System Architect - Trading Technology

System Architect – Trading Technology – Architecture & Innovation – Amsterdam – €135K+ 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 System Architect, you will join a newly formed Architecture & Innovation team at an important moment in its development. Your role in the early phase is foundational: mapping existing systems, writing architecture decision records, embedding with development teams, and building the institutional knowledge that will underline everything the teams do.

You will be hands-on from the start, working across legacy C++, Python, MSSQL, MongoDB environments, contributing to documentation tooling, and helping make architecture governance a practical reality. Over time the role evolves toward delivery, migration ownership and broader technical contribution across the engineering organisation. You can also contribute to the new technical direction. Think about: Rust. Bascially, you’ll be vital for the new technical landscape.

The team is built around attitude as much as skill. The expectation is that you will dig in, share what you know, document what you learn, and keep the collective goal in mind. Proud, but with little ego.

What You'll Be Doing

Your first months will be focused on understanding and documenting the current technical landscape in a way that is sustainable and useful to the teams around you. This means building tooling to support documentation at scale, writing ADRs, and incorporating changes as they happen. As institutional knowledge deepens, the role broadens into delivery, migrations and helping other engineering teams raise their technical standards.

What You'll Need

Experience & Background:

• Solid software engineering background with some exposure to architecture work
• Experience with legacy or undocumented codebases is a strong advantage
• Any involvement in system migrations is a plus
• Mid-level seniority with clear readiness to take on more ownership in a high-trust environment

Technical Skills:

• Familiarity with at least one or two of: databases, Kubernetes, low-latency systems, distributed systems, messaging platforms, or Linux infrastructure
• Comfortable engaging with C++ and Python codebases
• Kubernetes and DevOps exposure is a plus
• AI experience is useful but not a hard requirement

Personal Qualities:

• Curious, open-minded and energised by foundational work done well
• Values documentation and structure

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• Communicates clearly with both technical and non-technical people
• Autonomous and collaborative in equal measure; derives satisfaction from making the people around them more effective

What's Offered

A position at the start of something meaningful: a team with a mandate to shape how the engineering organisation thinks, works and builds. Low hierarchy, high autonomy and direct exposure to senior leadership from day one. Compensation: base salary up to €95K including holiday allowance, with a performance bonus of €40K and above. Relocation support and sponsorship for candidates based in Europe. Hybrid working with up to 40% remote. 25 holidays.

Process

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