Moreover, the chance to impact the financial services landscape and the collaborative environment provide a fulfilling career experience.

In answering this question, highlight specific projects where you’ve played a key role in designing or improving system architecture. Discuss the methods you applied to ensure scalability and performance, and how your decisions impacted the team’s success, illustrating your leadership skills.

When answering, share specific challenges such as handling latency issues, unexpected bugs during deployment, or scaling difficulties. Emphasize your problem-solving strategies and how you collaborated with your team to resolve these issues, showcasing your resilience and teamwork.

Discuss your approach to code reviews and testing strategies. Mention tools you use for continuous integration and deployment, as well as your commitment to adhering to clean code principles. Highlight instances where you improved code quality in past projects.

Detail your experience with cloud platforms like GCP, how you leveraged cloud services for scalability and reliability, and any specific projects where cloud infrastructure benefited the application’s performance. Highlight your adaptability to various cloud tools.

Share methods such as analyzing bottlenecks, optimizing data structures, or implementing caching strategies. Provide examples from your past work where these strategies led to measurable improvements in performance.

Explain how you have implemented Agile processes in past roles. Share your experience participating in sprints, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives, highlighting how these practices helped your team deliver high-quality software efficiently.

Talk about specific instances where you utilized Kubernetes for deploying and managing containerized applications. Highlight your understanding of service scaling and health checks, and how this experience prepares you for the role at Alpaca.

Mention resources you use to stay updated like industry blogs, podcasts, technical forums, or conferences. Show your enthusiasm for continuous learning and adapting to new technologies that can benefit your role at Alpaca.

Share a personal story or insight that drew you to fintech. Discuss your passion for leveraging technology to enhance financial services, and how you see your work contributing to significant changes in the industry with Alpaca.

Describe your systematic approach to identifying issues, whether through logging, monitoring, or alerting. Share a specific example of an incident you managed, detailing how you communicated with stakeholders and resolved the issue efficiently.