TL;DR
We hold open mandates for quant developers and senior engineers with HFT and proprietary trading firms in Gurugram and Bengaluru. These are the engineers who turn research into something that trades: the strategy infrastructure, the execution path, and the systems that keep both honest.
Clients are confidential until shortlist. We will tell you which firm before your profile goes anywhere.
What the work is
It varies by firm along one axis: how close you sit to the market. At one end, strategy infrastructure, backtesting frameworks and research tooling, where correctness and throughput matter more than microseconds. At the other, the execution path itself, where the budget is measured in microseconds and the techniques change accordingly.
Common to both is that the code has a P&L attached. A bug does not produce a ticket, it produces a loss, and that changes how the work is done. Testing is heavier, deployment is more careful, and the people who enjoy it tend to be the ones who like that seriousness.
What firms assess
C++ at a level most job descriptions describe and few interviews actually reach. Not template metaprogramming for its own sake, but understanding what the machine does: cache behaviour, allocation, branch prediction, and what the compiler is and is not doing for you.
Measurement discipline. The strongest signal in these interviews is a candidate who profiles before optimising and can say what they measured and how. Firms are wary of engineers who have absorbed latency folklore without testing it.
For roles further from the wire, Python and systems design carry more weight than C++ micro-optimisation, and good candidates are sometimes screened out by assuming otherwise.
Backgrounds that transfer
Game engines, embedded systems, databases and networking all produce engineers who do well here. What transfers is having worked somewhere performance was measured rather than asserted. What does not transfer is seniority built mainly on coordination.
On timing
These mandates recur rather than opening and closing cleanly. If the timing is wrong, join the Quant Network and we will come to you when a firm opens a seat that fits.
Related reading
The quant developer and low-latency C++ engineer guides cover the interview loops, and the 2026 salary benchmark covers the bands.
Interested?
Apply once, to us. We confirm the firm with you before anything is submitted. Because of application volume, only shortlisted candidates are contacted.