About the author

Meet Nikita, a junior engineer with Optiver Amsterdam’s Trade Production Engineering (TPE) team. Having sampled work life with both small and large tech companies before landing at Optiver, he shares observations from his search for the right fit.

Q: Can you share a bit about your background before joining Optiver?

I grew up in Ukraine and studied in Poland, focusing on Information and Communication Technologies, which meant learning about networking, wireless communication and distributed systems (how internet works). Early on, I realised I didn’t want to be a programmer. I preferred taking things apart to see how they work rather than building them. While studying, I worked part-time for a company that designed testing solutions for networks and services of all sizes. We made tools for testing everything from single cables to systems for cloud providers, which are surprisingly similar in essence.

Later, I interned with Meta working on a Data Centre Production Engineering team. Coming from a small company, I was surprised by the challenges they faced. These were problems you couldn’t find answers to on Stack Overflow. They were creating new technologies to solve unique issues. My time there was both challenging and eye-opening, pushing me to think in new ways about scalability and infrastructure. I gained a deeper understanding of how large-scale systems operate and the importance of innovation. With these experiences fresh in mind, I went back to my university to finish my degree and share what I had learned. Teaching has always been my passion, and now I’m starting to give lectures at my university on virtualisation, cloud architecture and distributed systems.

Q: After a taste of Big Tech, what motivated you to make the switch to a trading firm like Optiver? How do the two experiences compare?

At first, I was hesitant to join Optiver because of my own misconceptions about the finance industry. I didn’t think I would find the kind of tech challenges that I would in tech companies. Like many, I assumed trading firms were more finance-driven and might not offer the innovative technical problems I was seeking. However, during the interview process and conversations with the team, I realised that trading introduces a completely different set of challenges that I hadn’t encountered before—and the people were nothing like I’d expected.

Optiver presents a unique set of problems, testing you in new ways every time. Rather than optimising for millions of requests per second, the focus shifts to processing individual packets as fast as possible. At Optiver, TPEs have a distinctive role that takes everything I love about the position and elevates it to a level I never thought possible. In Big Tech, TPEs often resemble software engineers, mostly writing code, and the problems can sometimes feel abstract and distant from the solutions. At Optiver, it’s much more dynamic and hands-on.

Q: Are there any other myths or common misconceptions about working in the finance industry? What has been your experience?

People often think—and so did I—that finance and trading companies are extremely competitive. While that might be true from an outside perspective, I’ve found Optiver to be the most collaborative place I’ve ever worked. Here, people always help you before helping themselves. From what I observed in other tech companies, cross-team collaboration is appreciated, but at Optiver, it’s absolutely essential.

Another myth is that trading is all about speed. While speed is crucial in some markets, in many cases it is more focused on scale, pricing, and the ability to adapt quickly to changes. Some people also imagine trading firms to have rigid corporate cultures. In reality, Optiver operates more like a tech company, with a flexible work environment, flat hierarchy, and a focus on innovation.

Q: Can you describe your role and how it fits into the bigger picture of Optiver’s operations?

As I said, TPEs are quite special at Optiver. We make a bridge between Technology and Trading. Every day, we’re the ones who start and stop trading, and as the only tech team based on the trading floor, we act as the first line of defense for production issues. We also manage the flow of technical changes, ensuring that the trading environment remains secure and stable. Since most changes pass through our team, our work is critical to maintaining operational continuity. Our key responsibilities include:

• Incident response—we’re the first responders when something goes wrong.
• Change management—we review changes that impact production, evaluating their risk and assessing them in the context of current market conditions.
• Environment supervision—we constantly monitor the system and support channels to ensure everything runs smoothly.
• Trading support—some issues aren’t flagged by monitoring systems and are reported by trading teams, which we also handle directly.
• Specialisation—each team member develops expertise in a specific niche, including specialising in certain exchanges, which allows us to handle issues with deep knowledge and provide more effective support.

Q: What does a typical day look like for you? Can you share examples of your daily tasks or projects that illustrate your work at Optiver?

As a morning shift engineer, I’m one of the first people to arrive at the office. Before trading starts, we perform routine system checks to ensure everything is stable and ready for the day. Our monitoring tools provide a comprehensive overview of our systems’ health, allowing us to verify that all components are functioning optimally. Being proactive means that when markets open we’re fully prepared and ahead of any issues that might have arisen.  

Once trading begins, we turn our attention to follow-ups and making continuous improvements. When issues pop up, it’s our responsibility to address them promptly. Sometimes this involves examining application logs or configurations, and other times it might require us to look into the infrastructure layer—like network performance or server status. We focus on solving the root causes rather than just applying temporary fixes, which helps improve our systems over time and prevents recurring problems. In addition to our shifts, we rotate “response” duty within the team, similar to “on-call” roles in other tech companies, where one person is fully responsible for overseeing system operations.

After the operational tasks are done, we can turn our attention to projects. Right now, I’m working on a project to model and automate our most competitive trading setup. With an ever-growing appetite for changes, it’s an essential step for scalability and enhancing our infrastructure.

Q: Can you tell us about a day where the markets were busier than normal, how that impacted your role, and what you learned from it?

When the markets are busier than usual, it doesn’t necessarily mean we have more work. Instead, we become more cautious, focusing on maintaining system stability by taking a defensive approach. This means restricting changes to only those that are absolutely necessary. Interestingly, it’s the quieter market days that keep us busier, as we allow more changes into the environment, which can potentially lead to instabilities. However, with our drive for growth and improvement, implementing these changes is crucial, which requires managing them well.

What I’ve learned from busier market days is the importance of operating effectively in uncertain situations and making the best possible decisions even when we don’t have all the information.

Q: In the context of exploring career paths, what did you notice as the main differences between working at Optiver versus elsewhere in tech?

In my experience before joining Optiver, TPE teams were often extremely specialised, focused on building highly optimised solutions for very specific problems. This specialisation can sometimes make it hard to think broadly and can leave you feeling somewhat disconnected from the company’s broader mission—like just one cog in a larger machine.

The tech systems that I’ve dealt with so far were closed, aiming to reduce their external dependencies. Whereas at Optiver, we work with various external entities like exchanges, regulators and counterparties, which are constantly changing. Our strength lies in how quickly we can adapt to these changes and use them to our advantage.

Q: Can you provide examples of interesting technical challenges you’ve faced at Optiver?

Over the years, Optiver’s offices around the world have developed technologies tailored to their specific markets and strengths. As we continue to grow as a global firm, we’re now focusing on merging our infrastructure and applications. This is a big challenge as we aim to combine the best aspects of each approach while ensuring our systems remain competitive and stable. It’s a really interesting puzzle that requires a lot of global collaboration and innovative thinking.

Q: How have the skills you acquired through your studies and previous work settings been applied and adapted to the trading environment?

I was surprised to learn that Optiver doesn’t require any finance knowledge or knowledge of a specific technology from applicants—the in-house training is structured to provide new hires with those skills. What surprised me even more was how much of what I’d learned at university, which I thought might never be relevant, found practical application here.

There is a big overlap when it comes to the more general skillset—like being able to keep your head cool when things go wrong or knowing when to step back and zoom out instead of getting buried in a single issue. It’s all about your approach to solving problems, your sense of ownership, and your willingness to challenge assumptions. To my surprise, these skills have been incredibly useful in tackling the new challenges that trading brings, further enhancing my abilities. Optiver has created a culture of continuous improvement and excellence, motivating you to push your boundaries and be your best.

Q: Can you compare Optiver’s technology stack and development practices to those you’ve observed in other tech environments?

At Optiver, widely popular tech solutions like Cloud or Kubernetes aren’t as prevalent. We try to focus on keeping our systems as transparent and flat as possible to avoid unnecessary layers of abstraction. We expose the complexity rather than hide it, making our systems simpler and more manageable. Whereas in much of the tech industry it’s often all about scale—if a solution doesn’t scale, it usually doesn’t last. While we face increasing scalability challenges at Optiver, our approach is uniquely tailored to our environment. Rather than just scaling up, we prioritise scaling in a way that maintains the speed and precision essential to our business. As Optiver grows, we continually learn and refine our systems to meet these evolving needs.

Our development practices though, are surprisingly similar to other tech companies I’ve seen. It’s all about making things simpler—if something becomes too complex, we rethink it. Key elements of our systems are under strict expectations and rigorous control, while still allowing freedom in non-critical projects. This balance helps us stay agile and responsive to the demands of trading.

Q: How would you describe the culture at Optiver?

Optiver doesn’t shy away from its business, we always have trading in mind. It helps to keep our heads clear and facing the right direction. And worth mentioning again, there’s a great spirit of collaboration. There’s also a deep level of trust across the company. I once found myself alone on a morning shift with the system in an uncertain state, and our CRO standing behind me asking if we could start trading. The culture here doesn’t punish you for making the wrong decision, but it does emphasise the importance of making decisions and taking responsibility.

Q: What advice would you give to engineers who are considering a career at a trading firm? How can they best prepare for the transition?

Be curious. At Optiver, curiosity is valued. The people here love what they do and are eager to share their knowledge. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if they seem challenging or silly. It can open up many opportunities.

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