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Senior Software Engineer, Treasury and Reference Data (Java/Ruby/Python)

DRW · Chicago, IL · $200,000–$275,000 a year · UP - Treasury

Posted Sep 2, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 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.

About your past

The UP team expects engineers to understand the business deeply. How would you learn what treasury and reference data teams need?

What they are checking: Curiosity and initiative to understand business users, which the posting stresses.

Tell me about a time you had autonomy to choose how to solve a business problem.

What they are checking: How they use autonomy responsibly, which the posting says developers have here.

What would you do

You're given a high-level requirement with few details. How do you turn it into something you can build?

What they are checking: Ability to work from vague requirements, which the posting describes directly.

A wrong reference data value caused a downstream error. How do you fix it and prevent it next time?

What they are checking: Root cause thinking and controls that protect many dependent systems.

How do you work with operations users who find a bug at the end of the day?

What they are checking: Responsiveness and communication with business users under time pressure.

About the work

How would you design a reference data system that many trading and operations systems depend on?

What they are checking: Thinking about data ownership, versioning and change propagation for critical shared data.

What does a treasury team at a trading firm need from software, in your understanding?

What they are checking: Basic grasp of cash, funding, margin and collateral and how software supports them.

The role uses Java, Ruby and Python. How do you decide which language fits a problem?

What they are checking: Practical judgment about language tradeoffs in a polyglot environment.

How do you keep historical reference data accurate so past reports can be reproduced?

What they are checking: Understanding of bitemporal or point-in-time data, which matters for audits and research.

What makes a platform speed up time to market for new ideas rather than slow it down?

What they are checking: Platform thinking aligned with the UP team's goal of accelerating new business.

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The full job description

As published by DRW.

DRW is a diversified trading firm with over 3 decades of experience bringing sophisticated technology and exceptional people together to operate in markets around the world. We value autonomy and the ability to quickly pivot to capture opportunities, so we operate using our own capital and trading at our own risk. Headquartered in Chicago with offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, we trade a variety of asset classes including Fixed Income, ETFs, Equities, FX, Commodities and Energy across all major global markets. We have also leveraged our expertise and technology to expand into three non-traditional strategies: real estate, venture capital and cryptoassets. We operate with respect, curiosity and open minds. The people who thrive here share our belief that it’s not just what we do that matters–it's how we do it. DRW is a place of high expectations, integrity, innovation and a willingness to challenge consensus. UP (Unified Platform) consolidates data and technologies into a comprehensive solution, accelerating time to market. Optimizing decision-making and research, our platform simplifies implementing new ideas, enhancing our competitive edge. We work from high-level requirements where programmers are expected to gain an intimate understanding of the business. We strive for an environment where developers have the autonomy to pursue business solutions without arbitrary management constraints. We are a group of polyglots and technologists always seeking to find the right tool for each problem. Broadly, the development teams at DRW believe in rapid deployment and feedback, automated testing, and cohesive, transparent, lightly coupled service architectures. DRW has openings for  Senior Software Engineers on its Treasury and Reference Data development teams. These teams build and operate systems the firm depends on for financing, liquidity, and the instrument data that underpins trading and post-trade workflows. The teams are small and collaborative — you’ll work directly with business partners and enjoy building meaningful products from day one. These openings sit on two related teams: • Treasury — builds systems that support position financing, margin and collateral management, and cash and liquidity management across the firm. • Reference Data — owns the data platform that stores and distributes instrument and related reference data used across research, trading, and post-trade workflows. We hire through a single interview pipeline and match candidates to the team and problems that fit best as we learn more about each person’s current skills and long-term development goals. Responsibilities: • Designing, building, and testing systems used across the firm — services, data products, and the UIs that sit on them • Collaborating with business partners to turn ambiguous business problems into clear technical plans and shipped software • Owning software end-to-end after it ships — we run what we build (deploy, operate, on-call) • Working across greenfield systems and existing codebases • Building and improving tooling and processes around CI/CD, containers, and Kubernetes / internal cloud • Mentoring and raising the bar for engineering practice • Learning and championing useful new technologies where they fit Desirable Experience: We are looking for strong senior generalists. Experience in the following areas is helpful: • Full-stack development in Java, Python (FastAPI), and/or Ruby (Rails) • Strong relational data modeling fundamentals • GitOps and Kubernetes • Job orchestration systems (Airflow, Prefect, etc.) Though prior domain experience is not required, relevant background can help place a candidate on a particular team: • Payments and/or treasury systems (Treasury) • Vendor/exchange data processing and/or data taxonomy (Reference Data) The annual base salary range for this position is $200,000 to $275,000 depending on the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and relevant skill set. The position is also eligible for an annual discretionary bonus. In addition, DRW offers a comprehensive suite of employee benefits including group medical, pharmacy, dental and vision insurance, 401k (with discretionary employer match), short and long-term disability, life and AD&D insurance, health savings accounts, and flexible spending accounts. For more information about DRW's processing activities and our use of job applicants' data, please view our Privacy Notice at  https://drw.com/privacy-notice . California residents, please review the California Privacy Notice for information about certain legal rights at https://drw.com/california-privacy-notice . #LI-GV1

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