Minjie on Cybersecurity Engineering at Jane Street

SUMMARY

In 30 seconds

Minjie, a software engineer on Jane Street’s Hong Kong cybersecurity team, discusses how he learned OCaml after joining in 2019 and the university course that prepared him for collaborative software work. He describes an internal permissions system, tools for network visibility and the importance of reaching colleagues across teams.

1Learning OCaml on the jobMinjie had no OCaml experience before joining. He learned the basics in the developer boot camp and team-specific libraries through work.
2Permissions and visibilityHis projects include an internal permissions system used across the firm and smaller tools for network visibility.
3Collaboration across teamsHe helps colleagues adopt the permissions system and gathers feedback; security alert triage also requires talking to other teams.
4Helpful colleaguesMinjie says his favorite part of the firm is working with friendly colleagues who are open to suggestions.

Takeaways

New developers learn OCaml fundamentals through a boot camp before learning team-specific libraries on the job.
A software engineering workshop helped Minjie practice collaboration and working with large codebases.
The cybersecurity team builds an internal permissions system and tools that improve network visibility.
Security investigations can require several teams to piece together what happened.

TopicsCybersecurity Software engineering Company Culture

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Learning the tools

Minjie introduces his Hong Kong role and explains how he learned OCaml after joining. A university workshop also prepared him for teamwork and large codebases.

I am Minjie, a software engineer on the cybersecurity team in Jane Street’s Hong Kong office. I joined in 2019.

I had no OCaml experience before joining and only limited exposure to functional programming at university. Developers at Jane Street go through an OCaml boot camp to learn the basics; once working with a team, they can learn the particular libraries that team uses.

A university software engineering workshop was especially helpful preparation. It taught me how to collaborate within a software team and work with large codebases.

Building and supporting security tools

His work includes a firmwide permissions system and internal network-visibility tools. He collaborates across teams on adoption, feedback and alert triage.

One of my main projects is an internal permissions system used throughout the firm. I also work on smaller tools within cybersecurity, including tools that improve our visibility into the internal network.

Collaboration happens at different scales. Sometimes I contact another team with a single question; at other times several teams work together on a larger initiative.

As a developer, I help other teams adopt the permissions system, collect their feedback and improve it. On the security side, I help triage alerts and contact colleagues from other teams to piece together a complete account of what happened.

People and culture

Minjie describes colleagues as friendly and helpful. He values their openness to discussion and suggestions.

People at Jane Street are friendly, helpful and open to discussion. My favorite part of working here is the people I work with: they are always open to suggestions.