What led you to pursue software engineering?
University projects, hackathons, and internships piqued my interest in software engineering. I enjoyed solving complex problems and applying analytical thinking to design solutions.

How important is it to understanding trading & financial markets?
Understanding financial markets and trading helps identify problems and effectively solve them, especially since financial products and trading styles can impact trading system design. It also makes understanding the code easier – as one can recognise how class hierarchies and system architecture reflect real-world relationships among trading concepts.

Briefly outline your role & primary responsibilities.
As a software engineer on the options desk, my main focus is trading-specific software like autotraders and pricing apps. I dedicate my time to fulfilling trader-requested features, involving software development, code reviews, testing, and validating changes against historical data. I’m also on support, which involves monitoring app alerts and resolving issues.

What makes trading appealing for a software engineer?
Engineers at trading firms face unique problem sets that are distinct from those in traditional tech companies. There’s a lot of collaboration and exposure to cutting-edge technologies and innovative methods. Deployment cycles are also quicker, allowing engineers to get faster feedback on the performance of new features.

Which non-technical skill has most influenced your success?
I’ve learned the importance of effective communication with other engineers and traders and to summarise information post-discussions. Traders may have different understandings of trading systems and concepts, so everyone must be on the same page – having a well-defined solution from the start saves development time.

We value creative problem-solving. How do you foster creativity within your role day-to-day?
Our inclusive culture invites cross-team collaboration and the discussion of diverse ideas. We’re constantly considering tradeoffs and the possibility of leveraging existing software developed by other teams. Additionally, traditional methods do not bind us, and everyone is willing to embrace change – enabling application redesign and code refactoring for long-term simplicity and benefits.