Staff Software Engineer - New Markets Singapore/SEA

The role

You will architect, design, and implement scalable brokerage systems and serve as the founding technical lead for Singapore and the SEA region. This role involves leading regional recruitment, mentoring talent, and acting as the operational reliability lead and incident commander.

What you will do

• Architect and design highly scalable, mission-critical brokerage systems.
• Develop and enhance middle- and back-office systems including gRPC microservices and APIs.
• Build customer account systems, KYC/CDD/AML controls, and pre-trade buying-power engines.
• Partner with core teams to extend frameworks for regional languages, currencies, and regulations.
• Provide strategic technical insights and mentor engineers.
• Lead cross-functional projects and establish engineering standards.
• Serve as incident commander and operational reliability lead during regional business hours.
• Participate in on-call rotations.
• Attend meetings held during Singapore business hours and occasional meetings with other regions.
• Lead technical integrations and recruitment for market launches.

Required qualifications

• Business-level English fluency.
• Extensive hands-on experience building broker-dealer middle- and back-office systems of record serving end investors.
• 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, KYC/CDD/AML and sanctions screening.
• Demonstrated experience implementing pre-trade risk and eligibility controls.
• Advanced proficiency in Go or similar modern backend languages.
• Deep architectural background in domain-driven design (DDD) and event-driven distributed systems.
• 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, specifically the Singapore PDPA.
• Proven ability to balance hands-on architecture with leadership, mentoring, and shaping roadmaps.
• 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

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

About the company

Alpaca is a US-headquartered, global leader in agent-first brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more. The company serves hundreds of financial institutions across 40 countries with institutional-grade APIs.