Software Engineer, Cross Commodity Front Office

Our client is a leading utility-backed seaborne energy trader specialising in LNG, coal and freight. It operates in one of the largest energy portfolios in the world which gives it an in-depth understanding of the way local, regional and international energy markets behave. These insights enable it to help its customers increase security of supply, optimise their portfolios and improve the risk management of their assets.

Headquartered in Singapore, it has a global talent pool of about 250 people across offices located in four strategic locations: Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), the UK (London) and the US (Baltimore).

Responsibilities:

• Embed within company’s Cross Commodity Trading team, working closely with a small team of traders and analysts to collaborate on iterative development of their software.
• Engage in diverse projects involving a range of system types, including web applications, real-time data processors, data analytics/visualisations, and data integrations. 
• You will use a variety of IT project styles, such as green-field development, brown-field enhancement, and prototyping.
• Take ownership of your own learning to develop a deep understanding of company's business teams, including the transaction lifecycle, and trading and risk management approaches within a multi-commodity energy trading environment. 
• Take ownership of the entire software delivery lifecycle, from problem formulation to operational support, encompassing analysis, prioritisation, architecture, design, development, and testing.
• Demonstrate a strong engineering focus and a keen eye for high-quality delivery, while balancing competing factors such as time constraints, risks, and costs within our fast-paced, results-driven trading environment.
• Develop purpose-driven technical architectures, taking ownership of system architecture and technology selection to deliver solutions that align with business needs and balance innovation with the need for robust and supportable solutions. 
• You will then ensure coherence and adherence to architectural designs throughout the development process.
• Build robust systems using modern software engineering techniques pushing to automate processes to ensure efficiency and maintain quality and productivity; including automated unit/integration testing, continuous integration, and automated deployment.
• Collaborate closely with IT stakeholders to ensure alignment with the overall IT strategy, encompassing business architecture, infrastructure architecture, and technology.
• Provide support for systems developed, actively resolving any issues that arise, and ensuring the smooth operation and availability of critical applications.
• Collaborate with the IT Operations/Infrastructure team to deploy solutions into company's IT infrastructure in a sustainable manner, considering factors such as scalability, security, and performance. 
• Your solutions will achieve efficient and seamless integration with existing systems and infrastructure.
• Support the continuous improvement of the Bespoke Development Team by contributing to team meetings and technical workshops, and providing adhoc help and advice to software engineers embedded in other business teams where you have relevant experience.
• Ensure continuity of knowledge by working closely with other IT stakeholders. 
• This may involve writing comprehensive documentation that captures system configurations, processes, and troubleshooting guidelines. 
• Additionally, you will participate in handover workshops to effectively transfer knowledge and ensure a smooth transition during team changes or project handovers.

Requirements:

• As a Software Engineer at company, you must have the following experience:
• Familiarity with the mechanics of financial markets, preferably with a focus on commodities, ideally through direct experience in building software for a front office trading team.
• Proficiency in the Python ecosystem, demonstrating in-depth expertise in data processing, analysis and visualisation libraries, as well as its broader frameworks for addressing large-scale problems such as API/service development and real-time data processing. 
• Experience with multithreading/ multiprocessing libraries and vectorization techniques would be a plus. 
• Note that Candidates with an equivalent level of knowledge in .NET or Java but possessing a strong desire to immerse themselves in the Python ecosystem will also be considered.
• Expert-level knowledge of the modern web development ecosystem and able to demonstrate strong productivity in technology stacks like React or Angular for delivering robust and efficient web applications.
• Familiarity with a range of software development tools, such as source code management (e.g. Azure DevOps, Git), build and release management (e.g. Azure DevOps Pipelines) and test automation (e.g. unit testing tools, BDD tools like Cucumber/Gherkin)
• Familiarity with cloud PaaS and IaaS (e.g. Microsoft Azure), and experience in developing containerized microservice architectures using technologies like Docker and Kubernetes.
• Familiarity with at least one type of DB technology (SQL Server, Mongo DB etc)
• It is highly desirable for candidates to have experience in data visualisation technologies such as Tableau or Power BI, as well as data engineering technologies like DataBricks or Apache Spark.
• This knowledge is crucial for facilitating direct communication with users and stakeholders, minimizing the need for constant guidance.

Person specifications

• The ideal candidate will have prior experience in a decision support software engineering role within a commodity trading organization. 
• They should possess a strong interest in the trading domain and be eager to make the most of the opportunities our role offers by immersing themselves in the activities of an innovative, results-driven, fast-paced trading team.
• The candidate must possess the ability and motivation to quickly acquire a diverse range of technical skills and then use them to tackle challenges as they arise. 
• The company will provide support, resources, and technical mentoring to facilitate the candidate's skill development as required.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Self-starter, highly motivated, adaptable, accountable.
• Strong academic background, educated to degree level and/or equivalent professional qualification or relevant business experience.