Senior System Architect

Senior System Architect – Amsterdam – Trading Infrastructure - €155K+ OTE Possible

Our client is a proprietary trading firm founded and headquartered in Amsterdam. The firm trades options using its own capital, with market making in equity and index options on regulated exchanges as its core activity. Trading decisions are driven by quantitative models, real-time market data, and risk controls.

As Senior System Architect, you will be a founding member of a newly established Architecture & Innovation team. You will report directly to the Team Lead and take on one of the most consequential technical roles in the organisation at this stage of its evolution. The team's mandate is to bring structure, clarity and strategic direction to a complex, high-performance technology landscape that has grown rapidly and organically. This also means migrating from legacy to a new environment, where you can also define the technical tooling used like Rust.

This is a hands-on role. You will spend the first months mapping existing systems, defining a target-state architecture, establishing governance frameworks, and leading some AI tooling adoption across engineering, trading and business functions. As the foundational work matures, the balance shifts toward building, migrating and owning large-scale technical change, moving toward a roughly equal split between architecture and coding within twelve months.

The culture is deliberately non-hierarchical. You are expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy, dig into unglamorous foundational work, share knowledge freely and keep the collective goal in mind rather than your own agenda. Proud, but with little ego.

What You'll Be Doing

Near-term focus is foundational: mapping the current architecture in a sustainable and self-maintaining way, incorporating changes on the go, and building tooling that makes documentation scalable. You will define architecture principles and standards, establish governance processes, and are involved in the team's AI mandate across engineering, trading and business. As the landscape becomes clearer, you will take ownership of migrations and help define a future-state blueprint aligned with the firm's 2030 goals.

What You'll Need

Experience & Background:

• Strong software engineering background in performance-critical systems
• Proven ability to navigate undocumented or legacy codebases (C++, Python, MSSQL, SSIS/SSRS, MongoDB)
• Experience with system migrations is a significant advantage
• Architecture experience, with a track record of working autonomously
• Able to manage complex stakeholder communication across dev teams, traders and business

Technical Skills:

• Depth in at least one or two of: databases, Kubernetes, low-latency systems, distributed systems, messaging platforms, or Linux infrastructure
• Comfortable working with C++ 17 and Python at a conceptual and systems level
• Kubernetes and DevOps experience is a plus
• AI experience is useful but not a hard requirement; this is not an AI architect role

Personal Qualities:

• Self-directed, curious and energised by unsolved problems
• Values documentation and structure
• Communicates well with both technical and non-technical audiences
• Shares knowledge rather than hoards it; a builder, not a prima donna

What's Offered

A founding position in a team with a mandate to shape how the entire engineering organisation thinks and works. Low hierarchy, high autonomy and direct access to senior leadership. Compensation: base salary up to €105K including holiday allowance, with a performance bonus of €50K and above. Relocation support and sponsorship for candidates based in Europe. Hybrid working with up to 40% remote. 29 holidays.

Process

1. HR Interview
2. Technical Interview (90 minutes) with the Team Lead, focused primarily on system design
3. Final round