C++ Developer – High Frequency Trading (HFT Systems)

Join MARGO in the UK (London) – High Performance Trading Environments. MARGO is a tech-native consultancy delivering elite software engineering expertise to the most demanding financial markets environments. We operate in latency-critical trading contexts where performance, determinism and predictability are core system requirements. Our consultants work in highly specialised trading environments, designing systems that interact directly with exchanges and market venues under extreme time constraints.

Responsibilities

Design, develop and optimise ultra-low latency C++ trading components; Work on critical execution paths for market data processing and order routing; Implement lock-free and wait-free algorithms; Optimise memory allocation, cache locality and CPU utilisation; Reduce jitter and tail latency; Analyse and optimise CPU behaviour (branch prediction, cache misses, NUMA effects); Work closely with infrastructure and network teams on kernel bypass and user-space networking; Profile systems at instruction-level and hardware-counter granularity; Ensure correctness, determinism and stability of production trading systems; Participate in production releases and live deployments; Investigate latency regressions and production anomalies; Maintain rigorous operational discipline; Use C# outside the latency-critical execution path for monitoring and control tooling, configuration and orchestration services, risk guards, limits and kill-switch mechanisms, real-time dashboards and operational analytics

Requirements

Strong experience in C++ development for performance-critical or low-latency systems; Proven background in HFT or ultra-low latency trading environments; Deep understanding of CPU architecture, caches and memory models; Strong knowledge of concurrency, memory ordering and Linux internals; Experience working close to hardware and network layers; Strong production mindset and sense of ownership; Not suitable for candidates with a C#-only background

Nice to have

Exposure to C# in trading, control or monitoring systems; Experience with market data feed handlers or order gateways; Prior exposure to market making or proprietary trading environments; Experience with FPGA-assisted or hybrid architectures

Benefits

Access to elite HFT and ultra-low latency trading environments; Technically extreme and intellectually demanding engineering assignments; Clear separation between execution-critical and supporting systems; Human-sized consultancy with very high technical standards; Long-term positioning on rare, high-value low-latency engineering skillsets