What's It Like to Work at Clear Street?

Describe the key factors or strategies that helped you land your dream job in the tech industry. What qualities in a job or an employer were you looking for? How did you know when you found the right fit?

As a staff software engineer at Clear Street, I landed my dream job through due diligence and research to find the perfect fit. 

Compatibility was the main focus during my search for my dream job. Not only should I have the skills and know-how that the employer is looking for, but I should be confident in my technical solutions to solve problems. Second, I looked for company growth within the technology sector. A dream job in the tech industry should involve technology to drive the business forward rather than simply exist as a cost center. Finally, I stressed that the “right fit” for a job heavily depended on my colleagues, and I should have the space to grow in my role with the help of my co-workers. 

Clear Street was exactly what I was looking for, and the company met all my requirements and beyond. The company is one of the fastest-growing fintech firms in the industry today, using technology to solve legacy issues within the prime brokerage sector. I quickly adapted to my role and the culture of Clear Street, not only because the company gave me space to innovate, but because they also allowed me to make meaningful contributions with my skills and experience.

What specific skills or experiences do you believe set you apart from other candidates during your job search?

As a job candidate, my breadth of experience is the most valuable attribute I offer. In my past roles at other financial institutions, I worked at the intersection of technology, banking, and prime brokerage. I also gained extensive knowledge about the derivatives business, order management systems, and execution management systems, among many other business software applications.

My soft skills learned through experience are equally as valuable as a job candidate. When the company faces a business problem, I can use my corresponding knowledge to determine how and when to implement a technology solution. For example, when we look to give our trading desk a competitive edge, my team automates the tools to efficiently provide data about their positions and risk management decisions.

This has been possible through decades of learning about technology and other related fields. I emphasize, especially to software engineers just entering the industry, that demonstrating continuous growth and adaptability is more valuable than the number of programming languages you know or other complex skills you have.

How has your dream job lived up to your expectations? What are the types of projects you’re working on and what makes you most excited to come to work each day?

Working at Clear Street has exceeded my expectations, even for a dream job. As I mentioned, one of our projects involved the development of a risk management system for our trading desk. Clear Street gave my team a blank canvas to build the system from the ground up. In just six months, we created and implemented a tool that feeds trade position data to the desk in real-time, and now we are working on a funding system that shows every trade in its current position, how it was funded, its associated costs and how costs will change based on market movement. 

A large part of what makes this a dream job is the proximity to the trading desk, which allows me to expand my skills and knowledge beyond computer science. Rather than being in an isolated engineering team, I collaborate closely with traders and see my technology solutions in action. 

Every level of the trade life cycle at Clear Street, from trade execution to client engagement to trade settlement, engages with the engineering team. This is another great avenue to learn more and expand my skills and knowledge base, which are incredible reasons to work here.

In one memorable line, how would you describe day-to-day satisfaction on your team?

As a vice president of engineering at Clear Street, a financial infrastructure tech firm, I would describe the day-to-day as demanding but also a lot of fun. Right now we're launching self-clearing in Canada, ramping it up for repos, finishing a renovation program, standing up self-clearing in the UK and rapidly expanding our crypto, prediction-market and international capabilities. Any one of those is a multi-year effort for most teams. We're doing them in quarters, with a fraction of the engineers a bank would throw at it.

That works because of what we stand on: a platform built right from the start, modular, event-driven, cloud-native, a product and business team with real industry depth and one long-term vision everyone's pointed at. So nobody's defending their own corner. We lean on each other to hit the goal and that shared intent is what sets us apart.

Eighteen years in, after a big bank and a hedge fund, this is the first time the pressure has felt worth it instead of just exhausting.

Would you recommend working here — and what proof backs that up? 

Absolutely. If you've got years in the industry and you're tired of doing things the same old way, or you're fresh out of school and want to learn from the best, there's a spot here for you. The team gives a lot and asks a lot back. You're expected to push boundaries and ownership isn't a word on a values poster here, it's real.

Here's what I mean. We rolled out a change recently that touched every single part of the firm. A rollout that size always has surprises. As we worked through scenarios and issues, the entire firm worked as one team, no turf, no arguing and delivered. It takes a real team to pull that off.

And a real team comes down to how you hire. The strongest signal isn't a survey score, it's referrals. A lot of our hires come through people already here and they turn around and refer to the next wave. I've felt it myself; I've referred several people in, every one is still here and a number have gone on to refer others. When someone puts their name behind a recommendation and watches it pay off, that's about as honest a vote of confidence as you get.

How are you perceived externally right now and what signals support that?

The sharpest signal of how clients see us is what happens when we build something for them. Not long ago we replaced a workflow a client had been running through an established provider, rebuilt the screen they actually work in and ours was faster to use and cheaper to run. We don't ask clients to settle for the way it's always been done.

The other tell is who wants in. We're pulling in people from places they had every reason not to leave and a candidate choosing you over a bigger name is a harder, more honest signal than anything a survey can give you.