WHO WE ARE
Optiver is a global market maker founded in Amsterdam, with offices in London, Chicago, Austin, New York, Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Mumbai. Established in 1986, today we are a leading liquidity provider, with close to 2,000 employees in offices around the world, united in our commitment to improve the market through competitive pricing, execution and risk management. By providing liquidity on multiple exchanges across the world in various financial instruments we participate in the safeguarding of healthy and efficient markets. We provide liquidity to financial markets using our own capital, at our own risk, trading a wide range of products: listed derivatives, cash equities, ETFs, bonds and foreign currencies.
In Asia Pacific, Optiver was one of the first global market makers to establish a presence in the region, with the incorporation our Sydney office in 1996. Since then, we have expanded our footprint by establishing offices in Taipei (2005), Hong Kong (2007), Shanghai (2012) and Singapore (2021). The business in Mumbai is newly established and deemed to be an integral part of the APAC strategy, with an anticipation of significant growth over the coming years.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
We are looking for an experienced Software Development Team Lead (C++ & FPGA) to lead our India Execution Team, focused on building Optiver’s next-generation ultra-low latency trading systems.
In this role, you will lead a hybrid team of C++ software engineers and FPGA developers, driving the design and delivery of systems that achieve best-in-market trade execution across Indian exchanges (NSE, BSE, MCX). You’ll work at the intersection of software and hardware, shaping how system architecture is split across software and the FPGA to optimise latency, throughput, and reliability.
You won’t be doing this in isolation - you’ll collaborate closely with established execution and FPGA teams in Sydney and Shanghai, while contributing to Optiver’s broader execution strategy across APAC.
As a leader, you’ll partner with trading, risk, compliance, and research teams locally in Mumbai to define and execute the vision for our execution platform. You’ll join an already established team with strong talent, focusing on scaling the team and maintaining a high-performance engineering culture, while remaining hands-on in system design across C++ and FPGA and contributing directly to C++ development.
Our engineers own problems end-to-end—from understanding trading challenges to designing, implementing, testing, and deploying solutions into live markets. Development is fast-paced and impactful, with features often reaching production within days.
Your responsibilities will include:
Lead and grow a high-performance team of C++ and FPGA engineers, including hiring, mentoring, and performance management.
Define and evolve the architecture of our ultra-low latency trading stack, balancing software and hardware design decisions.
Design and implement high-performance C++ systems for order management, exchange connectivity, and risk controls.
Guide the development of FPGA components and hybrid FPGA/software systems for latency-critical paths.
Partner with trading and research teams to improve execution performance and ensure Optiver is #1 in execution for Indian markets.
Contribute to the strategy and vision for Optiver’s Asia Pacific execution capability.
Drive robustness and quality through strong engineering practices, including code reviews, testing, and production monitoring.
Own and improve automated trading risk controls within our execution systems.
Collaborate across global teams to share knowledge and influence broader system design.
WHO YOU ARE
We’re looking for a technically strong and people-focused leader with a background in building high-performance systems and a passion for developing teams. You should have:
5+ years of experience as a Software Engineer, with strong C++ experience building backend systems, client-server architectures, or distributed systems.
3+ years of demonstrated formal leadership experience.
Experience developing or maintaining exchange connectivity systems or other high-reliability, latency-sensitive systems.
Proven ability to solve technically challenging problems, with a pragmatic and results-driven mindset.
Experience owning work across the full software development lifecycle - from requirements gathering through design, implementation, testing, and production delivery.
Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with trading, research, and other business teams.
Experience leading projects as a technical owner, driving delivery and influencing design decisions.
Interest in working across software and hardware boundaries in hybrid C++/FPGA systems.
If you have any of these, we’re even more excited to hear from you:
Experience working with FPGAs or embedded systems, or exposure to hardware/software co-design.
Background in low latency systems within a similar trading firm.
Experience directly leading a team.
WHAT YOU'LL GET
A performance-based bonus structure unmatched anywhere in the industry. We combine our profits across desks, teams and offices into a global profit pool, fostering a truly collaborative environment.
The chance to work alongside diverse and intelligent peers in a rewarding environment.
Continuous learning, development and upskilling opportunities.
Daily breakfast, lunch, and an in-house barista.
Gym/Club membership, plus weekly massages.
Corporate health insurance
Uber business for daily commute
Regular social events, including a company trip every two years.
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Optiver is committed to diversity and inclusion.
We encourage applications from candidates from any and all backgrounds, and we welcome requests for reasonable adjustments during the process to ensure that you can best demonstrate your abilities. Please let us know if you would like to request any reasonable adjustments by contacting the Recruitment team via [email protected].
Skills Required
- 5+ years of experience as a Software Engineer
- Strong C++ experience building backend systems
- 3+ years of demonstrated formal leadership experience
- Experience developing high-reliability, latency-sensitive systems
- Strong stakeholder management skills
- Experience owning work across the full software development lifecycle
- Interest in working across software and hardware boundaries
Optiver Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Optiver and has not been reviewed or approved by Optiver.
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Career-Linked Recognition & Rewards — Pay is considered highly competitive in trading, quantitative, and engineering paths, with performance-linked bonuses materially elevating total earnings for strong contributors. High performers are described as seeing outsized upside when firm and team results are strong.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is depicted as comprehensive, including medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance, alongside HSA/FSA options and mental-health support. Some locations note unlimited therapy access through a partner platform.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — U.S. roles are often described as offering 25 days of paid vacation plus market holidays, alongside generous parental leave. This breadth of time off is highlighted as helping to offset a high-intensity environment.
Optiver Insights
What We Do
Optiver’s story began over 30 years ago, when we started business as a single trader on the floor of Amsterdam’s options exchange. Today, we are at the forefront of trading and technology as a leading global electronic market maker, focused on pricing, execution and risk management.
Why Work With Us
People at Optiver love challenges, welcome collaboration, and strive to be better tomorrow than they are today. Improving the market is an extraordinary challenge that requires a carefully crafted approach. Optiver provides a collaborative working environment to tackle these challenges. In fact, it is this way of working that sets us apart.
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