Legally liable is one thing, but if you contribute to a piece of software that has real-world consequences - your trading algorithm generated the money used to

Legally liable is one thing, but if you contribute to a piece of software that has real-world consequences - your trading algorithm generated the money used to fund an election, your guidance software was used to bomb civilians, your algorithmic tweaks led to vaccine denialism becoming widespread - that's consequences of your actions. You can dress it up any way you want - you've got bills to pay, you were ordered to do so, you didn't see it coming, you can't control how people use your software - but at the end of the day, you contributed to those outcomes.