Lead Engineer, Risk Technology

Java Backend Engineer

CoinDesk is the most trusted media, events, indices and data company for the global crypto economy. Since 2013, CoinDesk Media has led the story of the future of money and investing, illuminating the transformation in society and culture that comes with it. Our award-winning team of journalists delivers news and unparalleled insights that bring transparency, comprehension and context.

In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. For more information on Bullish, please visit bullish.com. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence.

Reports to:

Director, Engineering

Engineering Organization & Culture

At Bullish, we are engineering the institutional standard for the digital asset industry. Our mission is to build a platform where security and compliance are the foundational core, requiring a commitment to technical excellence that goes beyond simply delivering code. We operate as a global engineering organization, setting a high bar in a demanding environment for those driven to do the best work of their careers alongside world-class peers.

We value engineers who treat development as a craft and own the outcome from concept to deployment. You will be expected to navigate the unknown, bring structure to ambiguity, and help shape the frameworks and processes that drive our global teams forward. We refuse to compromise on quality and seek problem solvers who thrive on high-impact technical challenges.

The Team: Risk Engineering

The Risk Engineering team builds the high-performance computational backbone that safeguards our exchange operations. Bridging quantitative finance and systems engineering, we optimize the mission-critical risk calculations that evaluate margin requirements, stress scenarios, and portfolio exposures in real-time, ensuring every trade is backed by solid financial guardrails. Our technical domain spans low-latency JVM optimization, zero-allocation hot paths and complex financial modeling.

We are seeking a highly experienced Java Backend Engineer to lead the development of our high-performance risk systems. You will leverage your extensive experience to build clean, maintainable, performant applications; promote best practices, and collaborate closely with our quantitative and product teams.

What You'll Do

• High-Performance JVM Engineering: Design and build high-quality, scalable and performant low/zero-GC JVM services and APIs
• Technical Translation & Risk Modeling: Understand risk models & decompose complex business requirements into well tested implementations.
• Strategic Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate directly with quantitative analysts and product teams to build robust solutions for financial products and risk models.
• Continuous Codebase Optimization: Optimize and refactor the existing codebase to enhance testing, performance and maintainability
• Engineering Excellence: Be a bastion of code quality and best practices, paired with a performance mindset.

What You'll Bring

• Professional Experience: 10+ years of experience as a Java backend engineer
• Mindset and Ownership: Strong sense of ownership and ability to thrive in a dynamic startup environment.
• Language Mastery: Expert proficiency in Java, including hands-on experience in architecting highly performant, low-latency systems.
• Testing Methodologies: In-depth knowledge of testing methodologies, including TDD, back testing and stress testing
• Software Design Excellence: Well versed in Agile methodologies, DRY, Clean Code, API design and micro-services.
• Technical Ecosystem: Experience in a full range of tools such as Git, Docker, Kubernetes, GCP
• Financial Products Expertise: Comprehensive understanding of financial products, risk models and methodologies (SPAN, VaR etc)
• Analytical Aptitude: Exceptional mathematical and analytical skills.
• Educational Foundation: Degree in Computer Science or related field

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with event-sourced architectures, columnar storage/databases, cloud technologies, Chronicle Queue, Kotlin
• Experience mentoring and providing technical guidance to junior engineers through pairing, collaboration and code reviews.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

In an effort to attract, retain, develop and promote the most qualified individuals, CoinDesk is committed to treating all applicants and employees in a nondiscriminatory manner with respect to the terms and conditions of employment, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status/service, physical or mental disability, or any other classification protected by applicable law. This mandate governs all aspects of employment, including recruitment, selection, promotion, training, education, social and recreation programs, compensation, discipline, termination and access to benefits.

ACCOMMODATION

CoinDesk is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the application process, please send an e-mail to recruiting@coindesk.com and let us know the nature of your request.