Software Engineer - Pre-trade analytics, risk, portfolio optimization

About Clear Street:

The Role:

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will play a foundational role in building our Alpha Platform — a modern, AI-driven system for pre-trade analytics, risk, hedging, portfolio optimization, and customized client exposure management. 

You'll join a team of passionate, collaborative engineers tackling non-trivial problems that demand careful trade-off analysis, clean system design, and efficient implementation. You will work across the full stack,  from data ingestion and processing pipelines to AI-driven analytics and client-facing API layers,  on a high-SLA financial platform built to the highest engineering standards. You will help evolve our technical standards and best practices, and promote a culture of excellence.

The Team:

Our team is composed of highly talented, motivated engineers passionate about pushing the boundaries of financial technology. Together, we are building a platform at the forefront of technological innovation that will serve institutional clients globally. As a member of our team, you will work with cutting-edge technologies, collaborate with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, and make a meaningful impact on the financial industry. We value creativity, innovation, and a strong work ethic, and are committed to giving every team member the support and resources they need to succeed.

Requirements:

• You have at least five (5) years of professional experience implementing highly scalable services in Java (with deep fluency in the Spring Framework ecosystem) and/or Python (with deep fluency in FastAPI, Pydantic, and async patterns), including experience with relational databases such as PostgreSQL and data processing libraries such as Pandas or Polars. Proficiency in one is required; experience in both is a strong plus.
• You are fluent in AI-assisted development workflows, leveraging tools such as Claude Code to accelerate delivery, and are comfortable with Spec-Driven Development (SDD).
• You take end-to-end ownership of problems. Given a complex or ambiguous requirement, you can independently define the approach, navigate trade-offs, and drive a solution from initial design and coding through production delivery without hand-holding at each step.
• You can clearly articulate the nuances of system design and architectural paradigms to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
• You prioritize end-user experience, and it shows in your API design, functionality, and performance.
• You have a strong command of design patterns, data structures, and algorithms.
• You will help mentor team members, define engineering standards, and drive a system design approach to building new services.
• Preferred, but not required: hands-on experience with our platform stack — gRPC, PostgreSQL, Redis, Docker, Gradle, uv, AWS, and Kubernetes. Readiness to learn is required.
• You are comfortable working in, or learning, domains such as financial risk or pre-trade analytics. A strong plus: exposure to finance with an understanding of instruments and concepts such as swaps, custom baskets, the trade lifecycle, performance calculations and attribution, and factor models.

We offer:

• The opportunity to join a growing team where you can make a real difference.
• A modern, high-quality codebase with minimal technical debt and significant room to build new services and features.
• A team that embraces AI assistance and pairs it with a strong focus on DevOps, observability, and CI/CD best practices.
• A meritocratic culture that champions collaboration and rewards impact.
• Competitive compensation, benefits, and perks.

The Base Salary Range is $170,000 - $220,000. These ranges are representative of the starting base salaries for this role at Clear Street. Which range a candidate fits into and where a candidate falls in the range will be based on job related factors such as relevant experience, skills, and location. These ranges represent Base Salary only, which is just one element of Clear Street's total compensation. The ranges stated do not include other factors of total compensation such as bonuses or equity.

At Clear Street, we offer competitive compensation packages, company equity, 401k matching, gender neutral parental leave, and full medical, dental and vision insurance. Our belief has always been that we are better as a business when we are all together in person. We are requiring employees to be in the office 4 days per week. In-office benefits include lunch stipends, fully stocked kitchens, happy hours, a great location, and amazing views.

Our top priority is our people. We’re continuously investing in a culture that promotes collaboration. We help each other through challenges and celebrate each other's successes. We believe that modern workplaces succeed by virtue of having high-performance workforces that are diverse — in ideas, in cultures, and in experiences. We put in the effort to make such a workplace a daily reality and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

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