Software Engineer - Quantitative Development at Optiver in Chicago, IL

Overview:

You’ll build the infrastructure and workflows that power systematic and semi-systematic trading at scale. Sitting at the intersection of research and engineering, this role enables large-scale experimentation, high-fidelity backtesting, and data-driven strategy development. 

You’ll partner closely with traders and researchers to turn ideas into measurable experiments—designing robust backtests, iterating quickly, and uncovering signal in complex datasets. The systems you build will be critical to exploring new trading strategies, refining execution logic, and supporting advanced techniques including machine learning. 

This is a highly experimental environment where progress depends on speed, correctness, and the ability to ask—and answer—the right questions.

Technology at Optiver:

At Optiver we pride ourselves on being real engineers, not just coders. Our engineers work closely with traders to identify the business problems we face and determine how they should be solved. We apply a disciplined and scientific approach. We engineer simple, well-architected solutions that meet the dynamic needs of our traders. Our passion is to solve problems which really matter to the business, and we take pride in the quality of our solutions.

What you’ll do:

• Build and scale high-performance backtesting and simulation infrastructure 
• Design workflows that enable rapid experimentation and hypothesis testing  
• Translate trading ideas into testable models, signals, and research pipelines  
• Ensure realism and correctness in simulations (e.g., market microstructure, latency, data quality)  
• Develop tools to analyze performance, explain behavior, and guide iteration  
• Improve the speed, reliability, and usability of the research platform  
• Own the full lifecycle from idea → backtest → analysis → production  

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

Who you are:

• Experience leading complex, large-scale engineering projects
• Strong computer science fundamentals and sound engineering judgment
• Ability to balance innovative thinking with practical execution
• Proficiency in systems-level programming (e.g., C, C++, Linux)
• A mindset of continuous improvement in a fast-paced environment
• Willingness to set technical direction, uphold engineering standards, and take ownership of outcomes 

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.

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.

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.