Systems Engineer

About Us

Tios Capital is a proprietary trading firm focusing on wholesale power markets.  We bring a rigorous quantitative approach, supported by scalable technologies, to our investment decisions.  We have a small team, but leverage technology very heavily to allow us to stay nimble and continuously innovate on trading strategies and approaches.

We are looking for a skilled Systems Engineer with 2-3 years of experience who is looking to grow aggressively into a senior and higher level. Systems Engineering work is currently performed by the Chief Technology Officer and several cross-functional software engineers, and this role will receive exceptional mentorship and hands-on learning. 

Our core values of humility, resilience, continuous improvement, balance, and teamwork, when they are lived out in our daily interactions, help to create a culture where individuals and teams can grow and thrive. It is important that you are enthusiastic about joining an entrepreneurial company. You will need to be flexible, comfortable wearing multiple hats, and able to work well with others.

Overview

The Systems Engineer will assist with managing, optimizing, and securing our production, R&D, and internal IT systems infrastructure.  You will be hands-on in ensuring stable and secure performance across all of our platforms (AWS, Ubuntu Linux, Mac OS, and some Windows).  

Over time, there is opportunity to take primary responsibility in day to day management of these systems, while also growing into management and directing our overall systems operations, including vendor, project, and cost management related to systems infrastructure.  

Our production and research systems are deployed on AWS and require dynamic scaling, ranging between 200+ and thousands of instances to support live trading and research efforts such as backtests. This AWS environment is managed via a proprietary Ruby on Rails application which interfaces with AWS APIs. Configuration management for instances is managed with AMIs and SaltStack. You will contribute to management and improvements to this stack, with support from our software engineering team.

We manage large amounts of data on multiple platforms (Snowflake, RDS MySQL, Cassandra, InfluxDB, Redis, S3, RabbitMQ). You will contribute to management of these database platforms, and help with upgrades and platform migrations as needed.

Our internal Trading, Quant, Operations, and Software teams use Macbook Pro laptops, including development tools in multiple languages (Ruby, R, Python).  You will be contributing to management and support of those laptops with Jamf Pro.  You will also be supporting our Quant and Tech teams, facilitating development lifecycles (CI) and production deployment tools.

This role involves on-call support, on rotation with 1-2 others.  While on call, you will be the first point of contact for any emergency systems issues.  Comp time is awarded for time spent on emergencies.

We have a highly collaborative and cross-functional team of software and data engineers in our Alexandria, VA office and place great value on mentorship and teamwork. Our teams are in the office Tuesday through Thursday and remote on Mondays and Fridays.  

Responsibilities

• AWS Cloud Infrastructure Management:
• Design, deploy, and maintain scalable and secure AWS environments, focusing on EC2 instances that scale up and down dynamically.
• Implement and manage monitoring, alerting, and reporting tools.
• Optimize cloud infrastructure for cost and performance efficiency.
• Manage and troubleshoot Ubuntu Linux EC2 instances.
• Ensure systems are secure, reliable, and performant.
• Proprietary Platform Management:
• Work closely with our software engineering team to manage, monitor and extend our Ruby-based proprietary platform which manages our AWS infrastructure.
• Configuration Management:
• Utilize SaltStack for configuration management of AWS EC2 instances
• Develop and maintain SaltStack states and formulas, ensuring consistent and repeatable deployment processes
• Perform R&D and production migration efforts for periodic upgrades
• Data Store Management:
• Manage and monitor multiple data stores including RDS (MySQL), Cassandra, Redis (ElastiCache), Snowflake, and InfluxDB.
• Assist with periodic upgrades and platform migrations.
• Ensure data integrity, security, and performance.
• DevOps Support:
• Work with the software engineering team to manage CI processes and systems.
• Manage tools for deploying software to our production environments
• MacOS Development Environment Management:
• Maintain and support MacOS systems used by our teams, utilizing Jamf Pro.
• Develop and enforce policies and profiles for MacOS devices.
• Provide support and troubleshooting for MacOS end-users.
• Security and Compliance:
• Implement and maintain security best practices across all systems.
• Conduct regular security assessments and audits.
• On-Call Support
• Must be highly available to respond to troubleshooting and issue resolution, including nights and weekends.  
• You will be on rotation with 1-2 others. While on call, you should be able to respond to emergencies on Tios-provided laptop and Mifi within 15 minutes. 
• Comp time is awarded for response times outside of business hours 

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 2+ years of experience in systems engineering or related roles.
• 1+ years of experience with AWS cloud infrastructure
• Strong proficiency with Ubuntu Linux administration and troubleshooting
• Strong proficiency with Bash scripting.
• Familiarity with Ruby or other programming language.
• Experience with multiple data stores such as RDS (MySQL), Cassandra, Redis (ElastiCache), Snowflake, and InfluxDB.
• Experience with configuration management frameworks such as Salt Stack and Jamf is preferred.
• Experience working with production software deployments is preferred.
• Excellent problem-solving and troubleshooting skills.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.

Benefits

Tios Capital will provide a competitive base salary, with eligibility for bonuses based on individual and company performance. Three weeks of paid vacation and health insurance are also included.