Software Developer Intern

Ready to accelerate your career in a global tech-driven trading firm? Want to work alongside talented peers to solve complex and challenging problems every day?

Optiver's Software Engineer Internship will empower you with the skills needed to excel in our fast-paced environment. Work alongside some of the world's brightest engineers to build and maintain industry-leading trading systems that respond to fast market movements at nanosecond speed.

During this internship, you’ll have learnt the ins-and-outs of our trading systems and the engineering concepts that make them successful.

What you’ll do

No previous experience in trading or financial markets? You bring the passion and we'll have the training to support you along the way.

As our Software Engineer Intern , you'll take ownership of critical projects right from the start. Whether it's developing ultra-low latency exchange protocol encoders and decoders, or fine-tuning our automated trading strategies and pricing models, your goal is to find the simplest and cleanest solution to the problem at hand.

You’ll experience the excitement of a fast-paced development cycle – owning a tight feedback loop, testing and shipping your code to production. You could be working on a change to a trading system in the morning and see it running live in the afternoon. Our collaborative culture means you’ll work closely with traders and other engineers to identify and solve problems that make a tangible impact on the business.

Discover the exciting projects you could work on during your internship.

• Read Brenda’s story on delivering low-latency, high-throughput systems that improve our connectivity to the financial market.
• Read Richard’s story on navigating the world of automated trading – systems that make trading decisions.
• Read Marcus’s story on working in the risk and treasury team, where he monitors systems that manage and mitigate risk (e.g., trading risk).
• Read Lena’s story on production engineering, where they build tools and systems that enable us to trade smoothly.

What you’ll get

You’ll join a culture of collaboration and excellence, where you’ll be surrounded by curious thinkers and creative problem solvers. Driven by a passion for continuous improvement, you’ll thrive in a supportive, high-performing environment alongside talented colleagues, working collectively to tackle the toughest problems in the financial markets technology.

In addition, you’ll receive:

• A highly competitive remuneration package
• Optiver-covered flights and accommodations for the duration of the internship
• Training, mentorship and personal development opportunities
• Daily breakfast and lunch
• Regular social events

Who you are

You’re a problem solver at heart. You won’t stop until you’ve found a solution and then you'll take one step further to improve it. In addition, you’re:

• Keen to create high-performing, low latency designs that critically impact trading success
• Curious to learn and comfortable discussing/exploring complex technical ideas
• You have a range of out-of-classroom projects or extra-curricular activities that demonstrates your passion in technology, particularly software development
• Keen to work alongside the best engineers and traders in the industry, with the humility to continually upskill and improve yourself
• Knowledgeable about object orientated design and development concepts (experience with C++, C# or Java is required for our technical assessment)

As an intentionally flat organisation, we believe that great ideas and impact can come from everyone. We are passionate about empowering individuals and creating diverse teams that thrive. Every person at Optiver should feel included, valued and respected, because we believe our best work is done together.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is hardwired through every stage of our hiring process. We encourage applications from candidates from any and all backgrounds, and we welcome requests for reasonable adjustments during the process to ensure that you can best demonstrate your abilities.

Eligibility

• Penultimate or pre-penultimate university student, with a graduation date of December 2025 or later.