About the Company
Phitopolis International Corp. is a research and development firm focused on doing fascinating work for our global clients. To make this happen, our experienced executives have built a first class technical team together. Together, with backing from investors in the USA, Europe and Hong Kong, we are committed to growing Phitopolis into a top tier R&D firm.
About the role
As a Trade Support Engineer, you will play a critical role in ensuring the availability, stability, and performance of the firm's electronic trading platforms and supporting infrastructure. Working in a fast-paced FinTech environment, you will be responsible for monitoring production trading systems, investigating trade execution and connectivity issues, automating operational processes, and collaborating with Development, Infrastructure, Data, and Research teams to continuously improve the reliability and efficiency of the trading platform.
This role combines production support, Linux systems administration, automation, observability, and incident management while providing significant opportunities to grow within trading technology and financial markets.
Key Responsibilities
- Ensure the stability, availability, and performance of production trading applications, infrastructure, and supporting services.
- Monitor the health of trading systems, market connectivity, messaging platforms, and infrastructure using observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, Icinga, and related monitoring solutions.
- Investigate and troubleshoot production incidents affecting trade execution, order flow, market connectivity, application performance, and infrastructure components.
- Perform end-to-end trade flow analysis to identify and resolve issues across trading applications, middleware, databases, and downstream systems.
- Lead or participate in incident response, root cause analysis (RCA), problem management, and post-incident reviews to improve platform resilience.
- Automate operational tasks, health checks, deployment activities, and routine support processes to improve efficiency and reduce operational risk.
- Develop, maintain, and improve CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and configuration management for production applications.
- Leverage AI-assisted engineering tools to accelerate troubleshooting, log analysis, root cause investigations, documentation, scripting, and operational automation while maintaining appropriate technical validation and oversight.
- Utilize AI-powered observability and analytics capabilities, where available, to improve incident detection, anomaly identification, capacity planning, and operational insights.
- Work closely with Development, Infrastructure, Data Engineering, Research, and Operations teams to improve system reliability, operational processes, and platform performance.
- Perform Linux system administration, application support, configuration management, and production maintenance activities.
- Execute business-as-usual (BAU) operational requests, production releases, service validations, and change activities following established operational procedures.
- Develop and maintain operational runbooks, troubleshooting guides, and technical documentation, incorporating AI-assisted knowledge management where appropriate.
- Continuously improve monitoring, alerting, dashboards, automation, and operational processes to proactively detect and prevent production issues.
- Participate in production support rotations and provide timely communication to stakeholders during production incidents.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline.
- 2–5 years of experience supporting mission-critical production applications, preferably within Financial Services, Electronic Trading, Capital Markets, or Securities Settlement environments.
- Strong Linux/UNIX administration experience with excellent command-line troubleshooting skills.
- Experience supporting high-availability production environments and responding to live incidents.
- Proficiency in scripting or programming languages such as Python, Shell (Bash), and SQL for automation and operational tooling.
- Good understanding of TCP/IP networking, DNS, load balancing, firewalls, and secure application connectivity.
- Experience working with cloud platforms, preferably AWS.
- Experience with monitoring and observability platforms such as Prometheus, Grafana, Icinga, Elastic Stack, or similar technologies.
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, configuration management, and automation tools.
- Excellent written and verbal English communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting electronic trading platforms, OMS/EMS systems, FIX gateways, exchange connectivity, or market data systems.
- Knowledge of the FIX Protocol, electronic trade lifecycle, and financial market operations.
- Experience with messaging technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, IBM MQ, Solace, or similar middleware.
- Experience supporting PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, or other relational databases.
- Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform/OpenTofu), and modern DevOps practices.
- Experience using AI-powered engineering assistants and developer productivity tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Cursor, or similar) to assist with scripting, troubleshooting, log analysis, documentation, and automation.
- Exposure to AI-assisted observability, AIOps platforms, or intelligent monitoring solutions for anomaly detection, incident analysis, or operational insights is an advantage.
- Understanding of financial markets, order management, trade execution, and post-trade processing.
Desired behavior
- Takes ownership of production issues by driving investigations through to root cause, escalating only when appropriate.
- Demonstrates strong analytical and problem-solving skills under time-sensitive production environments.
- Maintains a proactive mindset focused on automation, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.
- Pays close attention to detail while maintaining a structured and methodical approach to troubleshooting.
- Communicates clearly and confidently with technical teams, business stakeholders, and senior management during incidents.
- Works effectively both independently and within cross-functional, international teams.
- Remains calm under pressure and can prioritize competing production issues based on business impact.
- Possesses strong organizational and time management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
- Willing to participate in production support rotations, including occasional weekend or after-hours support when required.
Company perks and benefits
- Opportunity to travel internationally for training and technology immersion.
- Company-sponsored technical certifications and professional development.
- Structured career development and mentoring programs.
- Exposure to cutting-edge trading technologies and financial markets.
- Collaborative, high-performing engineering culture focused on innovation and continuous learning.
