The Role
We're seeking a Staff Python Engineer to provide technical leadership across our technology organisation, working on high-impact challenges spanning systematic trading, quantitative research, our petabyte-scale data platform, and AI solutions.
This is a senior individual-contributor role for an engineer who sets technical direction, not just delivers against it. You will shape architecture across team boundaries, raise the engineering bar through hands-on mentorship and review, and act as a trusted technical partner to engineering leadership, researchers, and traders. You'll be given significant autonomy to identify and drive the highest-leverage technical initiatives, while remaining deeply hands-on in design and code.
Role Responsibilities
Own architectural direction for critical systems, making build-vs-buy and long-term design decisions that span multiple teams and years, not just sprints
Design and build scalable backend systems, APIs, and distributed compute applications that underpin trading and research infrastructure, with a focus on performance, resilience, and observability at scale
Build and evolve high-performance data pipelines for petabyte-scale financial datasets, working across timeseries, SQL, and NoSQL databases
Act as a technical escalation point and thought partner for engineers, researchers, and platform teams, translating ambiguous or conflicting requirements into coherent technical strategy
Lead by example on engineering craft: set standards for testing, code review, and production readiness, and raise the bar through mentorship of engineers at all levels
Drive cross-team technical initiatives from proposal through delivery, including proofs of concept, migrations, and platform-wide improvements
Participate in production support rotations and contribute to incident response and postmortems for the most critical systems
Champion the adoption of AI-assisted development tools and agentic engineering practices across the team, and help define how the organisation uses them responsibly at scale
Our Technology
You'll work in a modern, Linux-based infrastructure where Python is the primary development language, utilising the full scientific stack including pandas, numpy, scipy, and scikit-learn. A key component of our data infrastructure is ArcticDB (https://arcticdb.io/), our internally developed DataFrame database that you'll use and help evolve. We maintain a dynamic technology landscape, continuously evaluating and adopting new tools and libraries that enhance our capabilities. man.com/technology
Our Sofia Office
This role sits within our growing Sofia office, one of Man Technology's fastest-expanding engineering hubs outside London. We recently moved into a newly built, purpose-designed office in the city as part of our long-term investment in the team here. Beyond day-to-day delivery, our Sofia engineers help raise Man Group's profile as a technology employer locally - engaging with the Bulgarian tech community through university partnerships, hackathons, and local meetups.
Key Competencies
Essential
8+ years' professional software development experience, with deep expertise in Python or another object-oriented language and demonstrated ability to become an expert-level Python engineer quickly
Track record of owning architecture and technical direction for systems used in production at scale, beyond the scope of a single team
Strong academic record with coursework focused on mathematical and computing content, e.g. Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or Physics
Deep experience with best practices for testing, monitoring, deployment, and operating mission-critical production systems
Experience with distributed systems, orchestration, and large-scale performance optimisation
Proficient on Linux platforms with strong command of Git and modern engineering workflows
Deep knowledge of one or more relevant database technologies, spanning relational (e.g. Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MySQL), NoSQL/document (e.g. MongoDB), or timeseries (e.g. ArcticDB) systems
Demonstrated experience designing for and working with large, complex data sets, both structured and unstructured
Proven ability to influence technical direction without formal authority, and to align stakeholders across teams with differing priorities
Experience mentoring engineers and elevating the technical capability of a team
Experience integrating tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or custom agentic workflows into a team's SDLC
Advantageous
Deep understanding of the Python scientific stack (pandas, numpy, scipy, scikit-learn)
Familiarity with related data platforms such as monitoring and metrics (e.g. Prometheus, InfluxDB), search and analytics (e.g. Elasticsearch), streaming (e.g. Kafka), or big data and distributed compute (e.g. Hadoop, Spark)
Knowledge of modern data engineering practices including ETL tooling, distributed storage and processing, and data warehousing
Significant contributions to open-source projects
Experience working with Large Language Models (LLMs), including applying them to engineering workflows or products
Experience in financial services, trading, or quantitative research environments
Experience defining or influencing engineering standards, guilds, or communities of practice across an organisation
Why Man Group?
Set technical direction on problems at the true cutting edge of technology and finance
Work alongside world-class engineers, researchers, and investment professionals - and shape how they work
Entrepreneurial, innovation-driven culture with small, agile teams and high autonomy
Significant influence over architecture and engineering practice, without giving up hands-on technical work
Direct impact on investment strategies managing billions in assets
Benefits
Modern office located in the OfficeX campus with easy access to transport and amenities.
Hybrid working model
Competitive compensation package
25 days holiday allowance
Premium Health insurance
Employee Assistance program
Referral Bonus
Additional days off for long service and volunteering
Multisport card
Opportunities for professional development including internal tech talks
Conference attendance, and engagement with the open-source community
Inclusion, Work-Life Balance and Benefits at Man Group You'll thrive in our working environment that champions equality of opportunity. Your unique perspective will contribute to our success, joining a workplace where inclusion is fundamental and deeply embedded in our culture and values. Through our external and internal initiatives, partnerships and programmes, you'll find opportunities to grow, develop your talents, and help foster an inclusive environment for all across our firm and industry. Learn more at www.man.com/diversity.
You'll have opportunities to make a difference through our charitable and global initiatives, while advancing your career through professional development, and with flexible working arrangements available too. Like all our people, you'll receive two annual 'Mankind' days of paid leave for community volunteering.
Our comprehensive benefits package includes competitive holiday entitlements, pension/401k, life and long-term disability coverage, group sick pay, enhanced parental leave and long-service leave. Depending on your location, you may also enjoy additional benefits such as private medical coverage, discounted gym membership options and pet insurance.
Equal Employment Opportunity Policy
Man Group provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants and all employees without regard to race, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, religion, disability, sex, gender identity and expression, marital status, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, age or any other legally protected category or status in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.
Man Group is a Disability Confident Committed employer; if you require help or information on reasonable adjustments as you apply for roles with us, please contact TalentAcquisition@man.com.
