Staff Software Engineer – New Markets, JLPT N1 Fluent

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Japan.

📋 Description

• Create highly scalable and mission-critical brokerage systems tailored for the Japan market.

• Design and improve middle- and back-office systems, encompassing gRPC microservices, REST and gRPC APIs, along with third-party vendor integrations specific to Japan (e.g., JPX, JSCC, JASDEC, banks, and identity verification vendors).

• Collaborate closely with Alpaca's core teams to refine and evolve the core framework, facilitating support for various languages, currencies, and markets, with a specific emphasis on Japan-centric requirements such as NISA, MyNumber, withholding tax, and JP-GAAP accounting.

• Engage with tech leads in other regions synchronously and asynchronously, primarily via Slack and meetings, to ensure alignment with global teams.

• Communicate in Japanese with local regulators, vendors, partners, and business stakeholders, translating these requirements into technical specifications for the global engineering team.

• Address incidents and reported issues to uphold system integrity and performance.

• Participate in on-call rotations and support timely engineering projects and production challenges during Japan business hours.

• Succeed in a global environment by adeptly navigating regulatory requirements and developing scalable solutions to facilitate Alpaca's growth in Japan.

⛳️ Requirements

• Native or JLPT N1 level fluency in Japanese, with proficiency in reading, writing, and professional communication with local regulators, vendors, and partners.

• Business-level fluency in English, enabling effective collaboration in English-only team meetings, design discussions, code reviews, and documentation.

• Demonstrated experience in designing and developing intricate financial systems, ideally including double-entry accounting.

• Solid understanding of accounting principles, ledger structures, and transaction reconciliation.

• Experience in creating scalable, high-availability financial applications that manage multi-currency transactions.

• Knowledge of regulatory compliance requirements in financial markets, with preference for experience in Japan (FIEA, FSA, JSDA, JIPF, or related frameworks).

• Proficiency in at least one statically typed programming language (e.g., Go, Rust, Java, Kotlin, C#, Scala, or C++), with expertise in designing robust and efficient system architectures.

• Familiarity with financial APIs, market data integrations, and trade settlement processes.

• Effective communication skills to work collaboratively with global teams, local regulators, vendors, and internal stakeholders, bridging Japanese and English contexts.

• Strong foundation in computer science and proven experience in software engineering architecture.

• Capability to work autonomously within a fully remote, globally distributed team, and manage pressure in a fast-paced environment.

• Strategic mindset with the ability to translate technical concepts into business strategies.

• Experience with domain-driven design and event-driven design methodologies.

• Strong problem-solving abilities complemented by a proactive approach.

• Capacity to lead and resolve incidents or bugs with authority during Japan business hours.

🏝️ Benefits

• Competitive Salary & Stock Options

• Health Benefits

• New Hire Home-Office Setup: One-time USD $500

• Monthly Stipend: USD $150 per month via a Brex Card