FrontEnd (SDE 4/5)

Job Description

Tower Research Capital is a leading quantitative trading firm founded in 1998. Tower has built its business on a high-performance platform and independent trading teams. We have a 25+ year track record of innovation and a reputation for discovering unique market opportunities. Tower is home to some of the world’s best systematic trading and engineering talent. We empower portfolio managers to build their teams and strategies independently while providing the economies of scale that come from a large, global organization. Engineers thrive at Tower while developing electronic trading infrastructure at a world class level. Our engineers solve challenging problems in the realms of low-latency programming, FPGA technology, hardware acceleration and machine learning. Our ongoing investment in top engineering talent and technology ensures our platform remains unmatched in terms of functionality, scalability and performance. At Tower, every employee plays a role in our success. Our Business Support teams are essential to building and maintaining the platform that powers everything we do — combining market access, data, compute, and research infrastructure with risk management, compliance, and a full suite of business services. Our Business Support teams enable our trading and engineering teams to perform at their best. At Tower, employees will find a stimulating, results-oriented environment where highly intelligent and motivated colleagues inspire each other to reach their greatest potential. Responsibilities Architect and own the development of complex, mission-critical, high-performance trading and risk management UIs using modern frameworks. Establish and champion a unified UI design system and component library, ensuring cross-product consistency and high performance across the trading stack. Define and execute long-term technical roadmaps for the frontend organization, including strategic technology modernization initiatives. Collaborate closely with backend teams to define robust API contracts and optimize architecture for low-latency, high-throughput delivery. Lead performance and scalability optimization for frontends handling real-time, data-intensive workloads (market data, charts, order books), focusing on maximizing throughput and minimizing perceived latency. Design and implement reusable abstractions for charts, grids, and complex visualizations supporting large-scale streaming data (WebSocket, SSE, or GraphQL subscriptions). Drive architecture and tooling decisions around build systems, testing strategy, CI/CD pipelines, and performance instrumentation. Champion engineering excellence through rigorous documentation, clean architecture, TDD/BDD practices (Jest, Playwright, Cypress), and strong developer-experience principles. Implement deep observability and instrumentation using OpenTelemetry and logging frameworks to monitor user sessions, latency, and system performance. Work directly with traders, risk managers, and other stakeholders to translate complex workflows into intuitive, reliable, and responsive interfaces. Mentor and guide frontend engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and best-practice evangelism, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and technical rigor. Influence firm-wide UI strategy by identifying emerging technologies and scaling patterns that improve performance, maintainability, and developer velocity. Qualifications 8–12 years of professional experience in frontend development with proven expertise in JavaScript/TypeScript. Deep, hands-on experience with React, Vue or equivalent frameworks. Expert-level understanding of frontend architecture patterns, including advanced state management (Redux, Zustand, Recoil, MobX), custom hooks, and context-based design. Proven expertise building high-frequency, data-rich, ultra-low-latency interfaces, ideally within trading, market analytics, or similarly demanding real-time domains. Strong grasp of modern build and deployment systems (Vite, Webpack, ESBuild, Rollup) and CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, etc.). Proficiency with WebSocket APIs, REST, and advanced performance debugging using browser profiling and memory tools. Deep understanding of frontend performance optimization, including memory management, virtualization, batching, and reconciliation strategies for large datasets. Demonstrated success leading or architecting large-scale UI refactors and shared library initiatives. Familiarity with containerized development (Docker, Kubernetes) and modern observability stacks (OpenTelemetry, Grafana, Prometheus). Exceptional communication and leadership skills, with the ability to drive technical consensus and mentor junior engineers. Ability to decompose complex business workflows into modular, performant UI systems that scale across products. Preferred Qualifications Working knowledge of WebAssembly, Web Workers, and service worker caching strategies for client-side computation. Familiarity with GraphQL, Protocol Buffers, or gRPC-Web for efficient inter-service communication. Experience designing component-driven architectures using Storybook or similar tools. Demonstrated ability to balance long-term architectural vision with rapid delivery in a fast-moving, high-stakes environment. Benefits: Tower’s headquarters are in the historic Equitable Building, right in the heart of NYC’s Financial District and our impact is global, with over a dozen offices around the world. At Tower, we believe work should be both challenging and enjoyable. That is why we foster a culture where smart, driven people thrive – without the egos. Our open concept workplace, casual dress code, and well-stocked kitchens reflect the value we place on a friendly, collaborative environment where everyone is respected, and great ideas win. Our benefits include: Generous paid time off policies Savings plans and other financial wellness tools available in each region Hybrid working opportunities Free breakfast, lunch and snacks daily In-office wellness experiences and reimbursement for select wellness expenses (e.g., gym, personal training and more) Volunteer opportunities and charitable giving Social events, happy hours, treats and celebrations throughout the year Workshops and continuous learning opportunities At Tower, you’ll find a collaborative and welcoming culture, a diverse team and a workplace that values both performance and enjoyment. No unnecessary hierarchy. No ego. Just great people doing great work – together. Tower Research Capital is an equal opportunity employer.