About the team & role

Our Core Exchange team is responsible for all trading interfaces — including the Exchange REST API, FIX API, WebSockets, and market data services. The team’s mission is to deliver a best-in-class trading experience for API users, with a relentless focus on latency, reliability, and data correctness.

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will help scale our trading infrastructure to meet the evolving needs of our most sophisticated users. This is a high-impact role for engineers who love low-latency systems, deeply care about precision, and want to directly shape the tools used by active traders worldwide.

What you'll do

• Design and build performant, reliable, and scalable services for our API trading ecosystem.
• Optimize low-latency data flows and trading paths, ensuring correctness under pressure.
• Own and evolve core components of our REST, FIX, and WebSocket APIs.
• Collaborate with product, infrastructure, and frontend teams to deliver seamless API solutions.
• Participate in the team’s on-call rotation, supporting mission-critical systems used by our most active clients.
• Continuously measure, monitor, and improve the trading API experience.

What you bring

• 10+ years of backend engineering experience.
• Proven experience designing high-performance systems with low-latency and high-throughput requirements.
  Familiarity with cloud infrastructure, especially AWS services.
• Solid database experience: SQL (MySQL) and/or NoSQL (DynamoDB).
• Experience working on or with production-grade trading APIs or high-volume systems.
• Structured thinker with strong communication skills and a customer-first mindset.

Nice to have

• You’ve built or operated your own automated trading bot or trading system.
• Hands-on experience with the FIX protocol and order management systems.
• Knowledge of WebSockets, streaming market data, or real-time API performance tuning.
• Passion for financial markets and an interest in building tools for professional traders.

About the team + role

We are building an elite team, applying frontier technologies to the world’s biggest financial problems. We’re looking for bold thinkers. Sharp problem-solvers. Builders who are motivated to make a meaningful impact. Robinhood isn’t a place for complacency, it’s where ambitious people do the best work of their careers. We’re a high-performing, fast-moving team with ethics at the center of everything we do. Expectations are high, and so are the rewards!

The Core Exchange team is responsible for building and maintaining trading interfaces including REST APIs, FIX APIs, WebSockets, and market data services. The team focuses on delivering fast, reliable, and accurate trading experiences for API users. You will work closely with infrastructure, product, and frontend teams to ensure trading systems meet strict performance and reliability expectations while supporting a global user base.

As a Senior Software Engineer (IC5), you will design and scale systems that power trading infrastructure used by sophisticated clients. You will focus on improving latency, system reliability, and data accuracy across critical trading paths. This role involves working on core API components and optimizing performance under high-throughput conditions, while contributing to system design decisions that directly impact active traders worldwide!

This role is based in our Slovenia office, with in-person attendance expected at least 2 days per week.

At Robinhood, we believe in the power of in-person work to accelerate progress, spark innovation, and strengthen community. Our office experience is intentional, energizing, and designed to fully support high-performing teams.

Applications for this role will be accepted through 6/1/2026.

Requires participation in an on-call rotation to support business needs.

What you’ll do

● Design and build reliable, scalable services that support API-based trading systems
● Improve latency and throughput across trading data flows while maintaining data accuracy
● Own and enhance core components of REST, FIX, and WebSocket APIs
● Collaborate with product, infrastructure, and frontend teams to deliver cohesive API solutions
● Monitor system performance and implement improvements based on measurable system behavior

What you bring

● You have 5+ years of backend engineering experience
● You have experience building high-performance systems with low-latency and high-throughput requirements
● You are familiar with cloud infrastructure, including AWS services
● You have experience working with SQL (e.g., MySQL) and/or NoSQL databases (e.g., DynamoDB)
● You have experience working with production systems that handle high request volumes

What we offer

● Challenging, high-impact work to grow your career
● Performance driven compensation with multipliers for outsized impact, bonus programs, and equity ownership
● Top tier benefits to fuel your work, including supplemental health insurance, ancillary insurance, and mental health support programs
● Lifestyle wallet - a highly flexible employer-paid benefits spending account expenses beyond traditional benefits such as wellness, childcare, learning, and more
● Time off to recharge including company holidays, paid time off, sick time, paid volunteer time off, parental leave, and more!
● Exceptional office experience with catered meals, events, and comfortable workspaces
● Monthly commuter stipend to help offset in-office commuting costs