Head of Trading Technology

About Tokka Labs

Tokka Labs is a proprietary trading firm with a focus on close collaboration, rigorous research, and cutting-edge technology. We are market makers, searchers, and solvers for top protocols on the most popular blockchains in the world. We design and implement our own trading systems and strategies to provide liquidity in the most diverse and challenging environments. At the core of it all lies our unwavering commitment to pushing boundaries of decentralized finance and we are always on the lookout for like-minded individuals to join us on this journey. If you think you have what it takes, apply now!

The Role

We are seeking a Head of Trading Technology to lead the core and platform engineering team responsible for building our next-generation low-latency trading infrastructure. This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will own the end-to-end architecture and delivery of high-performance trading systems, combining deep low-latency expertise from traditional finance HFT with the demands of on-chain DeFi and RWA trading.

You will directly manage and mentor a team of elite software engineers, DevOps, and architects while remaining actively involved in design, coding, and performance optimization. The ideal candidate has built and scaled low-latency trading systems in elite trading environments and possesses strong conviction on how modern trading infrastructure should be designed.

Responsibilities

• Own End-to-End Architecture: Lead the green-field design and implementation of a high-performance, low-latency trading platform, ensuring it meets the rigorous demands of off-chain and on-chain trading.

• Hands-on technical leadership: lead by example—write and review critical code, make and own architectural decisions, personally resolve complex performance and latency issues, and build a high‑performing team that redesigns workflows, tooling, and delivery to be AI‑native.

• Team Management & Mentoring: Lead, grow, and inspire a team of elite engineers. Provide hands-on guidance and mentorship, especially to junior and mid-level talent.

• Delivery Ownership: Set clear timelines, manage dependencies across components, track progress, and ensure high-quality delivery of the full trading stack.

• Infrastructure Oversight: Maintain a strong understanding of the entire trading infrastructure (from market data ingestion through order execution and risk systems) and effectively manage specialized engineers working on individual layers.

• Performance Driven: Drive continuous optimization for latency, throughput, reliability, and scalability in a competitive trading environment.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Collaborate closely with traders, quants, and business stakeholders to ensure technical solutions directly support trading strategies.

• Quality & Risk Management: Establish and enforce engineering best practices, including testing, CI/CD, monitoring, and operational excellence.

Requirements

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 5 years in technical leadership roles (Lead, Head of, or Director level) within trading firms.

• Strong low-latency trading background: Proven hands-on experience building or optimizing high-performance trading systems in traditional finance HFT (equities, futures, commodities) or other high-frequency markets.

• Deep proficiency as a hands-on programmer in high-performance languages (C++, Rust, or similar) with a track record of delivering production low-latency systems.

• Demonstrated success managing and mentoring elite engineering teams in fast-paced trading environments.

• Solid end-to-end understanding of trading infrastructure (market data, execution, risk, clearing, etc.) and the ability to manage engineers across specialized components.

• Strong ability to set priorities, manage timelines, and drive complex technical projects to completion.

• Excellent communication skills and the ability to make sound technical decisions under ambiguity.

Tokka Labs does not accept unsolicited resumes.

Any form of candidate introduction shared without the prior approval of the talent acquisition team, will be deemed free to contact by Tokka Labs without restriction or liability. No placement fee of any kind will be paid in the event the identified candidate is hired by Tokka Labs.