Graduate Software Engineer - London or Amsterdam

Start your career with Optiver, a global leader in electronic trading. We build and maintain low latency trading systems that respond to market events in nanoseconds. As a leading technology-based market maker and liquidity provider, we are committed to improving the market by providing efficiencies for end investors. Using our own capital at our own risk, we trade thousands of financial instruments on more than 50 exchanges around the world, contributing to healthy markets and putting us at the forefront of technology and trading.

Engineering systems

At Optiver, engineering is at the core of our trading strategies. Trading is a complex and unpredictable environment with frequent changes and a high load. Our systems have to be fast, reliable and precise. Our engineers continually refine, store, and analyse hundreds of terabytes of data, enabling us to automatically price large, diverse sets of financial instruments with extremely low error tolerance. Our infrastructure is a combination of 10 000 highly customised components and 600 different applications, which run on 1500 servers distributed globally. We deal with 14 000 releases and 35 000 changes per year.

What you will do

If you enjoy a fast feedback loop and seeing the impact of your work in action, then you have found the right place. At Optiver you could be working on a change to a trading system in the morning and see it running live in the afternoon.

Your big challenge will be balancing complexity with system performance and a reliable trading environment. The goal is to find the simplest, cleanest solution and to optimise it continually.

You take ownership from the beginning, building large portions of high quality and architecturally sound systems. You will develop a deep understanding of trading and exchanges. You’re not attached to tools and technologies, but focused on solving problems. Your activities include developing ultra-low-latency exchange protocol encoders and decoders, writing and fine-tuning our automated trading strategies and pricing models as well as creating and extending user interfaces.

What you will need

• An academic degree in Computer Science, Engineering or equivalent;
• An entrepreneurial attitude and interest in the financial industry.
• Ability to write simple and clean code
• Strong engineering ability and a solid understanding of computer science
• Proficiency in language such as C++, C# or Java
• A solid grasp of algorithms, memory and concurrency models, CPU-architecture, operating systems and relational databases
• Innovative, big-picture thinking grounded in real-world pragmatism
• Continuous improvement in a rapidly evolving environment
• An analytical mindset and problem-solving skills
• Fast decision-making skills
• Team player
• Dutch is NOT required
• Please note:  specify in your cover letter whether you are interested in our Amsterdam or London position, keep in mind that we are able to sponsor visa for our Amsterdam position. Unfortunately, we are unable to do so for our London office.  

You are able to explain your thoughts clearly through written and verbal communication and ask the right questions. You look for opportunities to get out of your comfort zone and like frequent challenges.

Prior knowledge about trading is not required as you will learn all you need to know during our six-month Tech Starters Program.  You will have a combination of theoretical as well as practical experience by working on projects directly impacting the business.

Work with Us

Be part of an energetic and stimulating work environment where you’ll have the chance to work with colleagues from over 40 countries around the world.

We offer a truly collaborative culture with an unmatched performance-based bonus structure where profits across trading desks, teams and offices are combined into a global profit pool.

As an international organisation, we offer expat advice, a competitive relocation package and visa sponsorship where necessary.

What you will get

• Training and continuous learning opportunities
• Competitive remuneration
• 25 paid vacation days
• Access to conferences and Tech events
• International transfer opportunities
• Fully paid commute
• Sports and recreation activities
• Complimentary in-house barista
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner facilities
• Friday afternoon drinks with your colleagues
• Weekly in-house massages

Application Process

Apply directly via the form below (or through our website) by submitting a comprehensive CV and motivation letter in English. Please note that applications without a motivation letter will not be considered.

Once you have been identified as a candidate for the Graduate  Software  Engineer role you will be required to take an online (HackerRank) test. No prior trading knowledge is needed.