Exploratory Tech at Optiver Private Jobs (United States)

Optiver Private Jobs· United States·2d ago

Job description

If you have an experienced tech referral who you believe is a strong Optiver fit, but do not see a job opening that matches their skill set you can submit them to this pipeline. The recruiting team will review and follow up with you on if there's a fit or current need.

Why work at Optiver Private Jobs

Culture: Described as "collaboration and excellence" with "curious thinkers and creative problem-solvers"; a flat structure where engineers work directly with traders.
Work policy: Hybrid/in-office depending on role; offices offer extensive perks (breakfast, lunch, snacks, social events, clubs, sporting leagues) and 25 paid vacation days plus market holidays.
Compensation: Highly competitive base salaries (e.g., FPGA Engineer base $200k in Chicago), discretionary bonuses, global profit-sharing pool, 401k match up to 50%, and comprehensive health/benefits.
Engineering culture: Emphasis on low-level systems, FPGAs, C++, and big data; teams own projects from concept to production with rapid experimentation cycles.
Global mobility: Opportunities to rotate or relocate between offices in Chicago, Austin, Sydney, Shanghai, Singapore, and Amsterdam.

About Optiver Private Jobs

Company Overview

One-liner: Optiver is a technology-driven global market maker that provides liquidity and accurate pricing across exchanges using advanced quantitative research, low-latency engineering, and risk management.
Entity Type: Private (bootstrapped, no external funding disclosed)
Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands (with major offices in Chicago, Austin, Sydney, Shanghai, Singapore, and London)
Founded: 1986
Founders: Johann Kaemingk, Arnold van der Woude, and Juul Jansen (original founders of the Amsterdam trading floor)

Core Business

Primary industries: Financial services, market making, proprietary trading, quantitative finance
Target customers: Exchanges, institutional investors, brokers (B2B/wholesale); as a liquidity provider, Optiver serves the broader financial ecosystem
Mission or purpose: "To constantly improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency, and acting as a stabilising force no matter the market conditions."

Products & Services

Market Making: Pricing and trading a broad universe of instruments — options, ETFs, equities, bonds, currencies — across more than 100 global exchanges
Quantitative Research: Using deep learning, LLMs, statistical modelling, and reinforcement learning to extract predictive signals from market and alternative data
Low-Latency Technology: Building proprietary high-speed trading systems with C++, FPGA hardware, and large-scale data platforms
Risk Management: Sophisticated real-time exposure management and probabilistic pricing models

Market Standing

Valuation / Market Cap: Not publicly available (private firm)
Key Metric: Executes over 10 million trades daily; connects to 70+ exchanges as a trusted market maker (as stated on the company website)
Notable Investors/Partners: None (self-funded); partners include exchanges globally
Growth Signals: Continues to expand offices (Austin opened as innovation hub), invests heavily in machine learning and AI workflows, and maintains consistent hiring across trading, research, and engineering teams worldwide

Competitive Advantages

40 years of compounding market experience and historical data: Decades of proprietary market data and broker relationships provide a foundation for predictive models that newer firms lack.
Technology-first culture: In-house FPGA, C++, and large-scale data engineering teams build systems where a 1% improvement shows up across millions of live decisions — giving a measurable edge.
Global scale with local expertise: A network of offices in different time zones and regulatory regimes (US, Europe, APAC) enables 24/7 trading and adaptation to local market structures.
Attracts top talent: Known for highly competitive compensation, global profit sharing, and a collaborative, non-hierarchical environment that draws engineers, quants, and traders from top universities and tech companies.

Strategic Focus

Deepening AI/ML integration: Expanding use of machine learning, LLMs, and reinforcement learning in pricing and signal generation.
Innovation in hardware: Continued investment in FPGA acceleration and low-latency network infrastructure to maintain millisecond-level advantages.
Talent growth: Scaling offices in growth hubs like Austin and Shanghai, with a focus on quantitative research, software/hardware engineering, and data science.
Global expansion: Connecting to new exchanges and instrument classes to broaden liquidity provision.

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Job description

Why work at Optiver Private Jobs

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