Optiver is seeking Software Engineers specializing in the US cash equities and US ETF markets to help lead our continued rapid growth across cash equities. Our Software Engineers lead large technical projects, help set the direction for our trading infrastructure, and leverage technology to enable business success.
Our cash equities engineering team is building out systems that must ingest and react to market data feeds from major US exchanges in microseconds or less, efficiently price and hedge positions of single stocks and ETFs and execute orders with extremely low error tolerance. We continually refine, store, and analyze terabytes of data produced by market activity and our trading systems. Our user interfaces must present coherent, responsive real-time visualizations of market activity and system performance while providing intuitive control of a highly complex system. Our core systems must provide a stable, performant, and trusted foundation on which our systems are built.
What you’ll do:
In this role you will be building out functionality across simulation, research, and production systems. Specifically, you will:
- Help establish the vision and technical direction for major cash equities trading initiatives
- Design, develop, support, and maintain large portions of our low-latency equities trading infrastructure, including order management systems (OMS) and execution management systems (EMS)
- Contribute to our pricing, research and trading models that power our market-making and proprietary trading strategies in US equities and US ETFs
- Develop a deep understanding of exchange-specific protocols, order book dynamics and exchanges connectivity
- Optimize data processing pipelines to handle market data from multiple exchanges at scale while continuously improving execution speed and system performance
- Work closely with FPGA engineers to leverage hardware acceleration for ultra-low-latency execution and explore novel ways to integrate FPGAs with software-driven trading infrastructure
- Collaborate deeply with traders, engineers, and researchers to help us evolve our execution logic and market impact models
Technology at Optiver:
At Optiver we pride ourselves on being real engineers, not just coders. Our engineers work closely with traders to identify the business problems we face and determine how they should be solved. We apply a disciplined and scientific approach. We engineer simple, well-architected solutions that meet the dynamic needs of our traders. Our passion is to solve problems which really matter to the business, and we take pride in the quality of our solutions.
What you’ll get:
You’ll join a culture of collaboration and excellence, where you’ll be surrounded by curious thinkers and creative problem solvers. Motivated by a passion for continuous improvement, you’ll thrive in a supportive, high-performing environment alongside talented colleagues, working collectively to tackle the toughest problems in the financial markets.
In addition, you’ll receive:
- The opportunity to work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries
- Ownership over initiatives that directly solve business problems
- 401(k) match up to 50% and fully paid health insurance
- 25 paid vacation days alongside market holidays
- Extensive office perks, including breakfast, lunch and snacks, regular social events, clubs, sporting leagues and more
Who you are:
- Familiarity with the market microstructure of the US Equities and/or US ETF markets
- Strong engineering instincts and a deep understanding of computer science fundamentals
- Programming experience across C++ or C with other object-orientated languages also considered
- Experience building low-latency trading systems on a large scale including across market data ingestion, order routing and execution performance
- Experience with exchange connectivity, order matching, and execution logic for major venues
- Experience optimizing high-throughput systems that must process and react in real-time to streams of market data
- Familiarity with building and integrating FPGA-assisted trading systems
- Innovative, big-picture thinking grounded in real-world pragmatism
- Readiness to set technical direction, promote strong engineering principles and continuously seek ways to refine and optimize systems in a fast-moving, ever evolving environment
- You can spot opportunities to enhance performance, efficiency, and maintainability
Who we are:
At Optiver, our mission is to improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and stabilizing the market no matter the conditions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we prioritize safeguarding the health and efficiency of the markets for all participants. As one of the largest market making institutions, we are a respected partner on 100+ exchanges across the globe.
Our differences are our edge. Optiver does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, or other legally protected characteristics.
Below is the expected base salary for this position. This is a good-faith estimate of the base pay scale for this position and offers will ultimately be determined based on experience, education, skill set, and performance in the interview process. This position will also be eligible for a discretionary bonus (if determined by Optiver) and Optiver’s benefits package with the benefits listed above.
Skills Required
- Familiarity with the market microstructure of the US Equities and/or US ETF markets
- Strong engineering instincts and a deep understanding of computer science fundamentals
- Programming experience across C++ or C with other object-orientated languages also considered
- Experience building low-latency trading systems on a large scale
- Experience with exchange connectivity, order matching, and execution logic for major venues
- Experience optimizing high-throughput systems that must process and react in real-time to market data
- Familiarity with building and integrating FPGA-assisted trading systems
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 that materially elevate total compensation. High performers receive differentiated rewards tied to impact.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous paid vacation alongside market holidays is a consistent component of the U.S. package. This breadth of leave is a notable element of the offering.
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Healthcare Strength — Comprehensive health coverage—including medical, dental, and vision—is prominently offered in U.S. roles, with indications that employee premiums are fully covered in some cases. Disability and life coverage further strengthen the core health benefits.
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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