---
title: 'Senior Software Engineer - Research Technology at DRW'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-research-technology-drw-london-t233cgnawnc7'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-06'
---

# Senior Software Engineer - Research Technology at DRW 

- **Company:** DRW 
- **Location:** London, United Kingdom
- **Posted:** 2026-09-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/drweng/jobs/8172852

## Job description

DRW is a diversified trading firm with over 3 decades of experience bringing sophisticated technology and exceptional people together to operate in markets around the world. We value autonomy and the ability to quickly pivot to capture opportunities, so we operate using our own capital and trading at our own risk.

Headquartered in Chicago with offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, we trade a variety of asset classes including Fixed Income, ETFs, Equities, FX, Commodities and Energy across all major global markets. We have also leveraged our expertise and technology to expand into three non-traditional strategies: real estate, venture capital and cryptoassets.

We operate with respect, curiosity and open minds. The people who thrive here share our belief that it’s not just what we do that matters–it's how we do it. DRW is a place of high expectations, integrity, innovation and a willingness to challenge consensus.

Build and operate the platform powering compute-intensive analysis of large event-stream datasets. The work resembles a game engine’s replay loop, a telecom packet pipeline, or a streaming analytics platform, applied to financial market data.

Our stack includes modern C++ for throughput-critical ingestion and simulation, Python with C++ bindings for research tooling, and distributed computing on HPC clusters. Your work will span exchange-data ingestion, HPC orchestration, simulation, and research tooling.

Trading experience is not required; we provide comprehensive onboarding.

## Key responsibilities

- Design, build, and maintain high-performance, scalable software and data systems used by quant researchers and trading teams.
- Implement raw exchange data pipelines in modern C++ and operate them at high-throughput scale.
- Orchestrate and improve reliability of data and compute pipelines on HPC clusters.
- Create ad-hoc computation frameworks and research tooling that let researchers slice, backtest, and iterate rapidly (Python + C++ integrations).
- Develop and maintain simulation frameworks tightly integrated with HFT/live trading platforms.
- Support training and deployment of quantitative models used in trading.
- Optimize codebases for performance, reliability, and resource efficiency across the full stack.
- Work primarily as a hands-on individual contributor while mentoring junior team members as needed.

Required qualifications

- 7+ years of professional experience building large-scale, high-performance systems; daily use of modern C++ (>=17) and Python expected.
- Strong CS fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, networking, OS, concurrency, and system design.
- Experience running compute at cluster scale: job scheduling, resource management, retries, and reliability. Slurm, Kubernetes, Ray, Spark, or custom internal schedulers all count.
- Proven data-engineering experience: schema design, storage formats, compression, I/O trade-offs, and pipelines processing hundreds of terabytes.
- Experience with columnar formats such as Parquet or Arrow, or comparable domain-specific formats used for event logs, telemetry, or replays.
- Experience designing and operating services or platforms used by other technical users in data-intensive environments.
- Demonstrated ability to ship production software safely and repeatedly, with an obsession for data driven quality.

Desirable / nice-to-have

- Rust experience alongside C++ and Python.
- Slurm or other cluster scheduler expertise.
- Familiarity with ML/Deep Learning frameworks.
- Prior finance or market-data experience, including low-level market connectivity.
- GPU programming experience.
- Historical network / packet processing (telco, network appliances, packet-capture replay infrastructure).
- Deterministic simulation and replay systems (game engines, cell simulators, distributed-systems testing frameworks).
- Dev-productivity or platform-engineering for internal users (making other engineers or researchers faster and safer, at scale).

For more information about DRW's processing activities and our use of job applicants' data, please view our Privacy Notice at https://drw.com/privacy-notice.

## #LI-SH

## About DRW 

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: DRW is a diversified principal trading firm that leverages technology, research, and risk management to capture trading and investment opportunities globally across traditional and cryptoasset markets.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Privately Held)
- **Headquarters**: Chicago, Illinois, United States
- **Founded**: Year not publicly specified on the website, but linked data suggests operations since at least the early 2000s (acquired Chopper Trading in 2015).
- **Founders**: Founders are not publicly named on the company website or in standard public profiles.

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Financial Services, Proprietary Trading, Cryptoassets, Real Estate, Venture Capital
- **Target customers**: Institutional counterparties (for Cumberland, its crypto subsidiary); the firm trades its own capital across global markets (B2B/institutional focus).
- **Mission or purpose statement**: The company describes itself as a team of "innovative and ambitious individuals who use the power of free markets to solve challenging problems, capture opportunities, and pursue positive change." [drw.com](https://www.drw.com/work-at-drw)

## Products & Services
- **Proprietary Trading**: DRW trades a wide range of asset classes including fixed income, ETFs, equities, FX, commodities, and cryptoassets, using sophisticated technologies to provide liquidity and capture opportunities.
- **Cumberland**: A subsidiary that provides deep liquidity in cryptoassets to large institutional counterparties and explores DeFi solutions. [drw.com](https://drw.com/our-subsidiaries)
- **DRW Venture Capital**: A VC practice that takes a disciplined approach to investing in financial and enterprise technology companies. [drw.com](https://drw.com/our-subsidiaries)
- **DRW Real Estate**: A fully integrated real estate investment arm that invests in bespoke projects. [drw.com](https://drw.com/our-subsidiaries)
- **NX**: A team that designs, builds, and operates a sophisticated global network for the firm. [drw.com](https://drw.com/our-subsidiaries)
- **Artemeter**: A subsidiary providing full-service carbon financing solutions to help clients achieve decarbonization goals. [drw.com](https://drw.com/our-subsidiaries)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (private company).
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue estimated at **$485.0M** (per LinkedIn data). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/drw)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not applicable (privately held and self-funded). Notable subsidiaries include Cumberland (crypto).
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount growth of **+10.6% YoY** (adding 233 people), reaching 1,628 employees. Active job postings increased **+53.8% YoY**. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/drw)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Diversified Approach**: Unlike many trading firms that focus on a single asset class, DRW trades across many asset classes and instruments, with horizons from seconds to years. [drw.com](https://www.drw.com/work-at-drw)
- **Technology & Research**: Heavy investment in sophisticated technology, research, and risk management to find and capture opportunities globally.
- **Low Ego, Little Hierarchy**: The company explicitly states a culture of "low ego, little hierarchy and a commitment to continuous learning." [drw.com](https://www.drw.com/work-at-drw)
- **Stability & Startup Spirit**: Described as offering "the best of both worlds: the opportunity and spirit of a startup and the benefits and stability of an established, experienced firm." [drw.com](https://www.drw.com/work-at-drw)

## Strategic Focus
- **Expansion into Non-Traditional Strategies**: The firm has expanded beyond traditional trading into real estate, venture capital, and cryptoassets, indicating a focus on long-term, strategic, and diversified growth. [drw.com](https://drw.com/our-subsidiaries)
- **Continuous Innovation**: Focus on solving challenging problems, discussing technical and research topics, and challenging consensus to achieve high standards. [drw.com](https://www.drw.com/work-at-drw)
- **Global Reach**: Operates in 29 countries with offices in the US, UK, Canada, Singapore, Netherlands, and Israel, signaling a commitment to global market participation. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/drw)

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & Philosophy**: The company emphasizes "low ego, little hierarchy," "challenge consensus," "integrity," and "continuous learning." It seeks curious problem solvers with quantitative mindsets. [drw.com](https://www.drw.com/work-at-drw)
- **Compensation & Benefits**: Rated 4.3/5.0 on compensation. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/drw) Perks include daily catered breakfast & lunch, monthly tastings, massages, yoga classes, meditation, gym subsidy, game room, and social events. [drw.com](https://www.drw.com/work-at-drw)
- **Work Environment**: Offers flexible work arrangements. The culture is described as fast-paced, collaborative, and intellectually rigorous. [drw.com](https://www.drw.com/work-at-drw)
- **Engineering Culture**: A significant portion of the workforce is technical (615 employees, 25% of total). Roles include Quantitative AI Strategist, Python Software Engineer, Data Developer, HPC Specialist, and Trading Systems Engineer. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/drw)
- **Global Offices**: Hybrid/office presence in Chicago (HQ), New York, London, Amsterdam, Singapore, Montreal, Tel Aviv, and more. [drw.com](https://www.drw.com/work-at-drw/listings)

## Sources
1. [drw.com - Work at DRW](https://www.drw.com/work-at-drw)
2. [drw.com - Our Subsidiaries](https://drw.com/our-subsidiaries)
3. [linkedin.com - DRW Company Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/company/drw)
4. [greenhouse.io - DRW Engineering Jobs](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/drweng)

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