SDE I (Tier 1/2 Colleges Only)

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.

Key skills : Python, Numpy, Panda, SQL, ETL 

Roles and Responsibilities:

- The work will involve the development of workflows triggered by events from other systems

- Design, develop, test, and deliver software solutions in the FX Derivatives group

- Analyse requirements for the solutions they deliver, to ensure that they provide the right solution

- Develop easy to use documentation for the frameworks and tools developed for adaption by other teams

Familiarity with event-driven programming in Python

- Must have unit testing and debugging skills

- Good problem solving and analytical skills

- Python packages such as NumPy, Scikit learn

- Testing and debugging applications.

- Developing back-end components.

• .Develop and maintain the backend for a web platform in the Fin-tech Industry domain.
• Create testing framework for all business use cases Maintain Deploy builds

Skills: 

Strong knowledge of MYSQL/PostGreSQL; Knowledge of MongoDB, Redis, Couch DB is preferred. 

Expertise in application development, databases, version control, and deployment. Skill - Node.js, 

Experience of AWS or GCP - especially services such as Lambda or google app engine 

Solid grasp of Service-oriented architecture. Web Services implementation on a medium to large scale 

Solid understanding of scaling mobile app services. Having worked the backend of an Android app is preferred 

Culture: 

Ability to work independently with minimal supervision 

Happy to deal with, and contribute to, an environment of daily builds Has worked in small teams, is versatile. Work within short timelines and be receptive to business needs. Can work closely with Digital, Product, Operations teams. 

Desirable Social Attributes: 

Has contributed to one or more Open Source projects through own initiative. Has provided a high quality answer to a question posted on StackOverflow. 

Role: 

As a Software Developer who would work independently, the candidate is expected actively acquire problems and deliver solutions as well as guide the team technically. Such a problem solver would obviously be a self starter with a high level of curiosity rather than a programming language specialist. 

He/she would be required to produce software of the highest quality through self-discipline, clear and engaged communication, and attention to detail. The role would include custom web application development on (most typically on Node.js and PHP/Python), databases (most typically MySql and MongoDb), version control (github), testing (necessarily through test scripts written before code is written), daily builds and eventual deployment onto AWS or GCP. 

Attributes of the ideal candidate: 

Highly productive software developer with the proven aptitude to understand and apply technology 

Determination to succeed despite obstacles and challenges, and a positive attitude favoring achievement of goals over open-ended investigation 

Always learning, evolving, and sharing what you know 

Inspired by complex, varied problems and rapid change 

Open-minded, flexible, and curious about new and better ideas

What you need to have: