Trading Strategy Software Engineer

IMC

Your IMC journey as a Graduate Software Engineer will begin with a five-week Global Trainee Programme led by our seasoned engineers and traders alongside graduates from all three IMC regions: Europe, the United States, and Asia-Pacific. During this traineeship, you’ll deepen your knowledge about trading and financial markets, understand the tools and systems used at IMC, and learn how to write production software, craftsmanship and advanced topics in C++, Java or Python. Your training will continue back at your local office, where you’ll receive support from your dedicated mentor, an experienced software engineer at IMC. What happens next is up to you – on our Execution teams you might build anything from advanced networks to proprietary algorithms, while on our Strategy teams you could design systems powering big data and cutting-edge analytics.   YOUR CORE RESPONSIBILITIES * Develop cutting-edge technology in advanced algorithms * Support the development of our trading platform and software stack * Gain experience across the entire software development lifecycle * Collaborate with traders, quant researchers, and hardware engineers to improve our systems   YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCES * In your ultimate year of study in computer science, software engineering, or a related field graduating, and are seeking to join IMC full-time in February or August 2026 * Proficiency in C++ or Java is required. Additionally, experience with Python is preferred * A working knowledge of algorithms and data structures * First-class analytical skills and a desire to solve complicated problems programmatically * A genuine interest in financial markets (no prior knowledge or experience is required)   Please note: You’ll have the opportunity to complete the recruitment process in your preferred programming language (Java or C++). Please note, however, that exclusive use of one language cannot be guaranteed. If you have already applied for this position during the current recruitment season and were not selected, you may reapply when the next recruitment season begins in September 2026. We encourage you to focus on enhancing your skillset before reapplying. Due to U.S. consulate restrictions, candidates from certain nations (including Russia, Belarus, and Iran) are required to apply for their visa in a designated third country or to prove strong ties with a country of residency. Since the global traineeship begins shortly after employment starts, there is not enough time to establish the ties with the Netherlands which is needed for approval. As a result, we are unable to proceed with your candidacy for the graduate traineeship programme at this time. We greatly appreciate your understanding and hope to consider you for future opportunities. If you are a dual passport holder of another nationality or a European citizen who wants to relocate back to Europe, you remain welcome to apply and should inform our campus recruitment team of your situation: CampusEU@imc.com. For more information on our technology interview process, please review our preparation guide here.    About Us IMC is a global trading firm powered by a cutting-edge research environment and a world-class technology backbone. Since 1989, we’ve been a stabilizing force in financial markets, providing essential liquidity upon which market participants depend. Across our offices in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, and India, our talented quant researchers, engineers, traders, and business operations professionals are united by our uniquely collaborative, high-performance culture, and our commitment to giving back. From entering dynamic new markets to embracing disruptive technologies, and from developing an innovative research environment to diversifying our trading strategies, we dare to continuously innovate and collaborate to succeed.

IMC

Technology is at the heart of modern electronic trading. IMC is seeking highly driven individuals to apply quantitative research techniques and practical experimentation to the technology used by exchanges, connectivity providers, and our own systems. You will develop new strategies to outpace other market participants in the highly competitive world of ultra-low-latency trading. As a Performance Engineer at IMC, you will play a pivotal role in analysing, optimising, and tuning our systems interaction with exchange systems holistically. Working closely with cross-functional teams, you’ll be tasked with uncovering performance improvements across the trading stack. This role combines technical ingenuity with creative problem-solving to outsmart competition in one of the most demanding technical landscapes. Your Core Responsibilities * Black Box Reverse Engineering and Analysis: Analyse and understand the behaviour of complex systems using black-box techniques, identifying performance bottlenecks and optimisation opportunities. Designing and performing statistical experiments to explain emergent real world phenomena. * Quantitative research: use large datasets to understand exchange technology. * Experimentation & Prototyping: Design, implement, and test innovative ideas, experiments and technologies. Develop quick internal prototypes to evaluate performance and real-world applicability. * Collaboration & Communication: Liaise effectively with traders, software and hardware engineers, and infrastructure teams to share insights and implement solutions. * System Analysis: Analyse terabytes of network data to identify patterns, validate hypotheses, and optimise system performance. Your Skills and Experience  * Proficient understanding of computer internals, networking and Linux (at least two out of three). Skilled in reverse engineering techniques. * Inquisitive mind. Think Sherlock Holmes and the case of the missing microsecond. * Understanding of complex, bespoke networks and networking stacks. * Experience with data and system analysis in Python * Be able to work self-sufficiently with minimal guidance after internal training * Capable of working autonomously while contributing to a multidisciplinary team. Always looking for ways to gain an edge. About Us IMC is a global trading firm powered by a cutting-edge research environment and a world-class technology backbone. Since 1989, we’ve been a stabilizing force in financial markets, providing essential liquidity upon which market participants depend. Across our offices in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, and India, our talented quant researchers, engineers, traders, and business operations professionals are united by our uniquely collaborative, high-performance culture, and our commitment to giving back. From entering dynamic new markets to embracing disruptive technologies, and from developing an innovative research environment to diversifying our trading strategies, we dare to continuously innovate and collaborate to succeed.

IMC

C++ Software Engineer  At IMC, technology is not a department; it’s at the heart of everything we do. Developed in-house, our innovative software makes millions of trading decisions daily, and we win by making better and faster decisions than our competition. IMC’s Amsterdam-based C++ Execution development teams work on software that sits directly in the latency-critical loop of our technology stack and touches every part of our organisation. From ensuring our connectivity to the market and handling massive amounts of data, to implementing complex trading algorithms and integrating advanced hardware solutions. Your Core Responsibilities: As a software engineer, you’ll work in multidisciplinary teams alongside other engineers as well as traders, researchers, and quants to deliver challenging projects, while taking ownership for end-to-end product development – from requirements gathering to production. You’ll write reliable, high-performance software while balancing time to production with quality and testability. Advanced automated testing and daily deployments will allow you to achieve agile and incremental benefits. Within a complex landscape of varying systems and technologies, you’ll be constantly challenged to consider trade-offs between latency, throughput, simplicity, scalability and maintainability. * Coding, developing, testing, deploying and maintaining applications and automations for Trading Teams and/or Hardware Development and Execution Teams. * Working through internal client requests. Gathering details, requirements and feedback from a range of internal stakeholders in order to implement creative automation solutions using innovative coding practices. Your Skills and Experience: * Minimum 5+ years professional working experience as a software engineer post graduation * Strong programming skills in C++. Experience in the latest versions of C++ is highly desirable * Familiarity with Python scripting * Familiarity with Docker and Kubernetes * Comfortable in Linux environments * Experience gathering business requirements, communicating with key stakeholders and delivering solutions quickly * The ability to work on greenfield projects under minimal supervision and to take full ownership of the applications you build * A high degree of flexibility and adaptability: willing and able to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity in a rapidly evolving environment * Strong troubleshooting and diagnostic skills; ability to solve problems creatively and proactively * Prior knowledge of trading / capital markets is not required. Curiosity and a willingness to learn is. About Us IMC is a global trading firm powered by a cutting-edge research environment and a world-class technology backbone. Since 1989, we’ve been a stabilizing force in financial markets, providing essential liquidity upon which market participants depend. Across our offices in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, and India, our talented quant researchers, engineers, traders, and business operations professionals are united by our uniquely collaborative, high-performance culture, and our commitment to giving back. From entering dynamic new markets to embracing disruptive technologies, and from developing an innovative research environment to diversifying our trading strategies, we dare to continuously innovate and collaborate to succeed.