Full-Time

C++ Software Developer

Headlands Tech Holdings

Headlands Tech Holdings

51-200 employees

Global quantitative trading strategies for equities

No salary listed

London, UK + 2 more

More locations: Chicago, IL, USA | New York, NY, USA

In Person

Bachelor's

Category
Software Engineering (1)
Required Skills
Data Structures & Algorithms
Computer Networking
C/C++
Linux/Unix

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Requirements
  • Preferred degree in any computing related area (e.g., computer science, computer engineering, etc.)
  • In lieu of this, extensive professional software development experience
  • Well-versed in the fundamentals of software engineering
  • Genuine interest in solving technical problems, along with a strong ability to implement solutions
  • Low ego, able to work both in a collaborative team setting and autonomously
  • Committed to designing and implementing fully automated, scalable, and maintainable solutions with extensive testing
  • Superior ability to write in C++, or experience with other statically-typed imperative programming language
  • Comfortable operating at various different levels of abstraction, from individual machines to large scale distributed systems
  • Strong knowledge of the details of computing all throughout the technical stack
  • Knowledge of Linux a plus
  • Experience in the trading industry preferred but not mandatory
Responsibilities
  • Build, maintain, and improve exchange connectivity
  • Leverage existing infrastructure, extending functionality where necessary
  • Build a deep understanding of exchange behavior to integrate into our existing trading system
  • Maintain and extend core research infrastructure
  • Design, implement, and maintain distributed storage systems with various different performance and reliability requirements
  • Address performance limitations within our own software, open source libraries and applications, Linux, etc.
  • Investigate new technologies to improve stability, scalability, and performance
  • Implement new trading strategies in collaboration with research and operations teams
  • Extend strategy framework to enable new behaviors and improve existing ones
  • Investigate signal issues for trading system
  • Reconcile differences between trading strategies performance in simulation versus production
  • Investigate production trading issues in collaboration with operations, systems, and research teams
  • Optimize the performance of the live trading system
  • Measure latency and throughput through microbenchmarks, profiling, tracing, etc.
  • Optimize existing code using lock free data structures, compiler intrinsics, etc.
  • Develop new algorithms to address performance limitations at a higher abstraction layer
  • Rearchitect components of the trading system to eliminate bottlenecks
  • Fundamental network programming
  • Implement low level networking protocols
  • Investigate network captures to understand latency and behavior of both exchange and internal communication
  • Ensure the continued stability and reliability of the trading system
  • Build monitoring systems for trading strategies and all other pieces of our infrastructure
  • Conduct code reviews of other developers, researchers and operations team members
Desired Qualifications
  • Knowledge of Linux a plus
  • Experience in the trading industry preferred but not mandatory
Headlands Tech Holdings

Headlands Tech Holdings

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Headlands Technologies uses statistical models to develop and run algorithmic trading strategies for exchange-traded securities. Its software analyzes market data in real time and automatically places trades across electronic venues while monitoring risk. Unlike some peers, the firm is privately funded and does not take outside investment, which gives it control over its capital and decisions, with offices in Chicago, London, and San Francisco. The goal is to earn profits by efficiently executing automated trading across global markets while maintaining disciplined risk controls.

Company Size

51-200

Company Stage

N/A

Total Funding

N/A

Headquarters

Chicago, Illinois

Founded

2009

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Headlands is actively hiring in July 2026, suggesting sustained demand for quants and engineers.
  • Bloomberg's June 2026 coverage keeps Headlands visible as a premier target for market talent.
  • Its prosecution of Ho signals aggressive IP defense, deterring future insider theft attempts.

What critics are saying

  • Richard Ho's trade-secret trial starts July 13, 2026, exposing Headlands' controls and code.
  • The Ho case alleges insider copying while employed, directly challenging Headlands' security culture.
  • If prosecutors prove source-code theft, rivals can infer Headlands' strategy architecture and erode edge.

What makes Headlands Tech Holdings unique

  • Headlands runs quantitative trading globally from Chicago, London, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Singapore.
  • Its Atoms and Alphas codebase underpins proprietary strategies, and the firm claims billion-dollar development spend.
  • The company still recruits software developers and quantitative researchers in 2026, signaling active platform expansion.

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Company News

ETFDailyNews.com
Sep 21st, 2025
Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Has $21.08 Million Holdings in Alerian MLP ETF $AMLP

Finally, Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in Alerian MLP ETF in the 2nd quarter valued at about $49,000.

ETFDailyNews.com
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93,500 Shares in Corebridge Financial, Inc. $CRBG Purchased by Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V.

Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Corebridge Financial in the 1st quarter valued at about $156,000.

ETFDailyNews.com
Sep 20th, 2025
Sivia Capital Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 4,526 Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Pegasystems in the first quarter worth $57,000.

ETFDailyNews.com
Sep 20th, 2025
iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF $ESGU Shares Sold by Pallas Capital Advisors LLC

Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF in the first quarter worth approximately $91,000.

ETFDailyNews.com
Jun 14th, 2025
Merit Financial Group LLC Takes $147,000 Position in América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:AMX)

Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in América Móvil in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $74,000.