Senior Software Engineer

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.

Optiver leverages technology to solve a variety of complex problems: optimising for scarce bandwidth, responding to market events with nanosecond speed, automatically pricing complex sets of financial instruments with extremely low error tolerance, and analysing huge volumes of data. Our systems are built to add to the stability of the market, not detract from it; therefore, they must operate at peak efficiency in the most extreme market conditions.

Our Senior Software Engineers not only lead technical projects, but also help set the direction for our trading infrastructure and serve as role models within the organisation. As one of the first engineers on the ground, you will collaborate with fellow Engineers, Traders, and Researchers to develop a deep understanding of trading, exchanges and what the 'machine' is doing. Your challenge is to further innovate and maintain the foundation underlying our wider infrastructure.

Your other responsibilities will depend on what team you go into, but we expect our Senior Engineers to also be involved with:

• The design, development and deployment of services that comprise our globally distributed trading platform.
• Delivering large bodies of well-engineered code.
• Building partnerships across the business to ensure we're feeding the best ideas into our solutions.
• Managing deployments to reduce risk and provide production support where required.
• Finding the simplest, cleanest solutions and continually optimise them.
• Building software that balances complex system performance in a reliable trading environment.
• Mentoring junior engineers.

Optiver needs our next Senior Software Engineer to be someone with:

• A solid grasp of Computer Science fundamentals like operating systems, data structures and algorithms.
• As our main body of software is written in C++ and runs on Linux, you will either need to have extensive experience in this language and platform or be more than willing to learn on the job. Next to C++, we also extensively use Python, C# and other languages in Optiver, and you are therefore expected to be willing and able to learn new languages quickly.
• Proven ability to work through the full software development lifecycle, from gathering requirements, to testing and deployment.
• Experience making architectural recommendations on IT solutions, design & approach.
• A passion for solving complex problems with well-engineered, fit for purpose, code.

• The chance to work alongside diverse, intelligent, and driven peers in a rewarding environment
• Competitive remuneration, including an attractive bonus structure
• Training, mentorship and personal development opportunities
• Competitive benefits

As an intentionally flat organisation, we believe that great ideas and impact can come from everyone. We are passionate about empowering individuals and creating diverse teams that thrive. Every person at Optiver should feel included, valued and respected, because we believe our best work is done together.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is hardwired through every stage of our hiring process. 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.