Systems Engineer

About the role

Tower Research Capital is a leading quantitative trading firm founded in 1998. Tower has built its business on a high-performance platform and independent trading teams. We have a 25+ year track record of innovation and a reputation for discovering unique market opportunities.

Tower is home to some of the world’s best systematic trading and engineering talent. We empower portfolio managers to build their teams and strategies independently while providing the economies of scale that come from a large, global organization.

Engineers thrive at Tower while developing electronic trading infrastructure at a world class level. Our engineers solve challenging problems in the realms of low-latency programming, FPGA technology, hardware acceleration and machine learning. Our ongoing investment in top engineering talent and technology ensures our platform remains unmatched in terms of functionality, scalability and performance.

At Tower, every employee plays a role in our success. Our Business Support teams are essential to building and maintaining the platform that powers everything we do — combining market access, data, compute, and research infrastructure with risk management, compliance, and a full suite of business services. Our Business Support teams enable our trading and engineering teams to perform at their best.

At Tower, employees will find a stimulating, results-oriented environment where highly intelligent and motivated colleagues inspire each other to reach their greatest potential.

Responsibilities

Supporting, maintaining, and enhancing the firm's trading Linux infrastructure

Providing day-to-day support for the Linux environment including emergency responses, change executions, troubleshooting, and resolving performance issues

Contributing to the development and refinement of tools and systems to automate provisioning, configuration, and monitoring of thousands of Linux servers

Managing essential core services such as DHCP, LDAP, DNS, and NFS for on-prem and hosted data centers as well as public clouds

Reviewing existing and implementing new designs for trading systems on the Cloud with the Cloud Architecture team

Improving the performance, resilience, availability, and observability of existing Cloud environments

Working in complex brownfield Cloud environments that host 24/7 critical trading infrastructure that is specifically optimized for high frequency, low latency, real-time processing using custom OS builds and highly specific Cloud platform configurations

Engaging in a rotational on-call schedule, including early morning and weekend shifts, to provide timely support

Qualifications

At least 5 years of experience in maintenance, operation, and administration of a sufficiently advanced Linux environment

Comprehensive knowledge of operating system principles, with a particular focus on Linux internals

Competence in server-side networking, including understanding network protocols and configurations

Proficiency in developing automation and monitoring tools

Experience with configuration management, provisioning, and orchestration tool (Ansible)

Good knowledge of Python, expert knowledge of Bash for scripting and automation tasks in a Linux environment

Understanding of Linux configuration management, source control, CI/CD, and automated deployment

Experience of continuous improvement and/or refactoring of infrastructure automation to improve the stability, reliability and performance of the Cloud platforms in a fast moving environment that needs to remain responsive to trading team requirements

Good problem-solving skills, underpinned by a methodical approach to technical challenges. This includes an ability to communicate effectively, demonstrating strong interpersonal skills, a sense of responsibility, and a commitment to driving projects to completion.

Comfort using AI in day-to-day activities

Strong expertise in AWS compute, networking and storage services (EC2, ENA, VPC, ELB, Direct Connect, S3, EBS) in the context of low latency performance engineering, including how Linux operating system and kernel components are specifically tuned for an EC2 environment and the AWS network

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with container technologies such as Docker and/or Kubernetes

Participation in open source or personal projects

Certifications in AWS DevOps Engineer Professional, AWS Advanced Networking

Benefits

Tower’s headquarters are in the historic Equitable Building, right in the heart of NYC’s Financial District and our impact is global, with over a dozen offices around the world.

At Tower, we believe work should be both challenging and enjoyable. That is why we foster a culture where smart, driven people thrive – without the egos. Our open concept workplace, casual dress code, and well-stocked kitchens reflect the value we place on a friendly, collaborative environment where everyone is respected, and great ideas win.

Our benefits include:

Generous paid time off policies

Savings plans and other financial wellness tools available in each region

Hybrid working opportunities

Free breakfast, lunch, and snacks daily

In-office wellness experiences and reimbursement for select wellness expenses (e.g., gym, personal training and more)

Company-sponsored sports teams and fitness events (JPM Corporate Challenge, Cycle for Survival, Wall Street Rides FAR and more)

Volunteer opportunities and charitable giving

Social events, happy hours, treats, and celebrations throughout the year

Workshops and continuous learning opportunities

At Tower, you’ll find a collaborative and welcoming culture, a diverse team and a workplace that values both performance and enjoyment. No unnecessary hierarchy. No ego. Just great people doing great work – together.

Tower Research Capital is an equal opportunity employer.