Director of Engineering — Trading

Job overview

The Director of Engineering — Trading role is listed in Chicago, IL; the posting describes Alpaca’s team as globally distributed and does not specify a remote or hybrid arrangement. Compensation is not specified. Alpaca builds brokerage infrastructure and APIs for financial institutions, with a mission of opening financial services to everyone. The director builds and scales an engineering organization responsible for institutional trading capabilities across asset classes. The role sets the engineering roadmap and architecture for a high-performance trading platform, aligning delivery with institutional brokerage strategy and coordinating across product, risk, compliance, operations, and finance.

What you'll do

• Own and execute the institutional trading platform engineering roadmap
• build and scale an engineering team
• partner with senior brokerage and technology leaders
• evolve multi-asset architecture and cross-margining
• guide trading APIs, order management, risk, and margin systems
• set standards for performance, availability, scalability, and resilience
• coordinate initiatives across trading and related functions
• contribute hands-on through proof-of-concept code, code reviews, production deployments, and L3 escalation.

What we're looking for

Skills & competencies

director of engineering

trading

alpaca

brokerage infrastructure

institutional trading

engineering leadership

multi-asset architecture

cross-margining

trading apis

risk and margin systems

distributed systems

home-office setup

Work arrangement

• Weekend coverage required

Benefits & perks

• Competitive salary and stock options, health benefits, one-time $500 new-hire home-office setup, and $150 monthly stipend via a Brex Card.

Why this role

The posting describes a globally distributed team and lists a one-time $500 home-office setup and a $150 monthly stipend. The reporting line is marked TBD in the posting.

About the employer

Alpaca is hiring for this role. Industry: Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation. Sector: 52.