WHAT DOES A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER DO?
Published: Dec 22, 2025 - The Software Developer analyzes business needs, designs technical solutions, and builds new or enhanced software functionalities while ensuring high code quality and robust system performance. This role involves leading technology adoption, mentoring team members, resolving software defects, preparing documentation, and supporting users through deployment, training, and production activities. The Developer also maintains development infrastructure, including source control, defect tracking, and server environments, to ensure smooth and efficient operations.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Software Developer
1. Software Developer Accountabilities
- Algorithm Design: Design and maintain proprietary low-latency trading algorithms across the full system lifecycle.
- System Optimization: Build and optimize high-performance trading systems and supporting infrastructure.
- Tool Development: Develop advanced trading tools that fully utilize the capabilities of the firm’s high-speed technology stack.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with cross-functional teams to design and implement robust trading infrastructures.
- Strategy Validation: Create, test, and validate trading strategies to ensure accuracy and reliability.
- Scalability Engineering: Continuously enhance the scalability of production trading systems.
- Performance Tuning: Improve performance and efficiency across tens of thousands of live trading strategies.
- Strategy Monitoring: Monitor existing strategies to identify optimization and modernization opportunities.
- Technical Planning: Anticipate future business and trading requirements through technical analysis and planning.
- Solution Architecture: Design forward-looking technical solutions that support long-term growth and system resilience.
2. Software Developer Functions
- GUI Development: Develop and implement core GUI functionalities for ElectroFlo based on Altair’s Inspire platform.
- UI Design: Design user-facing features that integrate seamlessly with underlying solver capabilities.
- Solver Collaboration: Collaborate closely with solver development teams to align functionality and requirements.
- System Integration: Coordinate with the GUI and platform development teams to ensure coherent system integration.
- Technical Documentation: Take ownership of the GUI by maintaining clear and up-to-date technical documentation.
- GUI Testing: Design and execute tests to validate GUI functionality and stability.
- Requirements Management: Respond efficiently to new requirements and change requests from the solver team.
- Test Development: Contribute to the development of automated and manual test suites.
- Test Maintenance: Maintain and enhance existing test frameworks to ensure long-term quality.
- Development Planning: Participate actively in development planning, estimation, and roadmap discussions.
3. Software Developer Overview
- Process Collaboration: Collaborate with team members to create robust, redundant, and maintainable processes.
- Reporting Automation: Collaborate with business units to automate reporting needs.
- ETL Management: Maintain and enhance ETL processes that interact with financial systems and PII.
- Data Tooling: Create tools for importing and exporting data to Excel.
- Data Transformation: Create and optimize SQL queries and C#-based data transformation processes.
- Regulatory Compliance: Participate in development practices subject to DFS regulations.
- Code Standards: Follow defined practices for code testing and documentation.
- API Integration: Integrate with third-party API specifications to import and export data.
4. Software Developer Details and Accountabilities
- Team Collaboration: Collaborate effectively within a mid-sized software development team to deliver high-quality software consistently.
- Workflow Contribution: Contribute to team workflows that emphasize reliability, maintainability, and shared ownership.
- Solution Design: Design clear, precise, and unambiguous solutions for new software features.
- Software Enhancement: Produce well-defined updates and enhancements to existing software systems.
- Effort Estimation: Provide guidance and input for accurate estimation of software development tasks.
- Planning Support: Support planning activities by aligning estimates with technical complexity and scope.
- Code Quality: Write efficient, high-quality, and readable code that follows established standards.
- Unit Testing: Develop comprehensive unit tests to ensure correctness and long-term stability.
- Technical Documentation: Create and maintain clear technical documentation to support development and maintenance.
- Delivery Accountability: Maintain accountability for roadmap deliverables within defined quality processes.
- Issue Resolution: Analyze, diagnose, and design solutions for system, software, and performance-related issues.
5. Software Developer Tasks
- Business Analysis: Understand the business and identify opportunities to develop new functionalities.
- Product Knowledge: Understand concepts and develop in-depth working knowledge of the application products, development tools, and systems in the assigned area of responsibility.
- Design Reviews: Design and participate in review sessions for product systems and subsystems.
- Roadmap Development: Develop roadmaps and subsystems based on design sessions and requirement specifications.
- Technology Leadership: Take the lead in introducing new technologies into the development team and mentor other staff in the proper use of those technologies.
- User Support: Maintain and enhance the quality of the software system by providing support for users of the software.
- Defect Resolution: Analyze and solve defects in the software.
- Production Support: Assist with the installation of production environments.
- Customer Enablement: Assist with customer training and presentations.
- Specification Writing: Develop new or enhanced functionalities for software by writing functional and technical specifications.
- Software Development: Program the specified functionality.
- Test Execution: Organize, create, and perform adequate testing of programmed functionalities.
- Documentation Writing: Write technical and user documentation.
- Dev Infrastructure: Improve the infrastructure of the development environment by setting up and supporting a source code control system.
- Defect Tracking: Set up and support a defect tracking system.
- Process Documentation: Describe standard operating procedures.
- Server Maintenance: Maintain the web and data server environment.