Career Kickstarter Sydney - Technology - March 2026

Want to fast-track your career path from student to full-time developer? 

Join Career Kickstarter: Technology, our five-day immersive program designed to accelerate your journey from university to a full-time tech career. Explore how technology drives our success in the global financial markets and gain hands-on experience designing the high-performance systems that keep us at the forefront of trading, where every nanosecond counts. 

Through a blend of interactive lectures, practical projects, and mentorship from our world-class education team, you’ll sharpen your problem-solving skills and learn how to think, and build, like a developer at Optiver. 

 Plus, if you've excelled in the program, you could receive an offer for our 2027 Graduate Program.  

• Eligible for final year university students (graduating in 2026 or earlier), with Australian working rights 

• Program dates: 23 – 27 March 2026 

• Application close: Friday, 23 January 2026 

• Where: Optiver Sydney office* 

 *Note: If you reside outside of Sydney, Optiver will cover your travel and accommodation costs.  

What you'll do  

Led by Optiver’s world-class education team, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the quantitative industry and explore how technology powers our trading success. 

Learning and skill development:  

• Discover options theory: Learn the fundamentals that underpin options trading, through engaging, interactive lectures. 

• Enhance your coding capability: Put advanced software engineering concepts into practise through a series of tech workshops. 

• Learn about low latency: Gain experience around how low latency designs are critical to trading success at Optiver. 

• Build and test your own trading algorithm: Gain hands-on experience designing and testing your own trading algorithm. 

Networking and culture:  

• Gain expert mentorship: Learn directly from a dedicated team of educators, consisting of current and former traders and developers. 

• Build your network: Enjoy connecting with developers, traders and quantitative researchers through curated events. 

• Experience Optiver’s culture: Immerse in our incredible culture and enjoy our benefits, including daily breakfast, lunch, coffee, and more. 

Who you are  

• Final year university students (graduating in 2026 or earlier). All degree backgrounds are considered. 

• An Australian or New Zealand Citizen, Australian Permanent Resident or able to provide evidence of full working rights. 

• Studying (or studied) a Computer Science, Software/Electrical/Mechatronic Engineering or similarly technical degree. 

• Problem solver who will enjoy building high-performing, low latency designs that critically impact trading success. 

• Curious to learn and comfortable exploring complex technical ideas. 

• Have a range of out-of-classroom projects or extra-curricular activities that demonstrates your passion in technology, particularly software development. 

• Excited to work alongside the best developers and traders in the industry, with the humility to continually upskill and improve yourself. 

• Knowledgeable about object-orientated design and development concepts (experience with C++, Java or Python is required for our technical assessment). 

Applying for the program  

The Career Kickstarter program offers three streams: Technology, Trading or Research. To help you choose the stream that aligns with your interests, please find more information below. Please note that you can only apply for one stream. 

Technology 

Our Software and FPGA Developers play a critical role in executing successful trades. Driven by the desire to find the simplest solutions to the most complex problems, they design and build high performance systems that solve real business problems. Check out Brenda’s ‘Day in the Life’ story to learn more. 

Trading 

Our Traders make trading decisions based on market conditions and other factors. They’re driven and have a flair for analytical problem solving. Check out Matt’s ‘Day in the life’ story to learn more. 

Interested in the Trading stream? Apply here.  

Research 

Our Researchers build models leveraging big data and machine learning to identify profitable signals that underpin our algorithmic trading strategies. Check out Noah’s ‘Day in the life’ story to learn more.  

Interested in the Research stream? Apply here. 

Ready to kickstart your career with Optiver? Apply today. 

Diversity statement  

Optiver is committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage applications from candidates from all backgrounds, and welcome requests for reasonable adjustments during the process to ensure that you can best demonstrate your abilities. 

Questions? Get in touch with our team at [email protected].  

We accept one application per role per year. If you have previously applied to this position during this season and have been unsuccessful, you can re-apply when the next recruitment season begins in 2027.