The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually
looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.
P99 Tick-to-Trade Latency Reduction
This is the big one: how quickly our systems can react from receiving market data to sending an order. You'll be accountable for making specific parts of this path faster.
Target · Achieve a measurable reduction of at least 10% year-on-year in critical, owned components. If your new market data handler reduces the P99 latency by 15 microseconds, that's a win. We're talking nanoseconds here, so every bit counts.
System Uptime & Stability
The systems you architect and lead need to be rock-solid. Downtime means lost opportunities and, frankly, lost money.
Target · Maintain >99.99% uptime for all components under your direct ownership. If your Smart Order Router (SOR) has zero unplanned outages during a high-volume trading day, that's hitting the target. One hour of downtime in a year is too much.
Project Delivery & Technical Debt Reduction
You'll be leading projects, so delivering them on time, within budget, and to a high standard is crucial. We also expect you to proactively tackle technical debt.
Target · Achieve >90% on-time and on-budget delivery for major projects you lead. Reduce identified technical debt by 15% quarterly. Delivering the new exchange connectivity module a week early, with zero critical bugs found in UAT, and cleaning up two major legacy code hotspots.
Code Quality & Test Coverage
As a Lead, you're setting the standard. Your team's code, and especially your own, needs to be clean, maintainable, and thoroughly tested.
Target · Maintain average test coverage >85% for new code in your team's components. Keep critical bug density below 0.5 per 1,000 lines of code. Your team pushes a new feature with 90% test coverage, and static analysis tools report minimal new warnings. You've also mentored a junior to improve their test writing.
Technical Leadership & Mentorship
It's not just about what you build, but how you elevate the team around you. You'll be seen as a go-to expert.
- Junior and mid-level developers actively seek your advice on complex technical problems. You're leading technical discussions and design sessions. Your team's code quality visibly improves under your guidance. You're giving constructive, actionable feedback in code reviews that helps others grow.
Architectural Soundness & Forward Thinking
Your designs need to be robust, scalable, and anticipate future needs, not just solve today's problem. We're looking for systems that last.
- New systems you design avoid major re-writes within 2 years. Your architectural proposals are well-reasoned, considering performance, maintainability, and future expansion. You're identifying potential system bottlenecks or single points of failure before they become issues. You're contributing to the long-term technical roadmap.
Proactive Problem Solving & Risk Mitigation
Don't just fix problems; prevent them. We need someone who spots the iceberg before the ship hits it.
- You're identifying and addressing technical debt or architectural weaknesses before they cause production incidents. You're proposing solutions to long-standing, tricky issues. You're actively contributing to post-mortems, ensuring root causes are identified and preventative measures are put in place. You're seen as someone who 'gets things done' even when the path isn't clear.
Collaboration & Communication
You'll be working with quants, traders, and other engineers. Being able to explain complex technical concepts clearly is vital.
- Traders and quants feel you understand their needs and translate them effectively into technical solutions. You can articulate trade-offs and technical constraints to non-technical stakeholders. You're a key voice in cross-functional technical discussions, helping different teams agree on a path forward. Your documentation is clear, concise, and actually useful.
