Linux System Administrator

Our Linux Team ensures our trading servers work so we can trade. You will work in a highly-customized environment where proprietary tools and technology run. You will be expected to help build the pioneering tools to keep our systems best-in-class while enabling our technology evolution in a controlled way.

Who we are:

Optiver is a tech-driven trading firm and leading global market maker. As one of the oldest market making institutions, we are a trusted partner of 70+ exchanges across the globe. Our mission is to constantly improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and acting as a stabilizing force no matter the market conditions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we participate in the safeguarding of healthy and efficient markets for everyone who participates.

Optiver Chicago’s culture parallels the energetic city we’re immersed in. Home to the Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago has established itself as the trading capital of the US. Active on leading US exchanges, Optiver’s Chicago office trades a wide range of products from listed derivatives to cash equities, ETFs, bonds and foreign exchange.

What you’ll do:

As a member of our Linux Systems Engineering Team, you will be ensuring that our production environment works optimally by deploying, maintaining, monitoring and operating a large fleet of predominantly bare-metal UNIX servers. At Optiver, reliability means prevention and swift resolution of incidents across our technology stack, to guarantee optimum functioning even in the most extreme market conditions. Having a decisive nature, engineering mindset and preference for simple solutions are essential to keeping our systems reliable.

• Tackle the life cycle of a server and build and deploy new solutions
• Performance monitoring and managing the system capacity
• Fix and analyze technical incidents, solve technical ad hoc problems
• Lead our charge to intelligent automation
• Be the connection between hardware and software
• Research new technologies and solutions, implement them or build better

Who you are:

• Experience in designing, deploying and supporting large scale Linux/Unix server environments
• Good knowledge of Linux Kernel internals
• A developer mindset to help build the right tools for our continual improvement
• Solid coding skills in Python and a strong desire to automate
• Experience within a high-performance computer environment where the result matters
• Infrastructure-as-Code with an Ansible flavor
• You are naturally curious about hardware and software, and how these interact
• Knowledge of virtualization and networking
• A proactive approach to problem solving
• You are able to clearly explain your thoughts through written and verbal communication, ask the right questions, and are not afraid to challenge or defend a strategy
• You seek out opportunities to leave your comfort zone and enjoy frequent change

No prior trading or financial experience is needed – our onboarding program will kick-start your career at Optiver and support you in gaining all the relevant knowledge about our business.

What you’ll get:

• Work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries.
• Performance based bonus structure that is unmatched anywhere in the industry. We combine our profits across desks, teams and offices into a global profit pool fostering a truly collaborative environment to work in.
• Ownership over initiatives that directly solve business problems. 

Alongside this you will get great other benefits such as 25 paid vacation days and market holidays, fully paid health insurance, daily breakfast and lunch, training opportunities, 401(k) match up to 50% and charitable match opportunities, regular social events and clubs, and many more.

At Optiver, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. Optiver recruits, employs, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, or other legally protected characteristics.