About Akuna: Akuna Capital is an innovative trading firm with a strong focus on collaboration, cutting-edge technology, data driven solutions, and automation. We specialize in providing liquidity as an options market maker – meaning we are committed to providing competitive quotes that we are willing to both buy and sell. To do this successfully, we design and implement our own low latency technologies, trading strategies, and mathematical models. Our Founding Partners first conceptualized Akuna in their hometown of Sydney. They opened the firm’s first office in 2011 in the heart of the derivatives industry and the options capital of the world – Chicago. Today, Akuna is proud to operate from additional offices in Sydney, Shanghai, London and Singapore. What you’ll do as a Performance Engineer at Akuna: We are seeking to grow our Performance Engineering Team, which is focused on a rigorous and holistic approach to improving software, hardware, and strategy performance. This team is responsible for maintaining and increasing our competitiveness at the various exchanges Akuna does business with around the globe. As a member of this multidisciplinary team, you will be responsible for investigating new opportunities for optimizations and bringing these ideas to fruition. This can be achieved through software optimizations, analysis of hardware, orchestration of physical installations, analysis of exchange specific protocols, or building tools for gauging the performance. In this role, you will: - Contribute to the design and implementation of our trading engine by increasing performance through projects such as benchmarking systems, evaluating new devices, latency, and throughput analysis - Develop tools and applications for benchmarking new devices and software - Assist with performance troubleshooting and identify key opportunities for improvement - Use a data driven approach to collaborate with relevant Trading, Quant, and Technology teams to expand and improve systems, footprint, and latency across different strategies and exchanges - Review and analyze how we leverage our proprietary systems, identify potential bottlenecks, and improve our technology stack to better our trading success Qualities that make great candidates: - BS/MS/PhD in technical field (Computer Science, Math, Physics, Engineering) - Strong C++ or Python background with demonstrated experience developing performant, scalable applications - Experience with performance analysis and tuning of OS, compilers, networking, IO subsystems, or accelerators - Exposure to statistical and experimental methods and tools for testing performance - Highly collaborative in nature - excellent written and verbal communication skills - Ability to work on cross-functional teams including Trading, Development, IT, and Quant - The ability to quickly and accurately respond to changing market conditions, including the ability to solve math and programming problems rapidly, is essential We are an equal opportunity employer and we encourage applications from everyone regardless of background. We are dedicated to creating a supportive and inclusive environment for all employees and we are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We would love to hear from you if you are passionate about solving complex problems and want to take the first step towards a career at Akuna. In accordance with Illinois Equal Pay Act, the minimum base salary starts at $145,000. Exact compensation will be based on several factors, including the candidate’s experience and skill set. This role may also be eligible for discretionary performance bonuses and a full benefits package. We invite you to apply and look forward to your application.