Staff Engineer

About Man Group

Man Group is a global alternative investment management firm focused on pursuing outperformance for sophisticated clients via our Systematic, Discretionary and Solutions offerings. Powered by talent and advanced technology, our single and multi-manager investment strategies are underpinned by deep research and span public and private markets, across all major asset classes, with a significant focus on alternatives. Man Group takes a partnership approach to working with clients, establishing deep connections and creating tailored solutions to meet their investment goals and those of the millions of retirees and savers they represent.

Headquartered in London, we manage $253.6 billion* and operate across multiple offices globally. Man Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker EMG.LN and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Further information can be found at www.man.com

At Man Group, we respect your privacy and we are committed to protecting and safeguarding your Personal Data. We have developed policies and processes which are designed to provide for the security and integrity of your Personal Data. We are committed to Processing your Personal Data fairly and lawfully, and being open and transparent about such Processing. For further information on how we process your data, please see the privacy notice for applicants here.

* As at 30 June 2026

The Role

We're seeking a Staff Python Engineer to provide technical leadership across our technology organisation, working on high-impact challenges spanning systematic trading, quantitative research, our petabyte-scale data platform, and AI solutions.

This is a senior individual-contributor role for an engineer who sets technical direction, not just delivers against it. You will shape architecture across team boundaries, raise the engineering bar through hands-on mentorship and review, and act as a trusted technical partner to engineering leadership, researchers, and traders. You'll be given significant autonomy to identify and drive the highest-leverage technical initiatives, while remaining deeply hands-on in design and code.

Role Responsibilities

• Own architectural direction for critical systems, making build-vs-buy and long-term design decisions that span multiple teams and years, not just sprints
• Design and build scalable backend systems, APIs, and distributed compute applications that underpin trading and research infrastructure, with a focus on performance, resilience, and observability at scale
• Build and evolve high-performance data pipelines for petabyte-scale financial datasets, working across timeseries, SQL, and NoSQL databases
• Act as a technical escalation point and thought partner for engineers, researchers, and platform teams, translating ambiguous or conflicting requirements into coherent technical strategy
• Lead by example on engineering craft: set standards for testing, code review, and production readiness, and raise the bar through mentorship of engineers at all levels
• Drive cross-team technical initiatives from proposal through delivery, including proofs of concept, migrations, and platform-wide improvements
• Participate in production support rotations and contribute to incident response and postmortems for the most critical systems
• Champion the adoption of AI-assisted development tools and agentic engineering practices across the team, and help define how the organisation uses them responsibly at scale

Our Technology

You'll work in a modern, Linux-based infrastructure where Python is the primary development language, utilising the full scientific stack including pandas, numpy, scipy, and scikit-learn. A key component of our data infrastructure is ArcticDB (https://arcticdb.io/), our internally developed DataFrame database that you'll use and help evolve. We maintain a dynamic technology landscape, continuously evaluating and adopting new tools and libraries that enhance our capabilities. man.com/technology

Our Sofia Office

This role sits within our growing Sofia office, one of Man Technology's fastest-expanding engineering hubs outside London. We recently moved into a newly built, purpose-designed office in the city as part of our long-term investment in the team here. Beyond day-to-day delivery, our Sofia engineers help raise Man Group's profile as a technology employer locally - engaging with the Bulgarian tech community through university partnerships, hackathons, and local meetups.

Key Competencies

Essential

• 8+ years' professional software development experience, with deep expertise in Python or another object-oriented language and demonstrated ability to become an expert-level Python engineer quickly
• Track record of owning architecture and technical direction for systems used in production at scale, beyond the scope of a single team
• Strong academic record with coursework focused on mathematical and computing content, e.g. Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or Physics
• Deep experience with best practices for testing, monitoring, deployment, and operating mission-critical production systems
• Experience with distributed systems, orchestration, and large-scale performance optimisation
• Proficient on Linux platforms with strong command of Git and modern engineering workflows
• Deep knowledge of one or more relevant database technologies, spanning relational (e.g. Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MySQL), NoSQL/document (e.g. MongoDB), or timeseries (e.g. ArcticDB) systems
• Demonstrated experience designing for and working with large, complex data sets, both structured and unstructured
• Proven ability to influence technical direction without formal authority, and to align stakeholders across teams with differing priorities
• Experience mentoring engineers and elevating the technical capability of a team
• Experience integrating tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or custom agentic workflows into a team's SDLC

Advantageous

• Deep understanding of the Python scientific stack (pandas, numpy, scipy, scikit-learn)
• Familiarity with related data platforms such as monitoring and metrics (e.g. Prometheus, InfluxDB), search and analytics (e.g. Elasticsearch), streaming (e.g. Kafka), or big data and distributed compute (e.g. Hadoop, Spark)
• Knowledge of modern data engineering practices including ETL tooling, distributed storage and processing, and data warehousing
• Significant contributions to open-source projects
• Experience working with Large Language Models (LLMs), including applying them to engineering workflows or products
• Experience in financial services, trading, or quantitative research environments
• Experience defining or influencing engineering standards, guilds, or communities of practice across an organisation

Why Man Group?

• Set technical direction on problems at the true cutting edge of technology and finance
• Work alongside world-class engineers, researchers, and investment professionals - and shape how they work
• Entrepreneurial, innovation-driven culture with small, agile teams and high autonomy
• Significant influence over architecture and engineering practice, without giving up hands-on technical work
• Direct impact on investment strategies managing billions in assets

Benefits  

• Modern office located in the OfficeX campus with easy access to transport and amenities.
• Hybrid working model
• Competitive compensation package
• 25 days holiday allowance
• Premium Health insurance
• Employee Assistance program
• Referral Bonus
• Additional days off for long service and volunteering
• Multisport card
• Opportunities for professional development including internal tech talks
• Conference attendance, and engagement with the open-source community

Inclusion, Work-Life Balance and Benefits at Man Group

You'll thrive in our working environment that champions equality of opportunity. Your unique perspective will contribute to our success, joining a workplace where inclusion is fundamental and deeply embedded in our culture and values. Through our external and internal initiatives, partnerships and programmes, you'll find opportunities to grow, develop your talents, and help foster an inclusive environment for all across our firm and industry. Learn more at www.man.com/diversity.

You'll have opportunities to make a difference through our charitable and global initiatives, while advancing your career through professional development, and with flexible working arrangements available too. Like all our people, you'll receive two annual 'Mankind' days of paid leave for community volunteering.

Our comprehensive benefits package includes competitive holiday entitlements, pension/401k, life and long-term disability coverage, group sick pay, enhanced parental leave and long-service leave. Depending on your location, you may also enjoy additional benefits such as private medical coverage, discounted gym membership options and pet insurance.

Equal Employment Opportunity Policy

Man Group provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants and all employees without regard to race, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, religion, disability, sex, gender identity and expression, marital status, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, age or any other legally protected category or status in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.

Man Group is a Disability Confident Committed employer; if you require help or information on reasonable adjustments as you apply for roles with us, please contact  [email protected].