About z Star Research

z Star Research is a start-up systematic quantitative investment firm. We take a research-driven, scientific approach to markets, and we build the technology behind that approach in-house. We are a small team of researchers and engineers, which means the systems you build will be used daily by the people sitting next to you — and your impact on the firm will be direct and measurable.

About the Role

This role owns the cloud platform the firm runs on. Our research and trading systems run on AWS, and you will design, build, and operate that environment — compute, storage, networking, identity, and the tooling around them — as the firm scales.

You will work directly with the researchers and engineers who depend on the platform every day, and you will have real latitude over how it is built. Strong candidates own systems end-to-end, hold a high standard for reliability and security, are deliberate about cost, and communicate clearly with people who are not infrastructure specialists.

What You’ll Do

Design, build, and operate the firm’s AWS environment across compute, storage, networking, and security
Define infrastructure as code and keep it there, with every change shipped through reviewed, automated deployment
Own identity, access, and secrets management, and build guardrails that let engineers move quickly without weakening security
Treat cloud cost as an engineering problem: attribution, budgeting, storage and data-transfer strategy, and right-sizing compute
Improve reliability, observability, and developer experience — monitoring, alerting, incident response, CI/CD, and development environments

What We’re Looking For

3–7 years of experience as a cloud, infrastructure, platform, DevOps, or site reliability engineer running production AWS environments
Deep hands-on AWS across compute, storage, networking, identity, and security
Strong infrastructure-as-code skills, and the judgment to keep an estate in code rather than in the console
Solid Python engineering skills for tooling, automation, and operational work
Strong Linux, networking, and security fundamentals, including secrets handling and encryption at rest and in transit
Real operational experience — monitoring, alerting, on-call, and debugging production systems under time pressure
A cost-aware instinct, strong communication skills, and close attention to detail

Nice to Have

Experience in systematic trading, quantitative research, or financial services, particularly in a regulated environment
Experience standing up a cloud environment from scratch, including multi-account structure and identity federation
Experience with container and batch compute and with modern orchestration tooling
Experience operating large-scale data or market data workloads

How We Work

We work in person, five days a week, from our office in New York. We are an early-stage firm: the pace is fast, standards are high, and everyone is close to the work. This environment suits people who want significant ownership and responsibility early, and who take energy from building alongside a small team that cares about getting things right.

Compensation & Benefits

The base salary range for this position is $150,000 to $250,000. Total compensation also includes profit sharing and a comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation is determined based on a candidate’s experience and qualifications.

z Star Research is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected characteristic.

z Star Research

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