System Administrator – HFT (Linux & Low-Latency Systems)
Location: Bangalore
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience Required: 2-5 Years
Domain Experience: Linux / HFT / Low-Latency Systems
Education: BE/B.Tech – IT, Computer Science, or related field
Preferred Certifications: RHCE, RHCSA, LPIC, CCNA, CCNP
Job Summary
We are looking for a highly skilled System Administrator with deep expertise in Linux systems and a strong understanding of HFT infrastructure.
In this role, you will be responsible for deploying, managing, and continuously optimizing mission-critical, low-latency trading environments. You will manage data centre infrastructure, high-speed networks, and large-scale trading data systems where performance is measured in microseconds.
You will work closely with traders, quantitative researchers, and software developers to ensure the infrastructure always performs at peak capacity with maximum uptime.
Key ResponsibilitiesLinux System Administration
- Deploy, configure, and maintain Linux servers across distributions including Ubuntu, Red Hat, and CentOS in production and staging environments.
- Perform advanced system performance tuning:
- CPU pinning
- NUMA topology optimization
- IRQ affinity
- Huge pages configuration
- Kernel parameter tuning (sysctl)
- Manage OS-level scheduling policies, real-time priorities (SCHED_FIFO / SCHED_RR), and CPU isolation (isolcpus) to eliminate jitter.
- Implement system security hardening, patch management, firmware upgrades, and OS lifecycle management.
- Maintain system documentation, change logs, and runbooks for all infrastructure components.
HFT Infrastructure & Low-Latency Engineering
- Manage and optimize bare-metal HFT trading infrastructure with a strong focus on determinism, performance, and latency reduction.
- Support HFT architecture and workflows including:
- Market data ingestion
- Order management systems (OMS)
- Execution infrastructure
- Manage exchange connectivity, colocation environments, and service provider relationships.
- Tune and monitor network stacks including:
- TCP/UDP parameters
- Multicast group management
- DPDK
- OpenOnload (Solarflare)
- Work with ultra-low latency network hardware:
- 10/25/40/100GbE NICs
- Solarflare NICs
- Mellanox/NVIDIA ConnectX adapters
- Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNICs (K3P-S)
- Monitor and optimize end-to-end latency, jitter, and packet loss across the trading stack.
Data Centre & Network Operations
- Administer Linux-based data centre environments including:
- Rack management
- Cabling
- Power coordination
- Cooling coordination
- Manage L2/L3 data centre networks including:
- VLANs
- Spanning Tree
- BGP / OSPF routing
- Multicast (PIM-SM)
- Configure and manage Cisco Nexus series switches for ultra-low latency operations.
- Support market data distribution infrastructure and feed handlers connected to major exchanges.
- Ensure network high availability through:
- Redundant paths
- Failover configurations
- Proactive capacity planning
Storage, Monitoring & Automation
- Manage high-performance storage systems including:
- NVMe SSDs
- RAID configurations
- High-throughput storage arrays
- Build and maintain monitoring and alerting infrastructure using:
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- Custom latency dashboards
- Automate routine infrastructure tasks using Bash and Python scripting.
- Collaborate with development and quant teams to troubleshoot:
- Latency anomalies
- System bottlenecks
- Infrastructure incidents
Required Skills & Technical Expertise
Core Linux
Ubuntu, Red Hat, CentOS, Linux internals, kernel tuning, CPU pinning, NUMA optimization, BIOS tuning
Networking
TCP/IP, UDP, Multicast (PIM), 10/25/40/100GbE, DPDK, OpenOnload, VLANs, BGP, OSPF
HFT & Hardware
Solarflare NICs, Mellanox NICs, Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNIC, FPGA exposure, NVMe storage
Automation & Monitoring
Bash, Python scripting, Prometheus, Grafana
Infrastructure
Colocation operations, Exchange connectivity, Data centre operations
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree (BE/B.Tech) in Information Technology, Computer Science, Electronics, or a related engineering discipline.
- Linux certifications preferred:
- RHCE
- RHCSA
- LPIC-1 / LPIC-2
- Networking certifications preferred:
- CCNA
- CCNP
- 2–5 years of hands-on Linux administration experience in production environments.
- Minimum 2 years of exposure to:
- HFT
- Financial services
- Low-latency infrastructure
- Strong troubleshooting capability in mission-critical production environments.
Pay: ₹100,000.00 - ₹200,000.00 per month
Benefits:
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Bengaluru, Karnataka (Bengaluru): Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Preferred)
Application Question(s):
Experience:
- System administration: 3 years (Required)
- Linux: 3 years (Required)
- Fintech/Trading/HFT: 3 years (Preferred)
Work Location: In person
