Senior Java Systems Engineer - Platform Exchange / Matching Engine

WE ARE: At Adaptive, we are a technology provider firm that partners with capital, commodity, and digital market participants to build custom front-office technology, messaging systems, and trading infrastructure. Our experienced teams design and deliver complex front-office technology solutions using our proven accelerators to create long-term competitive advantage. Our clients include the world’s leading investment banks, investment managers, fintechs and capital market service providers. With a global reach, with offices in London, New York, Barcelona, Montreal, and Manila, we have a proven track record of delivering powerful, elegant and intuitive trading technology solutions, and we value technical pragmatism, collaboration, and clear communication. We're looking for a Senior Java / Systems Engineer with significant experience in Platform Exchange Systems to design, deliver, and optimise production-ready, high-performance, low-latency technology using Aeron. YOU ARE: • A hands-on engineer who enjoys designing and optimising low-latency Java services and protocols across the full delivery lifecycle. • Someone with genuine experience building Matching Engines and Platform Exchange Systems. • Driven by evidence-based engineering, automated testing, benchmarking, and profiling rather than guesswork. • A clear, confident communicator who can work across domain boundaries in a collaborative Agile environment, rather than being siloed into a single technology stack. YOU HAVE: • Strong server-side, low-latency Java expertise (concurrency, memory management, I/O, and performance profiling). • Solid exchange, risk, or matching-engine experience. • Hands-on experience building automated testing strategies, running performance benchmarks, and diagnosing production issues. • Excellent technical communication and collaborative problem-solving skills. • Experience with order entry and market data protocols (e.g. FIX, ITCH). • Familiarity with low-latency frameworks such as Aeron, Chronicle, or LBM. • An understanding of replicated state machines, event sourcing, or deterministic systems. • Exposure to cloud environments (AWS/GCP), containers, Kubernetes, or observability tooling. YOU WILL: • Design, build, and optimise low-latency Java services and protocols for an Exchange Accelerator product across the delivery lifecycle. • Define order, session, instrument, and account models alongside exchange integration boundaries. • Develop automated testing strategies and perform evidence-based performance benchmarking and profiling. • Collaborate directly with client teams, SREs, QA, and leadership to ensure exchange readiness and durable production fixes. • Engage with client engineering and business stakeholders, communicating technical trade-offs clearly. • Support the product in production across multiple client deployments. (And after six months) • Independently own key technical workstreams from concept to production readiness. • Deliver maintainable, observable, and well-tested systems aligned with core architecture. • Establish trusted relationships with clients through clear communication and steady delivery. WHY US: • To be immersed in high-standard engineering culture. Our fantastic team takes pride in crafting complex technical solutions but also loves sharing their knowledge and helping you grow professionally (we have extraordinary minds at Adaptive, you can learn from anyone here, which is the beauty of it). • To take part in the growth and development of a great company. • Our teams feel free to speak up, make suggestions and raise concerns. • Collaborative team environment: we all work together, respect each other, and pitch in • Great consideration for work/life balance (highly-flexible, hybrid wo