TechOps L2 Application Support Engineer

Note: This is a hybrid role with two days per week required in the Chicago office.

Job Responsibilities: Provide Level 2 support for production trading applications, taking ownership of escalated issues from initial investigation through resolution or handoff to development or infrastructure teams. Troubleshoot OMS, EMS, and front office workflows, including order entry, routing, execution reporting, application connectivity, and data discrepancies. Investigate incidents using application logs, monitoring tools, database queries, and Linux utilities; assess business impact and communicate clear updates to stakeholders. Automate routine processes and procedures using Python, including health checks, log analysis, data validation, operational reporting, and repeatable support tasks. Maintain and improve monitoring and alerting to identify service degradation, reduce unnecessary alerts, and support timely incident response. Support production releases and configuration changes through pre-release checks, deployment validation, and documented rollback procedures. Create and maintain runbooks, troubleshooting guides, and knowledge articles that make common issues easier to diagnose and resolve. Identify recurring incidents, contribute to root-cause analysis, and work with engineering teams on permanent fixes and operational improvements.

Required Skills and Technologies: Experience providing L2 application or production support, with a structured approach to troubleshooting and incident ownership. Familiarity with EMS, OMS, and front office trading technology systems, including the order lifecycle and the impact of application issues on trading activity. Practical Python scripting skills and experience automating routine operational tasks. Ability to write readable, maintainable scripts with appropriate logging, error handling, and validation. Proficiency in Linux environments, including command-line tools, log analysis, process management, and application troubleshooting. Working knowledge of SQL for investigating application data and validating operational results. Familiarity with Git and controlled processes for reviewing, testing, and deploying scripts and configuration changes. Strong analytical and communication skills, including the ability to prioritize issues under pressure and explain technical problems to non-technical stakeholders.

Desired Qualifications: Experience supporting real-time, highly available systems in trading or financial services. Working knowledge of FIX messaging and session connectivity for production troubleshooting. Experience with monitoring and alerting platforms, job schedulers, APIs, or configuration-management tools such as Ansible. Familiarity with incident, problem, and change management practices, and collaboration across support, development, and infrastructure teams.

About Sterling Trading Tech: Sterling Trading Tech (Sterling)’s mission is to provide market-leading, cloud-based trading infrastructure, encompassing Trading Platforms, OMS, and Risk products to support both buy-side and sell-side firms. Sterling’s clients include clearing firms, broker dealers, proprietary trading groups, and hedge funds in over 20 countries. Sterling systems currently process over 10% of all US matched equities. Recently acquired by L Squared Capital Partners (L Squared), Sterling is entering a new phase of expansion and innovation. Sterling’s accelerated growth plans include additional staffing in both its product and sales organizations, new technology development and the release of incremental cloud services, with the addition of new asset classes and international coverage to drive global adoption of its offerings. This is an exciting time to join Sterling’s growing team of trailblazers developing next generation trading technology in the fintech space.