C++ Software Engineer – Critical Engineering

About Optiver

Optiver is a renowned global market maker with a history dating back to 1986, founded in Amsterdam, and now operating across major financial centers including Sydney, London, Chicago, and more. With nearly 2,000 employees worldwide, Optiver is dedicated to enhancing market function through competitive pricing, effective execution, and strong risk management, using its own capital to provide liquidity across a broad spectrum of financial products such as derivatives, equities, ETFs, bonds, and currencies.

The Sydney office, established in 1996, serves as Optiver’s APAC headquarters and participates actively in Asian exchanges including Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan.

Your Role

Join the Critical Engineering APAC team in Sydney to develop and maintain the foundational systems that underpin Optiver’s trading platforms. These systems support processing large data volumes, pricing financial products, and executing millions of trades in real-time with high reliability. Your responsibilities will encompass ownership of key backend services ranging from risk management, reference data, trade lifecycle support, to trading integrity systems. Collaborate closely across teams to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions, making strategic architectural decisions and ensuring operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and manage components of the Critical Engineering APAC platform, leading projects that span multiple teams.
• Produce high-quality production code in C++ specifically tailored for real-time, low-latency, and high-throughput trading services.
• Determine architectural direction for your area of responsibility, ensuring robustness under production loads.
• Engage cross-functionally to convert complex business challenges into practical, efficient technical solutions.
• Oversee deployment processes to mitigate risk and provide ongoing production support as necessary.
• Maintain system quality through rigorous code reviews, automated testing, and detailed observability.
• Champion continuous improvement by replacing legacy and manual systems with modern, engineered solutions.
• Mentor junior team members and help elevate the overall engineering standards.

Candidate Profile

• Proficient in object-oriented programming using C++, or experienced in Java/C# with strong motivation to work in C++.
• Strong foundation in computer science fundamentals including operating systems, data structures, algorithms, and networking.
• Hands-on experience with Linux/Unix environments.
• Knowledge of at least one scripting language such as Python.
• Minimum 5 years designing, building, and maintaining production software systems, with hiring decisions weighted on engineering quality alongside experience.
• Experience managing the entire software development lifecycle, from requirements gathering through deployment to maintenance.
• Proven track record in tackling complex technical problems and delivering tangible user-facing solutions.

Valued Additional Skills

• Familiarity with distributed systems patterns, observability tools, and continuous integration/deployment pipelines.
• Experience developing real-time, low-latency, or high-throughput systems.
• Knowledge of relational databases and contemporary data architectures.
• Understanding of trading lifecycles across multiple financial product types.
• Demonstrated capability in architectural ownership and influencing technical strategies.
• Experience in DevOps practices, including incident management, setting service level objectives, and capacity planning.

Benefits

• Competitive performance-based bonus linked to global profit pools across teams and offices, promoting a collaborative culture.
• Opportunity to work with intelligent and diverse peers in an intellectually stimulating and supportive setting.
• Comprehensive training, mentorship, and ongoing professional growth programs.
• Daily complimentary breakfast and lunch, plus access to an in-house barista.
• Gym membership and weekly chair massage services on-site.
• Regular social events and a company-wide trip every two years.
• Guided relocation assistance, competitive relocation package, and visa sponsorship if required.

Inclusion Commitment

Optiver actively encourages applications from candidates of all backgrounds and supports reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process.