Staff Software Engineer - New Markets Singapore/SEA

Overview

Staff Software Engineer leading the new-markets build-out for Alpaca in Singapore and the broader Southeast Asia region, acting as founding technical lead, regional reliability lead and incident commander during regional business hours.

What you'll do

• Architect and design highly scalable, mission-critical brokerage systems spanning multiple products or services.
• Develop and enhance middle- and back-office systems, including gRPC microservices, APIs, and third-party vendor integrations.
• Build customer account/PII systems, KYC/CDD/AML controls, and pre-trade multi-currency buying-power and margin engines.
• Partner with core teams to extend frameworks for regional languages, currencies, and regulations, starting with Singapore and expanding to SEA markets.
• Provide strategic technical insights and mentor engineers to shape the long-term engineering roadmap and foster technical growth.
• Lead cross-functional projects and establish engineering standards, code review practices, and decision-making frameworks.
• Serve as incident commander and operational reliability lead during regional business hours to ensure proactive 24/7 stability.
• Participate in on-call rotations and ensure timely response to production issues.
• Attend meetings held during Singapore business hours and occasional meetings with teams in other regions (including Japan, US, and EU).
• Lead technical integrations and recruitment for market launches, engaging with regional stakeholders and regulators like the MAS.

What you'll need

• Business-level English fluency, with the ability to collaborate effectively in English-only team meetings, design discussions, code reviews, and written documentation.
• Extensive hands-on experience building broker-dealer middle- and back-office systems of record (clearing, settlement, custody, corporate actions, reconciliation) serving end investors rather than trading desks.
• Proven track record architecting and developing complex financial systems grounded in a double-entry ledger and books-and-records model.
• Deep experience engineering customer account management infrastructure with sensitive PII handling, alongside KYC/CDD/AML and sanctions screening across the full account lifecycle.
• Demonstrated experience implementing pre-trade risk and eligibility controls, including real-time multi-currency buying-power calculation, margin requirements, and order validation.
• Advanced proficiency in Go or similar modern backend languages, with extensive production experience designing high-throughput REST and gRPC microservices.
• Deep architectural background in domain-driven design (DDD) and event-driven distributed systems for high-availability financial applications.
• Thorough familiarity with Singapore regulatory requirements (MAS, Securities and Futures Act, MAS Notice SFA04-N02 on AML/CFT) and broader Southeast Asian financial markets.
• Working knowledge of regional data protection laws and compliance standards for sensitive client data, specifically the Singapore PDPA.
• Proven ability to balance hands-on architecture with leadership, mentoring engineers, driving technical decisions, and shaping roadmaps beyond the immediate team.
• Ability to lead and troubleshoot incidents or bugs with authority during Singapore business hours.

Nice to have

• Residence in Singapore.
• Experience launching products in multiple SEA markets (e.g., Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines).
• Proficiency in an additional regional language (e.g., Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia/Malay, Thai, Vietnamese).
• Experience working in a startup or fast-growing technology company.
• Experience managing vendors and organizational budgeting.
• Experience with microservices, service mesh, and distributed systems at scale; cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, Azure) and Kubernetes.

Details

• Remote, Singapore or APAC.
• Attend meetings during Singapore business hours and occasional meetings with teams in Japan, US and EU.
• Participate in on-call rotations.
• Benefits include competitive salary and stock options, health benefits, a one-time USD $500 home-office setup, and a USD $150 monthly stipend via a Brex Card.