C++ Engineer (HFT/OMS)

About the Role

• Location: On-site (Hyderabad)
• Type: Full-Time
• Reports To: Founder

PHNX Securities is a next-generation quantitative trading firm focused on systematic, research-driven strategies. Their approach combines deep market understanding with robust engineering, emphasizing clean execution infrastructure, rigorous backtesting, strict risk controls, and full regulatory readiness.

The role involves building and optimizing core trading infrastructure for a C++ Engineer with a passion for performance and low-latency systems. This is a deeply technical engineering role focused on writing high-performance, production-grade C++ for systems where microseconds matter. You will work on order management, execution, and market data infrastructure that runs live in exchange-connected environments. A basic understanding of trading systems and market structure is expected, but elite C++ engineering is the primary demand.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and develop ultra-low-latency trading systems in modern C++ (C++17/20).
• Build and optimize the Order Management System (OMS), including order routing, pre-trade risk checks, execution handling, and fills.
• Profile, benchmark, and systematically reduce end-to-end latency across application, kernel, and network layers.
• Write cache-friendly, lock-free, and memory-efficient code, optimizing at the hardware level including CPU pinning, NUMA awareness, memory alignment, and cache utilization.
• Work on kernel bypass and NIC-level optimizations (DPDK, Solarflare).
• Collaborate with quant researchers to productionize strategies and ensure system reliability, determinism, and correctness under real-time production conditions.
• Build and maintain market data infrastructure, including feed parsing, normalization, and distribution to internal consumers.
• Own the full execution pipeline, from strategy signal through OMS to order on exchange.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• C++ Engineering:

• Deep expertise in C++ (C++17/20), including lock-free data structures, concurrent programming, templates, move semantics, and RAII.

• Memory management: custom allocators, memory pools, zero-copy techniques, and avoiding dynamic allocation on hot paths.

• Low-latency fundamentals: CPU cache hierarchy, cache-friendly code, false sharing avoidance, memory alignment, CPU affinity, and thread pinning.

• SIMD/vectorization (SSE/AVX) and shared memory IPC for zero-latency inter-process communication.

• Linux systems: kernel tuning for low latency (IRQ affinity, CPU isolation, huge pages), POSIX threading, real-time scheduling (SCHED_FIFO).

• Profiling and benchmarking: perf, valgrind, flamegraphs, and the ability to systematically identify and eliminate bottlenecks.

• Trading & Domain Knowledge:

• Strong understanding of Order Management Systems (OMS), order lifecycle, and pre-trade risk checks.

• Experience with FIX protocol and/or exchange-native APIs.

• Ability to consume, parse, and process high-frequency tick data (market data handling).

• Familiarity with NSE trading systems, exchange connectivity, and market microstructure.

Qualifications (Preferred)

• Exposure to time synchronization (PTP/PPS) and hardware timestamping.
• Experience with tick-level simulation and backtesting infrastructure.
• Knowledge of multicast market data (PIM-SM, IGMP).
• Familiarity with FPGA-based acceleration for ultra-low latency execution or market data processing.

Candidate Profile

• Obsessed with performance: measures everything, assumes nothing.
• Strong systems thinker who understands the full stack from hardware to application.
• Disciplined and precise; in HFT, bugs are expensive.
• Comfortable working in a small, high-ownership environment with direct impact on live trading.
• Passionate about low-latency engineering, not just trading.