---
title: 'FPGA Engineer at Optiver Private Jobs'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/fpga-engineer-optiver-private-jobs-chicago-illinois-1a0zthte4xcd'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# FPGA Engineer at Optiver Private Jobs

- **Company:** Optiver Private Jobs
- **Location:** Chicago Illinois, United States
- **Compensation:** $200k
- **Posted:** 2026-01-15
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/optiverprivate/jobs/8375608002

## Job description

Optiver is looking to add FPGA Engineers to its Automated Trading Systems (ATS) team. ATS solve a variety of problems with high degrees of difficulty: managing scarce bandwidth resources, responding to market events with extremely low latency, and automatically pricing diverse sets of financial instruments with near-zero error tolerance. We build systems with little room for failure which add to the stability of the market, not detract from it. These systems must be simple, flexible, and well-architected so they can quickly be changed to meet the dynamic needs of our traders. We already have a team of great engineers, but we need more.

Optiver Hardware Engineers:

- Accelerate network infrastructure and trading system components with high speed hardware designs.
- Research new low-latency techniques and identify opportunities for integration with our trading system.
- Work in a multidisciplinary team of traders, software developers, and infrastructure engineers.
- Leverage the best hardware available, ensuring our FPGAs can interface with cutting edge server hardware.

What you'll need:

- A Bachelor’s degree in CE, EE, CS, or related technical field
- Experience designing FPGAs in VHDL or Verilog. We use VHDL.
- Experience coding in VHDL, Verilog, SystemVerilog, C, or C++
- Experience with digital simulators and self-checking test benches a plus
- Ability to work closely with software developers to rapidly deliver integrated systems.

Who we are:

Optiver is a tech-driven trading firm and leading global market maker. As one of the oldest market making institutions, we are a trusted partner of 70+ exchanges across the globe. Our mission is to constantly improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and acting as a stabilising force no matter the market conditions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we participate in the safeguarding of healthy and efficient markets for everyone who participates.

Based in ‘The Domain’ neighborhood, Optiver’s Austin office serves as the firm’s innovation nucleus, with a strong focus on quantitative research, software and hardware engineering initiatives. With tech innovation an integral part of our core business, the booming city proved an ideal backdrop for our heavy investment into machine learning, research infrastructure and big data computing. What’s more, with world-class music, food and art scenes, as well as countless scenic outdoor activities, the quality of life for Austin Optiverians is second to none.

What you’ll get:

You’ll join a culture of collaboration and excellence, 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, collectively tackling some of the toughest challenges in the financial markets.

In addition, you’ll receive:

- The opportunity to work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries
- A highly competitive compensation package
- Global profit-sharing pool and performance-based bonus structure
- 401(k) match up to 50%
- Comprehensive health, mental, dental, vision, disability, and life coverage
- 25 paid vacation days alongside market holidays
- Extensive office perks, including breakfast, lunch and snacks, regular social events, clubs, sporting leagues and more

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.

Base Salary Range $200,000—$200,000 USD

## 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)

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