Software Engineer, Core Systems

Hawksman Technology is currently working with a fast-growing fintech startup that's scaling quickly and looking to bring in strong, technically-driven engineers to help build out its core platform. The company is still in a phase where a lot of the foundational systems are being built so there's real scope to shape architecture and engineering standards rather than just maintaining what's already there.

About the Role

This role is to be Based in the Bay Area, working 3 days/week from the office. This is a high-impact backend engineering role at the core of a fast-scaling fintech platform, focused on building the trading, ledgering, and data systems that everything else depends on. It's suited to someone who thrives on correctness and reliability at scale, with real ownership over how these foundational systems are architected as the company grows.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain core systems behind the company's wealth platform, including trading, ledgering, billing, and real-time data flows

• Own the reliability of transaction processing, reconciliation, and portfolio state — accuracy and consistency are critical here

• Build and scale data pipelines, both real-time and batch, feeding into market data and analytics

• Design APIs and backend services used both internally and by external partners

• Keep systems observable, fault-tolerant, and running smoothly under load

• Work on distributed systems problems — think event-driven design, microservices, and streaming

• Occasionally collaborate with ML engineers integrating models into live systems (a small part of the role, not the main focus)

Qualifications

• 4+ years building backend or distributed systems, ideally with exposure to fast-moving, high-stakes environments

Required Skills

• Strong coding ability, Python preferred

• Comfortable working with tools like Kafka, Kubernetes, and cloud infrastructure

• Solid grasp of system design fundamentals — consistency, reliability, and trade-offs at scale

• Background in one or more of: financial or trading systems, data infrastructure, or large-scale backend platforms

Preferred Skills

• Bonus points for experience with ledgers, order management, or reconciliation systems, low-latency/high-throughput environments, or streaming data platforms