Principal Network Engineer (HFT Trading Networks)

Harvey Nash

We are seeking a Principal Network Engineer to serve as the technical authority for our global, low-latency trading infrastructure. This role is ideal for a seasoned network engineering leader with deep expertise in designing, scaling, and optimizing highly distributed, latency-sensitive environments across data centers, colocation facilities, and cloud platforms.

The Principal Network Engineer will be responsible for defining the long-term architecture and evolution of mission-critical trading networks, ensuring deterministic packet forwarding, exceptional reliability, and ultra-low-latency performance. This individual will operate as a hands-on technical leader, partnering with Network Engineering leadership, Infrastructure teams, and business stakeholders to drive strategic initiatives, influence architectural decisions, and establish engineering best practices.

Direct High-Frequency Trading (HFT) industry experience is required.

The ideal candidate possesses expert-level routing and switching knowledge, strong Python automation capabilities, experience with hybrid cloud networking, and a proven track record supporting electronic trading environments where microseconds matter. Candidates with a CCIE certification or equivalent expertise are strongly preferred.

Key

Responsibilities

• Network

• Architecture & Design

• Design,

• engineer, and evolve highly resilient, low-latency network architectures

• supporting global trading operations.

• Develop

• deterministic, scalable network solutions across data centers, co-location

• facilities, exchange connectivity environments, and cloud platforms.

• Drive

• architectural standards and long-term strategy for network scalability,

• resiliency, and operational excellence.

• Advanced

• Routing & Infrastructure

• Lead the design and implementation of complex routing solutions utilizing:

• BGP

• OSPF

• MPLS

• Multicast

• (PIM-SM/SSM)

• Traffic

• Engineering

• High

• Availability Network Architectures

• Optimize network

• performance, latency, jitter, and traffic flow across global environments.

• Research,

• Validation & Performance Engineering

• Conduct

• proof-of-concept testing, lab validation, and technical evaluations of

• emerging technologies.

• Analyze network

• behavior, platform limitations, and hardware capabilities to improve

• exchange connectivity and trading performance.

• Validate

• architecture designs before production deployment to minimize operational

• risk.

• Project

• Leadership

• Lead large-scale

• network transformation initiatives from design through implementation.

• Develop detailed

• technical designs, migration plans, implementation runbooks, and capacity

• planning documentation.

• Own complex

• technical challenges end-to-end with minimal oversight.

• Network

• Automation

• Design and maintain Python-based network automation solutions for:

• Configuration

• management

• Change

• validation

• Compliance

• verification

• Operational

• efficiency

• Automated

• testing

• Leverage both

• API-driven and SSH-based automation methodologies.

• Cross-Functional

• Collaboration

• Partner with

• Infrastructure, Security, Cloud, Application, and Trading teams to align

• network capabilities with business objectives.

• Support

• strategic planning, budgeting, and technology investment decisions related

• to network infrastructure.

• Technical

• Leadership

• Act as a senior

• technical mentor across the engineering organization.

• Lead

• architecture reviews, establish engineering standards, and promote

• knowledge sharing.

• Influence

• technical direction without direct management responsibilities.

• Monitoring

• & Observability

• Define network

• telemetry and observability standards.

• Utilize tools

• such as Prometheus, Grafana, and similar platforms to improve visibility,

• performance monitoring, and troubleshooting.

• Documentation

• & Compliance

• Develop and

• maintain technical standards, architecture documentation, and operational

• procedures.

• Contribute to

• audit, compliance, and regulatory documentation, including materials

• supporting SEC and related regulatory reviews.

• Required

• Qualifications

• 10+ years of

• hands-on Network Engineering experience within mission-critical,

• low-latency environments.

• Direct

• experience supporting High-Frequency Trading (HFT), Electronic Trading,

• Market Making, Proprietary Trading, or Capital Markets infrastructure.

• Deep expertise in low-latency network design with extensive experience analyzing:

• Network latency

• Jitter

• Packet loss

• End-to-end

• traffic behavior

• Expert-level knowledge of:

• BGP

• OSPF

• MPLS

• Multicast

• Technologies

• Global Network

• Architecture

• Strong experience with high-performance network platforms from vendors such as:

• Cisco

• Arista

• Juniper

• Experience designing and supporting AWS networking solutions including:

• Direct Connect

• Transit Gateway

• VPC

• Architecture

• Route

• Integration

• Advanced Python

• programming skills for network automation and operational tooling.

• Hands-on

• experience with observability and telemetry platforms, including

• Prometheus and Grafana.

• Strong

• understanding of network security principles, segmentation, access

• controls, and Zero Trust architecture.

• Proven track

• record leading technical research, proof-of-concept initiatives, and

• large-scale infrastructure projects.

• Outstanding

• communication skills with the ability to explain architectural tradeoffs

• and technical risk to both engineers and executive leadership.

• Experience

• mentoring engineers and influencing engineering best practices across

• organizations.

• Preferred

• Qualifications

• Cisco CCIE

• (Routing & Switching, Enterprise Infrastructure, or Data Center).

• AWS Advanced

• Networking Specialty Certification.

• Arista ACE,

• Juniper JNCIE, or equivalent advanced networking certifications.

• Experience with

• exchange connectivity networks and financial market infrastructure.

• Familiarity with

• FPGA-enabled networking, market data distribution, and ultra-low latency

• trading architectures.

• Exposure to

• regulatory and compliance requirements within financial services

• environments.

• Apply