JobsJump Trading

Software Engineer

Jump Trading · Chicago, IL · Core Development

Posted Jul 24, 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

Tell me about a time you had to process or move a very large data set and the naive approach didn't work. What did you change?

real experience with data-intensive systems, not just theoretical knowledge

Tell me about a project where you were the only person driving it forward, with no one checking in on the details. How did you keep yourself honest about quality and progress?

self-direction and ownership without close supervision

Describe a time you disagreed with another engineer or a stakeholder about a technical approach. How did you resolve it?

collaboration style and whether ego gets in the way of good outcomes

What's a bug you introduced into a production system that had real consequences? What happened, and what did you change about how you work afterward?

intellectual honesty and whether mistakes translate into better practices

How do you decide when a problem is worth a deep, curious dive versus when you should just ship the straightforward fix and move on?

balance between intellectual curiosity and delivery pressure, relevant given the firm's research-driven culture

Technical

Walk me through the largest distributed system you've built in Python. What was it doing, and what part of it was hardest to get right?

whether the candidate has genuinely operated at scale versus just used the language for scripts

How do you think about the tradeoff between throughput and latency when designing a service that other engineering teams will call directly?

depth of systems design thinking for shared infrastructure

What's your experience running and tuning Python services on Linux? Have you had to deal with things like process limits, memory pressure, or networking quirks specific to the OS?

hands-on Linux operational fluency versus surface familiarity

How would you design a system that needs to reliably process a high volume of events without losing any, even if a downstream service goes down for a few minutes?

understanding of durability, retries, and failure isolation in distributed systems

Walk me through how you'd profile a Python service to find out why it's using more CPU than expected.

practical performance debugging skill rather than memorized tool names

Situational

Suppose a core service that many teams depend on starts intermittently timing out under load, but only during peak hours. How would you go about diagnosing it?

structured debugging approach on production systems with limited visibility

If you inherited a core platform service with almost no documentation and the original author had left the company, what would you do in your first two weeks?

approach to unfamiliar legacy systems and risk management

You're asked to improve the reliability of a system but you're told you can't take it down for a rewrite. How do you approach making it more resilient incrementally?

pragmatism and ability to improve systems without disrupting the business

This role expects reliable, predictable availability. Tell me about a time something broke outside of normal hours and you had to respond. What was that like for you?

realistic expectations about on-call life and willingness to be present when systems fail

Practice this interview out loud.

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The full job description

As published by Jump Trading.

<p class="wnfdnth _1ibi0s33y _1ibi0s34u" data-pm-slice="1 1 []">Jump Trading is committed to world class research. We empower exceptional talents in Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science to seek scientific boundaries, push through them, and apply cutting edge research to global financial markets. Our culture is unique. Constant innovation requires fearlessness, creativity, intellectual honesty, and a relentless competitive streak. We believe in winning together and unlocking unique individual talent by incentivizing collaboration and mutual respect. At Jump, research outcomes drive more than superior risk adjusted returns. We design, develop and deploy technologies that change our world, fund start-ups across industries, and partner with leading global research organizations and universities to solve problems.&nbsp;</p> <h4 class="wnfdnth _1ibi0s33y _1ibi0s34u" data-pm-slice="1 1 []">What You'll Do</h4> <p>As a Software Engineer, you'll work on a team of technologists building and improving the platforms and services that support the business. You'll partner with engineers and cross-functional stakeholders to develop new tools, systems, and infrastructure. You'll collaborate with teammates to improve the scalability, reliability, and performance of production systems. By strengthening the core systems used across the organization, you'll have an outsized impact on engineering productivity as the company continues to grow.</p> <h4 class="wnfdnth _1ibi0s33y _1ibi0s34u">Skills You’ll Need</h4> <ul class="wnfdnte"> <li class="wnfdntd _1ibi0s33w"> <p class="wnfdntt _1ibi0s3f5 _1ibi0s3ce _1ibi0s3ea">At least 5+ years of professional experience with Python building large-scale distributed systems</p> </li> <li class="wnfdntd _1ibi0s33w"> <p class="wnfdntt _1ibi0s3f5 _1ibi0s3ce _1ibi0s3ea">Experience working on a Linux platform</p> </li> <li class="wnfdntd _1ibi0s33w"> <p class="wnfdntt _1ibi0s3f5 _1ibi0s3ce _1ibi0s3ea">Proven success working with large data sets or data-intensive applications</p> </li> <li class="wnfdntd _1ibi0s33w"> <p class="wnfdntt _1ibi0s3f5 _1ibi0s3ce _1ibi0s3ea">Strong analytical and problem-solving skills</p> </li> <li class="wnfdntd _1ibi0s33w"> <p class="wnfdntt _1ibi0s3f5 _1ibi0s3ce _1ibi0s3ea">Intellectual curiosity</p> </li> <li class="wnfdntd _1ibi0s33w"> <p class="wnfdntt _1ibi0s3f5 _1ibi0s3ce _1ibi0s3ea">Self-directed and comfortable taking ownership of projects and responsibilities</p> </li> <li class="wnfdntd _1ibi0s33w"> <p class="wnfdntt _1ibi0s3f5 _1ibi0s3ce _1ibi0s3ea">Minimum academic qualification: Bachelor’s degree in computer science or computer engineering, or equivalent</p> </li> <li class="wnfdntd _1ibi0s33w"> <p class="wnfdntt _1ibi0s3f5 _1ibi0s3ce _1ibi0s3ea">Reliable and predictable availability</p> </li> </ul> <p class="wnfdntt _1ibi0s3f5 _1ibi0s3ce _1ibi0s3ea">&nbsp;</p><div class="content-pay-transparency"><div class="pay-input"><div class="description"><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14px;">Benefits</span></strong></p> <ul> <li style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Discretionary bonus eligibility </span></li> <li style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Medical, dental, and vision insurance</span></li> <li style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">HSA, FSA, and Dependent Care options</span></li> <li style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Employer Paid Group Term Life and AD&amp;D Insurance</span></li> <li style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Voluntary Life &amp; AD&amp;D insurance</span></li> <li style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Paid vacation plus paid holidays</span></li> <li style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Retirement plan with employer match</span></li> <li style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Paid parental leave</span></li> <li style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Wellness Programs</span><br><br></span></span></li> </ul></div><div class="title">Annual Base Salary Range </div><div class="pay-range"><span>$200,000</span><span class="divider">&mdash;</span><span>$250,000 USD</span></div></div></div>

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