SD-1

About the Role

At Ceryneian, we’re building a next-generation, research-driven algorithmic trading platform aimed at democratizing access to hedge fund-grade financial analytics. Headquartered in California, Ceryneian is a fintech innovation company dedicated to empowering traders with sophisticated yet accessible tools for quantitative research, strategy development, and execution.

Our flagship platform is currently under development. As a Backend Engineer, you will play a foundational role in designing and building the core trading engine and research infrastructure from the ground up. Your work will focus on developing performance-critical components that power backtesting, real-time strategy execution, and seamless integration with brokers and data providers. You’ll be responsible for bridging core engine logic with Python-based strategy interfaces, supporting a modular system architecture for isolated and scalable strategy execution, and building robust abstractions for data handling and API interactions. This role is central to delivering the reliability, flexibility, and performance that our users will rely on in fast-moving financial markets.

We are a remote-first team and are open to hiring exceptional candidates globally.

Core Tasks

·      Build and maintain the trading engine core for execution, backtesting, and event logging.

·      Develop isolated strategy execution runners to support multi-user, multi-strategy environments.

·      Implement abstraction layers for brokers and market data feeds to offer a unified API experience.

·      Bridge the core engine language with Python strategies using gRPC, ZeroMQ, or similar interop technologies.

·      Implement logic to parse and execute JSON-based strategy DSL from the strategy builder.

·      Design compute-optimized components for multi-asset workflows and scalable backtesting.

·      Capture real-time state, performance metrics, and slippage for both live and simulated runs.

·      Collaborate with infrastructure engineers to support high-availability deployments.

Top Technical Competencies

·      Proficiency in distributed systems, concurrency, and system design.

·      Strong backend/server-side development skills using C++, Rust, C#, Erlang, or Python.

·      Deep understanding of data structures and algorithms with a focus on low-latency performance.

·      Experience with event-driven and messaging-based architectures (e.g., ZeroMQ, Redis Streams).

·      Familiarity with Linux-based environments and system-level performance tuning.

Bonus Competencies

·      Understanding of financial markets, asset classes, and algorithmic trading strategies.

·      3–5 years of prior Backend experience.

·      Hands-on experience with backtesting frameworks or financial market simulators.

·      Experience with sandboxed execution environments or paper trading platforms.

·      Advanced knowledge of multithreading, memory optimization, or compiler construction.

·      Educational background from Tier-I or Tier-II institutions with strong computer science fundamentals, a passion for scalable system design, and a drive to build cutting-edge fintech infrastructure.

What We Offer

·      Opportunity to shape the backend architecture of a next-gen fintech startup.

·      A collaborative, technically driven culture.

·      Competitive compensation with performance-based bonuses.

·      Flexible working hours and a remote-friendly environment for candidates across the globe.

·      Exposure to financial modeling, trading infrastructure, and real-time applications.

·      Collaboration with a world-class team from Pomona, UCLA, Harvey Mudd, and Claremont McKenna.

Ideal Candidate

You’re a backend-first thinker who’s obsessed with reliability, latency, and architectural flexibility. You enjoy building scalable systems that transform complex strategy logic into high-performance, real-time trading actions. You think in microseconds, architect for fault tolerance, and build APIs designed for developer extensibility.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Backend Engineer to join our passionate team. If you have a strong background in backend development, a track record of delivering scalable and reliable solutions, and are eager to contribute to complex projects, we would love to hear from you.

Responsibilities:

• Design and develop robust, high-performance backend solutions using Python and related technologies.
• Lead the architecture and design discussions for major backend components and services.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to gather and analyze software requirements.
• Mentor and guide junior and mid-level engineers, fostering their technical growth.
• Review code and provide constructive feedback to ensure code quality and adherence to best practices.
• Identify and address performance bottlenecks, scalability challenges, and technical issues.
• Participate in sprint planning, task estimation, and agile development processes.
• Keep up-to-date with industry trends, tools, and best practices to continuously improve our backend systems.
• Drive the adoption of coding standards, design patterns, and engineering best practices.
• Collaborate with frontend engineers to ensure seamless integration between frontend and backend components.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• Minimum of 4 years of professional experience in backend development.
• Strong proficiency in Python and backend frameworks like Django and Flask.
• In-depth knowledge of database systems, both relational (MySQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB, etc. ).
• Proven track record of designing and developing scalable and maintainable backend services.
• Experience with RESTful API design and best practices.
• Solid understanding of software architecture, design principles, and software development lifecycle.
• Previous experience leading or mentoring engineers is a strong plus.
• Strong problem-solving skills and a proactive attitude towards challenges.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (e. g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization (Docker) is a plus.

What we are looking for

• At-least 3 years of experience of development on backend applications. Full stack experience is a cherry on the top!
• Experience / knowledge of designing robust systems, maintaining & scaling them
• Experience with usage of NoSQL databases like MongoDB & with SQL and RDBMS Systems
• Experience of creating applications with any of the popular frameworks in Python, Java, GoLang, Node
• Experience with JS frontend frameworks like React, Angular, Vue etc is a big plus
• Well versed with versioning systems like git
• Understanding of rest API implementation

Some of the responsibilties you will be taking up are following

• Working on creating performant and fault tolerant systems which are scalable
• Design, build, and maintain high performance, reusable, and reliable codebase
• Effectively work with product to gather requirements, gain deep understanding of use cases and business needs, and translate into design and implementation.
• Maintain code integrity and organization.
• Manage basic devops related to CI/CD
• Creating secure systems
• Lead other junior developers
• Define optimal and minimal architecture to achieve product requirements