Our engineers build the systems that power Optiver's trading business, solving complex technical problems at massive scale where performance, reliability and speed are critical.
We're hiring senior engineers across five Trading Strategies teams in our Chicago office. You'll work directly with traders and researchers, owning systems and workflows end-to-end across the stack: from real-time trading infrastructure and execution through to tools, analytics and decision-support. The problems are fast-moving, the feedback loop is short and your impact is directly visible across system behavior, execution quality and trading performance.
What you'll doDepending on the team and area of focus, engineers may work on everything from ultra-low-latency systems that execute trades in live markets to large-scale research and simulation platforms that process vast amounts of data.
We have opportunities across the following teams:
Research & Simulation: Build the infrastructure and workflows that power systematic and semi-systematic trading, enabling large-scale experimentation, robust backtesting, and data-driven strategy development.
Low Latency Execution Strategy: Develop systems and run experiments that improve exchange execution by partnering with researchers to understand market microstructure and optimize execution behavior.
Equity Options: Work directly alongside traders to solve high-impact problems across trading systems, analytics, infrastructure, and tooling.
Core Trading Strategies: Build systematic and semi-systematic trading strategies that translate pricing and risk appetite into exchange execution. Develop algorithms, ultra-low-latency execution systems, and high-fidelity research infrastructure across trading features, infrastructure design, and simulation platforms.
Retail Execution: Build real-time systems that price, route, and execute millions of retail orders. Partner closely with traders and researchers to own end-to-end solutions spanning exchange connectivity, routing logic, pricing, risk checks, and monitoring.
We’re looking for experienced engineers with or without a trading background.
Experience leading complex, large-scale engineering projects
Strong computer science fundamentals and sound engineering judgment
Ability to balance innovative thinking with practical execution
Proficient in systems-level programming (e.g. C or C++ with Linux and networking fundamentals)
A mindset of continuous improvement in a fast-paced environment
Willingness to set technical direction, uphold engineering standards, and take ownership of outcomes
You'll work directly with traders, researchers, FPGA engineers and networking specialists, with significant ownership, architectural influence and clear visibility into how your work affects trading outcomes.
In addition, you’ll receive:
Competitive compensation, including a global profit-sharing pool and performance-based bonus
401(k) match up to 50%
Comprehensive health, mental health, dental, vision, disability and life coverage
25 paid vacation days alongside market holidays
Office perks including breakfast, lunch and snacks, regular social events, clubs, sports leagues and more
Our interview process is designed to assess your software engineering fundamentals, problem-solving approach and ability to build high-performance systems.
You’ll begin with a series of technical interviews focused on coding, systems design and engineering problem solving. As you progress through the process, you’ll have the opportunity to meet with engineers and leaders across our trading technology organization.
Because we’re hiring across multiple teams, you don’t need to identify the perfect fit upfront. Throughout the interview process, we’ll work with you to determine which team, technology and problem space best align with your skills, interests and experience.
Who we areAt Optiver, our mission is to improve markets by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency, and stabilizing markets in all conditions. As one of the largest market-making firms, we're a trusted partner on 100+ exchanges globally.
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
- Experience leading complex, large-scale engineering projects
- Strong computer science fundamentals and sound engineering judgment
- Proficient in systems-level programming (C or C++) with Linux and networking fundamentals
- Ability to balance innovative thinking with practical execution
- Mindset of continuous improvement in a fast-paced environment
- Willingness to set technical direction, uphold engineering standards, and take ownership of outcomes
- Experience working with traders, researchers, FPGA engineers, or networking specialists
- Experience building ultra-low-latency systems, simulation, or backtesting platforms
- Trading domain experience (optional)
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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