Optiver FPGA Engineers create solutions with nanosecond response times, highly-parallelized algorithms, and customized low-level networking that help the firm deploy successful trading strategies across the world’s largest financial markets. Our engineers are tightly integrated with our business so that we can solve challenges effectively and efficiently; we deeply understand the business problem before developing the solution.

Who we are:

At Optiver, our mission is to constantly improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and acting as a stabilizing 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. We tackle the toughest problems, challenge the status quo and always aim for excellence. As one of the largest market making institutions, we are a trusted partner of 70+ exchanges across the globe.

Optiver Chicago’s culture parallels the energetic city we’re immersed in. Home to the Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago has established itself as the trading capital of the US. Active on leading US exchanges, Optiver’s Chicago office trades a wide range of products from listed derivatives to cash equities, ETFs, bonds, and foreign exchange.

What you’ll do:

• Accelerate network infrastructure and trading system components with high-speed hardware designs.
• Research new low-latency techniques and platforms 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 or build in-house versions to ensure our FPGAs can interface with cutting-edge server hardware.

Who you are:

• Student working toward a degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering and graduating between December 2023 and June 2024
• Has completed an internship with experience in FPGA design and development
• Someone with strong engineering instincts and a deep understanding of FPGA fundamentals
• Experienced in writing hardware in VHDL or Verilog
• Possesses knowledge of digital simulators and self-checking test benches
• Passionate for clean code, simple well-architected systems, and continuous improvement
• Able to collaborate with developers, traders, and business operations

What you’ll get:

• Work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries.
• Performance based bonus structure that is unmatched anywhere in the industry. We combine our profits across desks, teams and offices into a global profit pool fostering a truly collaborative environment to work in.
• Ownership over initiatives that directly solve business problems.  

Additionally, you’ll get great other benefits such as 25 paid vacation days and market holidays, fully paid health insurance, daily breakfast and lunch, training opportunities, 401(k) match up to 50% and charitable match opportunities, regular social events and clubs, and many more.

*We accept one application per role per year. Please DO NOT apply to both the Chicago and Austin locations – Only apply to the one location you are most interested in, as you may still be considered for both locations. If you have previously applied to this position during this season and have been unsuccessful, you can reapply once the next recruitment season begins in 2024. Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required.