The Opportunity
Bakkt (NYSE: BKKT) is architecting the future of finance. We are seeking a Staff Engineer to be a hands-on technical leader for our next-generation exchange platform. This is a dedicated Individual Contributor (IC) role for an engineer who thrives in the code and wants to architect high-throughput, low-latency systems without the distraction of people management.
You will be responsible for the core architecture and implementation of systems processing 100k+ TPS, setting the standard for code quality, and solving the hardest technical challenges in a highly secure and regulated environment.
What You'll Do
- Architect & Build: Personally design, code, and optimize high-throughput backend systems supporting 24/7 workloads. You will be writing production code for trading, clearing, funding, and custody pipelines.
- Technical Deep Dives: Own the most complex technical problems. Debug low-level latency issues, optimize garbage collection, and ensure data consistency across distributed systems.
- System Design: Define the technical specs for microservices, event-driven architectures, and API standards. You will produce the design documents that the wider engineering team builds against.
- Force Multiplier: Elevate the team's output through high-quality code reviews, establishing CI/CD patterns, and mentoring senior engineers on best practices (without acting as their manager).
- Resilience Engineering: Write the code that ensures observability and fault tolerance. You will be hands-on with tools like Kafka and Kubernetes to ensure mission-critical uptime.
- AI-Native Development: Actively utilize and integrate AI tooling (LLM-assisted coding, automated test generation) to accelerate development velocity and demonstrate what "future-ready" engineering looks like.
What You'll Bring
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of remaining hands-on in code.
- Language Mastery: Expert-level proficiency in Scala, Java, or Go. You should be comfortable discussing memory management, concurrency models, and JVM tuning.
- High-Scale Experience: Proven ability to build systems that handle massive throughput (100k+ TPS) and sub-millisecond latency.
- Distributed Systems Knowledge: Deep understanding of consistency models (CAP theorem), message queues (Kafka), and cloud-native infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
- Regulated Environment: Experience delivering robust code in FinTech, Crypto, or similarly regulated sectors (HealthTech, Defense).
- AI Tooling: Hands-on experience using Copilot, Cursor, or similar AI engineering tools as a daily driver.
Bonus Points
- Implementation experience with blockchain integrations or custody/wallet infrastructure.
- Background in building matching engines, risk engines, or high-frequency trading systems.
- Experience contributing to open-source infrastructure projects.
