ThinkMarkets is a global online brokerage firm, specializing in providing multi-asset trading solutions to thousands of clients around the world. With our flagship ThinkTrader platform, we allow our clients to trade the world 24-hours a day. Our mission is to disrupt the brokerage industry by allowing access to global markets and thousands of products to allow our clients to trade the world. We use the latest technologies to give traders seamless access to our proprietary trading platforms. Our Chicago office is in the heart of the financial district in the Loop, and includes our Leadership, IT, Analytics, and R&D teams.  

We are seeking a CTO to join our rapidly growing technology teams in Chicago. The Chief Technology Officer will lead ThinkMarkets’ technology strategy and be responsible for overseeing all technical aspects of the firm. The CTO will spearhead product delivery and implementation of our trading and investing solutions on a global scale. A successful candidate will be highly technologically capable, with a strong background in capital markets, trading and financial services. Additionally, the candidate will be intrinsically motivated and experienced in developing team members to their fullest potential. The ideal candidate will be a leader who leads by example, motivates, is organized, and highly analytical.  

The CTO will lead our software engineering, architecture, product development, and quantitative teams to deliver technological excellence. This individual must have proven experience leading and managing large teams with diverse skillsets. Beyond the day-to-day management of the technology unit, this role will also include strategic planning, increasing productivity, and departmental optimization.

Responsibilities:  

• Provide infrastructure architecture and strategy across multiple projects and teams to drive the definition and realization of the global technology strategy, as well as identify innovative forward-looking solutions 
• Collaborate with all stakeholders to establish goals and project criteria to maximize efficiencies of the IT department 
• Build and develop complex, highly-scalable, low-latency applications 
• Lead technical teams in design, document preparation, and standard operating procedures 
• Ensure goals and criteria are met through effective, efficient meetings and planning sessions 
• Ensure tight collaboration across various programs and functions to drive strategic initiatives, including understanding of the alignment between technology strategy and various technology road maps
• Oversee internal and external vendor relationship management
• Manage the technical delivery of integrations, security, and application through innovation and customization 
• Function as a hands-on, entrepreneurial leader of the global IT department  
• Track and identify new technologies to solve complex business issues 
• Manage global IT resource allocation, goal/KPI setting, and performance metrics
• Effectively cultivate a culture of teamwork and innovation among the staff 

Requirements:  

• Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field 
• 10+ years of successful experience managing global IT projects and teams
• Experience in working in Agile environments (SCRUM experience preferred)
• Experience working within the financial services industry; Managing infrastructure and application development is an absolute requirement 
• Ability to step in and perform hands-on coding  
• Proven ability to measure and optimize latency-sensitive components across a multitier architecture
• Experience in low-latency IPC, including shared memory and optimized UDP/TCP transport 
• Deep knowledge of concurrent and distributed computing, from low-level concepts such as lockless algorithms and memory visibility to high-level strategies such as fork-join and map-reduce
• Experience with deterministic throughput in a high-availability environment
• The ability to step in and code to drive a solution that your engineers can build upon
• Broad knowledge of software engineering: languages, frameworks, techniques, industry trends, etc. 
• Experience in coaching and mentoring teams on a global platform 
• Ability to process complex problems quickly and come up with unique and functional solutions 
• Strong client-management skills, including but not limited to:solution development, presenting, estimating, managing expectations, reporting, etc.  
• Strong department leadership skills: strategic planning, goal setting, processes development, and budgeting 

Our Benefit Offerings:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage available
• Employer-Paid Short-Term Disability and Life Insurance
• Pre-Tax Transit deduction options
• Global Employee Assistance Program
• 401k and Roth 401k (retirement planning) options available and competitive company match
• Generous Paid Holidays
• Monthly gym reimbursement
• Fresh beverages and snacks in office

Please submit a cover letter describing your background in financial services and trading, why you are interested in the position, and the development languages you are most familiar with.