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Performance Engineer

Akuna Capital · Chicago, IL · Perf Eng

Posted Jul 13, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Sep 20, 2026

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Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

Behavioral

Walk me through a time you shaved latency out of a system. What was the bottleneck, how did you find it, and how much did you improve it by?

whether they have hands-on experience with real low-latency optimization work, not just theory

Tell me about a time your performance analysis using statistics led you to a conclusion that turned out to be wrong. What did you miss?

intellectual honesty and understanding of statistical pitfalls like noise, outliers, and small sample sizes

Describe a project where you had to work closely with traders or quants who didn't have a deep technical background. How did you bridge that gap?

collaboration and communication skills across disciplines, which the posting explicitly emphasizes

Tell me about a time you had to convince a team to make a costly infrastructure change based on your performance data. Did they push back, and what happened?

ability to turn data into influence and handle skepticism from stakeholders

Technical

How would you profile a trading engine to figure out where the time is going, from wire to order sent?

depth of knowledge in end-to-end latency measurement across hardware and software layers

Tell me about the difference between throughput and latency optimization and a case where improving one hurt the other.

whether the candidate understands tradeoffs instead of chasing a single metric blindly

What's your experience tuning the operating system or kernel for low latency work, things like CPU isolation, interrupt affinity, or NUMA?

concrete, specific systems-level tuning experience beyond generic performance talk

How do you approach writing performant C++ or Python, and what are some common patterns you avoid because they cost you in the hot path?

real coding depth around performance-sensitive language features, not just familiarity with syntax

If you had to reduce time-to-order by even a microsecond, where would you look first in a typical trading system architecture?

structured thinking about where latency actually accumulates in a real trading stack

What statistical tools or experimental design methods have you used to separate real performance signal from noise in a live production environment?

practical familiarity with experimental rigor as opposed to ad hoc benchmarking

Situational

Suppose you get a new NIC or server to evaluate. How would you design a benchmark to decide if it's worth deploying at an exchange colo?

ability to design rigorous, statistically sound hardware evaluation methodology

Say a trading strategy team tells you their fills got worse after a network change you approved. How do you investigate and what do you tell them?

how they handle ambiguous cross-team problems and communicate under pressure with non-engineers

Markets move fast and exchange behavior changes. How would you go about analyzing a new or unfamiliar exchange protocol to find where we're losing competitiveness?

comfort with ambiguity and self-directed technical investigation in a domain unique to trading

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The full job description

As published by Akuna Capital.

About Akuna:  Akuna Capital is an innovative trading firm with a strong focus on collaboration, cutting-edge technology, data driven solutions, and automation. We specialize in providing liquidity as an options market maker – meaning we are committed to providing competitive quotes that we are willing to both buy and sell. To do this successfully, we design and implement our own low latency technologies, trading strategies, and mathematical models.  Our Founding Partners first conceptualized Akuna in their hometown of Sydney. They opened the firm’s first office in 2011 in the heart of the derivatives industry and the options capital of the world – Chicago. Today, Akuna is proud to operate from additional offices in Sydney, Shanghai, London and Singapore. What you’ll do as a Performance Engineer at Akuna: We are seeking to grow our Performance Engineering Team, which is focused on a rigorous and holistic approach to improving software, hardware, and strategy performance. This team is responsible for maintaining and increasing our competitiveness at the various exchanges Akuna does business with around the globe. As a member of this multidisciplinary team, you will be responsible for investigating new opportunities for optimizations and bringing these ideas to fruition. This can be achieved through software optimizations, analysis of hardware, orchestration of physical installations, analysis of exchange specific protocols, or building tools for gauging Akuna’s performance. In this role, you will: <ul> <li>Contribute to the design and implementation of our trading engine by increasing its performance with projects such as benchmarking systems, evaluating new devices, latency, and throughput analysis</li> <li>Develop tools and applications for benchmarking new devices and software</li> <li>Assist with performance troubleshooting and identify key opportunities for improvement</li> <li>Use a data driven approach to collaborate with relevant Trading, Quant, and Technology teams to expand and improve our systems, footprint, and latency across different strategies and exchanges</li> <li>Review and analyze how we leverage our proprietary systems, identifying potential bottlenecks and considering how we can improve our technology stack to better our trading success</li> </ul> Qualities that make great candidates: <ul> <li>BS/MS/PhD in technical field - Computer Science, Math, Physics, Engineering</li> <li>Strong C++ or Python programming background with demonstrated experience developing performant, scalable applications</li> <li>Experience analyzing and tuning operating systems, compilers, networking, IO subsystems, or accelerators</li> <li>Exposure to statistical and experimental methods and tools for testing performance</li> <li>Highly collaborative in nature - excellent written and verbal communication skills</li> <li>Ability to work on cross-functional teams including Trading, Development, IT, and Quant</li> <li>The ability to react quickly and accurately to rapidly changing market conditions, including the ability to quickly and accurately respond and/or solve math and coding problems are essential functions of the role</li> </ul> In addition to technical skillsets, Akuna values the unique perspectives people can bring to the table to collaboratively solve complex problems and drive Akuna forward. We want everyone to feel empowered to apply. We welcome your application and encourage you to take the first steps toward your future with us! In accordance with Illinois Equal Pay Act, the minimum base salary starts at $145,000. Exact compensation offered may vary based on many factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and skill set. This role is also eligible for a discretionary performance bonus as part of the total compensation package and includes a comprehensive benefits package that may encompass employer-paid medical, dental, vision, retirement contributions, paid time off, and other benefits. The minimum base salary herein was determined in good faith by Akuna Capital LLC.

Apply at Akuna Capital

Performance Engineer

Likely interview questions for this role

Practice this interview out loud.

The full job description

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