---
title: 'Exploratory Tech at Optiver Private Jobs'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/exploratory-tech-optiver-private-jobs-united-states-hprwn6ymmdf9'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Exploratory Tech at Optiver Private Jobs

- **Company:** Optiver Private Jobs
- **Location:** United States
- **Posted:** 2021-02-17
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/optiverprivate/jobs/4855624002

## 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.

## 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.

## Why Work Here
- **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.

## Sources
1. [optiver.com](https://www.optiver.com/)
2. [optiver.com/join-us](https://www.optiver.com/join-us/)
3. [optiver.com/join-us/jobs](https://www.optiver.com/join-us/jobs/)
4. [greenhouse.io (Optiver Private Jobs) - FPGA Engineer posting](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/optiverprivate/jobs/8375608002)

## Other roles at Optiver Private Jobs

- [Institutional Trader Intern (2027 Start - Chicago)](https://feeny.ai/job/institutional-trader-intern-2027-start-chicago-optiver-private-jobs-chicago-66c7mb4b7rgj) — Chicago Illinois, United States
- [Data - Site Reliability Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/data-site-reliability-engineer-optiver-private-jobs-sydney-new-south-wales-k7tr9g62sptb) — Sydney New South Wales, Australia
- [Senior Software Engineer C++](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-c-optiver-private-jobs-austin-texas-0bytrh55gjzg) — Austin Texas, United States
- [FPGA Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/fpga-engineer-optiver-private-jobs-chicago-illinois-1a0zthte4xcd) — Chicago Illinois, United States
- [YOW! Expression of Interest - Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/yow-expression-of-interest-software-engineer-optiver-private-jobs-sydney-new-2rg9w5jf30cb) — Sydney New South Wales, Australia
- [Software Engineer (Sydney, Shanghai, Singapore)](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-sydney-shanghai-singapore-optiver-private-jobs-apac-9c72rg4nzkta) — APAC
- [NUS ICPC HCMC Participants](https://feeny.ai/job/nus-icpc-hcmc-participants-optiver-private-jobs-singapore-5pxe6r5pjc3q) — Singapore
- [SHA - C++ Direct Sourcing](https://feeny.ai/job/sha-c-direct-sourcing-optiver-private-jobs-shanghai-zjpjh9v17mgt) — Shanghai, China
- [Magic Director (Test)](https://feeny.ai/job/magic-director-test-optiver-private-jobs-chicago-illinois-84hy17357e6v) — Chicago Illinois, United States