{"id":4269226,"url":"https://alion.io/job/optimal-engineering-consultants-senior-software-engineer","title":"Senior Software Engineer","company":{"id":85149,"name":"Optimal Engineering Consultants","domain":"optimal.ae","url":"https://alion.io/company/optimal","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Chicago, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":200000,"max":250000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":250000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Claude Code","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"SQL","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-13T15:55:20Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-13","last_verified_at":"2026-11-15T07:31:56Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"About Us:\nOptimal Market Technologies is a FINRA-registered broker-dealer with an innovative platform of wholesale options and execution solutions designed to meet the needs of today’s dynamic market participants. Optimal can quickly and seamlessly enhance its platform, adapt to regulatory changes, and offer a more efficient implementation that scales as clients grow. Optimal is disrupting the US Options Wholesale landscape by introducing a Competition for Order Flow model through which market makers compete for retail flow on our platform based on best execution quality. Additional offerings include an Institutional Alternative Trading System (ATS) for discreet execution and price improvement and Execution Services for institutional-grade routing and algorithmic execution designed to balance price capture, speed, and market impact across trading objectives. \nThis is an opportunity to work for a fintech start-up and to be an integral part of growing a broker-dealer from the ground up. As a small, hardworking team, we pride ourselves on our entrepreneurial culture and cross-team collaboration. We recently raised funding from several strategic partners and are in a very exciting stage of growth. \nRole: Senior Software Developer\nCompany: Optimal Market Technologies, LLC\nLocation: Chicago, IL (Hybrid)\nCompensation: $200,000 - $250,000 base salary, plus discretionary bonus (commensurate with experience)\nPosition Overview:\nWe are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to help build our next-generation options trading platform and to maintain and improve the current one.\nYou will use AI coding agents for much of the development work. That makes code cheap to write; the critical parts are now design judgment, verification and review. This role is for an engineer who is strong in those.\nYour Primary Responsibilities:\nDesign and Build:\nOwn a defined part of our next-generation trading platform, from design through release.\nDesign for failure: durability, failover and recovery.\nKeep business logic deterministic and testable in isolation, separate from the code that sends messages.\nVerify and Review:\nCreate discrete tasks with executable acceptance criteria from business specifications.\nBuild checks that are independent of the implementation.\nShare code review with the team’s existing reviewers.\nAI Tools and productivity:\nWe use Claude Code; fluency with it or similar is expected.\nWork with the team to develop shared agent practice.\nBe ready to show us how you actually work with these tools; it’s part of the interview.\nSupport: \nTake part in the production support rotation.\nWhat We're Looking For:\n5+ years of professional software engineering, including designing systems where failure has serious financial or regulatory consequences.\nStrong programming and critical code review in statically typed, compiled languages, including C++.\nProduction software shipped using AI coding agents, with a method you can explain.\nExperience designing tests that check correctness independently of the implementation.\nAble to turn a business specification into discrete tasks with clear acceptance criteria.\nBasic working use of Python and SQL; deeper experience is a plus.\nClear communication: you say what you have and have not verified.\nExperience with trading systems or financial markets is a plus.\nWhy This Role:\nYou will work on the platform that runs the business today and on its replacement, where the design is still open. The team is small, the work is consequential, and good engineering judgment is what we value most.\nOptimal is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3691,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Engineering Services","HVAC & Refrigeration"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-13T17:20:44Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":26,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-15T07:52:55Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":250000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/optimal-engineering-consultants-senior-software-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/optimal-engineering-consultants-senior-software-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-15T12:04:13Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1765,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-16T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":85149},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=85149"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Foptimal-engineering-consultants-senior-software-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"free","price":{"credits":0,"usd":0},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Foptimal-engineering-consultants-senior-software-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Foptimal-engineering-consultants-senior-software-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/optimal-engineering-consultants-senior-software-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Foptimal-engineering-consultants-senior-software-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4269226}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"optimal.ae","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4269226},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}