Smarkets runs a prediction market - a platform where users trade contracts on the outcomes of real-world events, from elections to sports. That means the attack surface is the financial layer itself: real-time settlement, low-latency order matching, and user funds in motion. The threat model is transactional integrity at speed. A compromised system doesn't just leak data; it distorts markets and enables manipulation at scale.
The engineering stack sits at the intersection of low-latency distributed systems and high-performance computing. The team builds and maintains fault-tolerant infrastructure designed for reliability under load - because in a prediction market, downtime is lost liquidity and compromised trust. Domains include real-time financial technology, reliability engineering, and the security controls that bind them together.
The company operates with a 90-person team organized in small groups with real ownership. The culture emphasizes technical depth over facetime - peer review, mentorship, and shared technical leadership shape how decisions get made. Engineers are expected to pick the best tools for the job and optimize for correctness and performance, not just velocity.
