Staff Software Engineer - New Markets Japan

As a Staff Engineer, we want you to be responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining the systems and services that form Alpaca's foundation and empower millions of users who trade billions of dollars worth of assets. We will look to you to contribute to regional recruitment initiatives, help drive cross-functional team projects, mentor teammates with respect to our engineering principles and practices, and foster Alpaca culture in the Japan region. We expect you to participate in operational reliability engineering during regional business hours, helping to ensure proactive 24x7 stability of our platform.

For this role, we are seeking an experienced backend engineer who is dedicated to delivering seamless and high-quality software solutions. The ideal candidate has a proven track record of designing and building scalable applications, is comfortable challenging conventions and advocating for innovative solutions, and can bridge engineering work with Japan-specific regulatory, vendor, and partner requirements. In this position, we would like you to have the autonomy to architect and implement solutions that meet our strategic objectives while also actively contributing to the goal-setting process alongside a collaborative, cross-functional team.

• Business-level English fluency, with the ability to collaborate effectively in English-only team meetings, design discussions, code reviews, and written documentation.
• Proven experience in designing and developing complex financial systems, preferably including double-entry accounting.
• Strong understanding of accounting principles, ledger structures, and transaction reconciliation.
• Experience in building scalable, high-availability financial applications that handle multi-currency transactions.
• Familiarity with regulatory compliance requirements in financial markets, with a preference for experience in Japan (FIEA, FSA, JSDA, JIPF, or related frameworks).
• Proficiency in at least one statically typed language (e.g. Go, Rust, Java, Kotlin, C#, Scala, or C++), with expertise in designing robust and efficient system architectures.
• Experience working with financial APIs, market data integrations, and trade settlement processes.
• Strong communication skills to collaborate effectively with global teams, local regulators, vendors, and internal stakeholders, bridging Japanese and English contexts.
• Strong computer science fundamentals and proven software engineering architecture experience.
• Ability to work independently in a fully remote, globally distributed team, and under pressure in a fast-paced environment.
• Strategic thinking and the ability to translate technical concepts into business strategies.