Software Engineer — Core Platform

Rutherford Exchange

Trusted infrastructure for modern financial markets.

Headquarters: New York, New York
Industry: Financial technology and institutional software

Rutherford Exchange develops transaction, portfolio, and financial-data infrastructure used by investment firms, banks, and corporate finance teams. Its platform processes sensitive financial activity where reliability, security, and accurate reporting are essential.

The company is known for strong engineering standards, long-term client relationships, and a product culture that values sound technical decisions over unnecessary complexity.

Software Engineer — Core Platform

Location: New York, New York
Work arrangement: Hybrid — three office days and two remote days per week
Employment: Full-time, salaried and exempt
Schedule: Monday through Friday
Hours: Approximately 40–45 hours per week
Base salary: $175,000–$215,000, depending on experience, skills, and interview level
Annual cash bonus: 15% target; actual payout may range from 0% to 25%
Target cash compensation: Approximately $201,000–$247,000
Equity: Initial grant with an estimated annualized value of $30,000–$60,000
Reports to: Engineering Manager, Core Platform
On-call: Approximately one week every eight weeks

The role

Rutherford Exchange is looking for a Software Engineer to build and improve the services that power its financial platform.

You will work on APIs, transaction workflows, data processing, and internal platform capabilities used by multiple product teams. This is a mid-level individual-contributor position with meaningful ownership, but it does not require previous fintech experience or people-management responsibilities.

What you’ll do

• Design, build, test, and maintain production services used across the Rutherford platform.
• Develop reliable APIs and asynchronous workflows for financial and operational data.
• Improve system performance, observability, security, and failure recovery.
• Work with product managers and designers to turn business requirements into maintainable technical solutions.
• Review code and design proposals while providing practical, constructive feedback.
• Investigate production issues and implement fixes that address underlying causes.
• Improve automated testing, deployment processes, and developer tooling.
• Participate in architecture discussions and document important technical decisions.
• Join a rotating on-call schedule after completing onboarding and production-readiness training.

What we’re looking for

• At least three years of professional software engineering experience.
• Production experience with Java, Go, Python, or another modern server-side language.
• Experience designing APIs and working with relational databases such as PostgreSQL or MySQL.
• Understanding of testing, version control, code review, and continuous delivery.
• Ability to investigate problems across application, database, and infrastructure layers.
• Clear written communication and the ability to explain technical tradeoffs.
• Experience delivering projects with product and engineering partners.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field is helpful but not required.

Experience with distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, Kafka, Kubernetes, payments, or financial products is helpful but not required. Candidates are not expected to have every preferred skill.

Technology

The primary platform uses Java, Go, PostgreSQL, Kafka, Kubernetes, and AWS. Engineers are not required to know the entire stack before joining, but should be comfortable learning unfamiliar technologies.

Compensation

The base salary is determined by the candidate’s relevant experience, demonstrated technical skills, interview performance, and internal compensation level.

The annual cash bonus has a 15% target and is based on company performance and individual contribution. It is not guaranteed. New employees may receive a prorated bonus for their first year.

The equity grant follows a four-year vesting schedule. Its future value is not guaranteed and should not be treated as cash salary.

Benefits

• Health and wellbeing: Medical, dental, and vision coverage; employer-funded health savings account contribution; mental-health support; life and disability insurance.
• Retirement and financial: 401(k) with a 5% company match, annual cash bonus eligibility, commuter benefits, and financial-planning resources.
• Time away and family: Flexible PTO with a recommended minimum of 20 days, company holidays, paid sick leave, and 16 weeks of parental leave.
• Professional development: $2,500 annual learning budget, conference support, technical mentorship, and internal engineering workshops.
• Work support: Company laptop and home-office equipment, subsidized meals on office days, and reimbursement for approved on-call transportation.

Eligibility and detailed plan terms are provided in the official benefits documentation.

Schedule and on-call expectations

Most engineering work takes place during regular Eastern Time business hours. Teams schedule core collaboration between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

After onboarding, the engineer joins an on-call rotation approximately once every eight weeks. On-call engineers handle urgent production alerts outside normal hours. Routine issues remain within the next business day, and managers adjust schedules when significant overnight work occurs.

What success looks like

Within the first 90 days, you will understand the platform’s main services, contribute production code, and complete on-call readiness training.

Within six months, you should independently deliver a meaningful platform improvement, participate confidently in design reviews, and resolve production issues with appropriate support.

Strong performance means producing reliable software, making sensible technical tradeoffs, communicating early when risks appear, and improving the systems around you—not simply writing more code.

Culture

Engineering at Rutherford Exchange is collaborative, direct, and low-ego. Technical proposals are expected to withstand thoughtful review, regardless of who presents them.

The company values careful execution, but does not treat constant overtime as a sign of commitment. Engineers are encouraged to challenge unnecessary complexity, document decisions, and leave systems easier to understand than they found them.

Hiring process

• A 30-minute introductory call with a member of the Engineering Recruiting team.
• A 60-minute technical conversation with two engineers, including collaborative coding in a shared editor.
• A system-design interview based on a realistic platform scenario.
• A conversation with the Engineering Manager and a cross-functional product partner.
• Final reference and employment-verification checks, followed by a conditional written offer.

No take-home assignment is required. Candidates receive the interview format and preparation guidance in advance.

Required qualifications:

• Legally authorized to work in the United States
• 18 years or older