You’ve spent years working on open-ended problems, building models, and testing ideas. PhD Quant Focus is a two-day program designed to show how your approach in academia applies to practical challenges in global markets.  

Through hands-on workshops and technical discussions, you’ll work on problems similar to those our teams tackle, where models interact with fast-moving, noisy data, and feedback is immediate. You’ll see how techniques from machine learning, statistics, and applied mathematics are used in practice, and where they break.  

Explore how your research translates in a trading environment. Apply now. 

• Eligible for PhD students in STEM disciplines, with experience in areas such as Machine Learning, Statistics, or Applied Mathematics. 
• Program dates: 2 – 3 July 2026 
• Applications close: 29 May 2026 
• Where: Optiver Sydney office* 

* Travel and accommodation will be provided for participants outside of Sydney. 

 What you’ll do 

• Work through applied problems across research, trading and technology: Gain practical experience in applying data analysis, statistical modelling techniques to extract signals from large, noisy, event-driven data. 
• Participate in hands-on trading workshops: Build foundational knowledge and skills around market making and quantitative decision-making. See firsthand how research connects to real-time market dynamics and trading outcomes. 
• Connect with quantitative researchers, traders and engineers: Meet PhD graduates and get insights into their day-to-day work, career paths, and tips on successfully transitioning from PhD to industry. 
• Receive practical feedback to advance your transition to industry: Get feedback on how you frame problems, reason through assumptions and communicate your thinking in an applied setting.  

 What you'll get 

• Clarity on how PhD work translates in practice. Understand how your approach in academia is applied, assessed and developed within Optiver. 
• Experience firsthand how researchers, traders, and engineers collaborate, openly share knowledge, and rapidly iterate to deliver breakthroughs at scale. 
• Connect with a PhD network consisting of peers and experts across research, trading and technology. 
• Opportunity to be considered for a future internship, if you excel within the program. 
• Experience Optiver's office perks, including daily breakfast, lunch, and coffee. 

Who you are 

• PhD student.
• An Australian or New Zealand Citizen, Australian Permanent Resident or able to secure full working rights after graduating. 
• Enjoy working with complex, data-intensive problems, comfortable operating in conditions of uncertainty, and confident in applying programming, mathematical modelling and data-driven methodologies to answer challenging questions. 
• Clear communicator of technical ideas who thrives in collaborative, multidisciplinary environments. 
• Excited to test yourself in one of the most dynamic areas of the financial market. 

Diversity statement  

Optiver is committed to diversity and inclusion, and it 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. 

Questions? Get in touch with our team at careers@optiver.com.au.  

Ready to kickstart your career in one of the world's leading tech-driven trading firms? 

Join FutureFocus, our immersive five-day program designed to ignite your potential as a future developer, trader or researcher at Optiver.  

Dive into the fundamentals of trading, gain unique insights into Optiver’s cutting-edge trading systems and build the key skills that our teams use every day. 

Please note, our formal applications for FutureFocus opportunities are currently closed. We are seeking expressions of interest for our September 2026 campaign and would love to hear from you! Please complete this application to join our 'Talent Community' so that we can keep you up to date with suitable upcoming vacancies. 

Plus, if you've excelled in the program, you could receive a direct offer for our 2027/28 Summer Internship Program. 

• Eligible for pre-penultimate university students (graduating in 2028 or 2029) 

• Program dates: September 2026

• Where: Optiver Sydney office* 

Note: If you reside outside of Sydney, Optiver will cover your travel and accommodation costs. 

What you'll do 

Led by former traders and engineers, our renowned in-house education team will guide you through the intricacies of market making. You will be immersed in a mix of hands-on and classroom learning, empowering you to thrive in the world of trading and technology. 

As part of the FutureFocus program, you’ll have the opportunity to: 

• Kickstart your journey as a developer and explore our tech career pathways. Discover the cutting-edge techniques that keep us at the forefront of the global financial markets and see our world-class trading systems in action. 

• Learn the core fundamentals of trading and build trading strategies for deployment in a virtual market. 

• Connect with recent graduates and hear their personal experiences. 

• Receive mentorship and support from our in-house trainers and senior developers, who are committed to ensuring you have the guidance and support needed to succeed. 

• Experience Optiver's culture and enjoy our incredible perks, including daily breakfast, lunch and coffee, weekly massages and more. 

Who You Are 

• A pre-penultimate university student, graduating in 2028 or 2029. All degree backgrounds are considered. 

• An Australian or New Zealand Citizen, Australian Permanent resident, or able to provide evidence of full working rights. 

• An inquisitive thinker, with a passion for quantitative problems and working in collaborative, dynamic environments. 

• Holds superior quantitative and logical reasoning skills, and enjoys working on an array of problems, with a strong focus on results. 

• Excited to test yourself in one of the most dynamic areas of the financial market. 

 Applying for the program 

The FutureFocus program offers two streams: Technology or Trading and Research. To help you choose the stream that aligns with your interests, please find more information below. Please note that you can only apply for one stream. 

Technology

Our Software and FPGA Developers play a critical role in executing successful trades. Driven by the desire to find the simplest solutions to the most complex problems, they design and build high performance systems that solve real business problems. Check out Brenda’s ‘Day in the Life’ story to learn more. 

Trading and Research

Our Traders make trading decisions based on market conditions and other factors. They’re driven and have a flair for analytical problem solving. Check out Will’s ‘Day in the life’ story to learn more. 

Our Researchers collaborate closely with traders and developers to build and improve our trading strategies. Read Rob’s story to discover how he develops and tests hypotheses that drive improvements in the execution, speed and success of our trading systems, in the Performance Research team. 

Ready to kickstart your career with Optiver? Submit your expression of interest for FutureFocus to ignite your potential today. 

Diversity statement  

Optiver is committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage applications from candidates from all backgrounds, and welcome requests for reasonable adjustments during the process to ensure that you can best demonstrate your abilities. 

Questions? Get in touch with our team at careers@optiver.com.au.   

Ready to kickstart your career in one of the world's leading tech-driven trading firms?

Join FutureFocus, our immersive five-day program designed to ignite your potential as a future developer, trader or researcher at Optiver.

Dive into the fundamentals of trading, gain unique insights into Optiver’s cutting-edge trading systems and build the key skills that our developers, traders and researchers use every day.

Plus, if you've excelled in the program, you could receive a direct offer for our 2027 Summer Internship Program.

• Eligible for pre-penultimate university students (graduating in 2028), who are studying a bachelor's or master's degree

• Program dates:

Option 1: June 29, 2026 to July 3, 2026

Option 2: September 7, 2026 to September 11, 2026

• Where: Shanghai, details to be announced

*Note: If you reside outside of Shanghai, Optiver will cover your travel and accommodation costs.

What you'll do

Led by ex-traders and ex-engineers, our renowned in-house education team will guide you through the intricacies of market making. You will be immersed in a mix of hands-on and classroom learning, empowering you to thrive in the world of trading and technology.

As part of the FutureFocus program, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• Kickstart your journey as a developer and explore our tech career pathways. Discover the cutting-edge techniques that keep us at the forefront of the global financial markets and see our world-class trading systems in action.

• Learn the core fundamentals of trading and build trading strategies for deployment in a virtual market.

• Connect with recent graduates and hear their personal experiences.

• Receive mentorship and support from our in-house trainers and senior developers, who are committed to ensuring you have the guidance and support needed to succeed.

• Experience Optiver's culture and enjoy our incredible perks, including daily breakfast, lunch and coffee, weekly massages and more.

Who You Are

• A pre-penultimate university student, graduating in 2028. Major in computer science or software engineering related.

• An inquisitive thinker, with a passion for quantitative problems and working in collaborative, dynamic environments.

• Holds superior quantitative and logical reasoning skills, and enjoys working on an array of problems, with a strong focus on results.

• Excited to test yourself in one of the most dynamic areas of the financial market.

Applying for the program

Our Software Developers play a critical role in executing successful trades. Driven by the desire to find the simplest solutions to the most complex problems, they design and build high performance systems that solve real business problems. Check out Brenda’s ‘Day in the Life’ story to learn more.

Ready to kickstart your career with Optiver? Apply for FutureFocus to ignite your potential today.

Optiver is committed to diversity and inclusion, and it 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.

Questions? Get in touch with our team at chinacareers@optiver.com.au.  

Privacy disclaimer

Optiver 重视个人信息的保护。请您在提供个人信息给我们之前，认真阅读Optiver China Privacy Notice, 了解我们如何收集及处理您的个人信息。

Personal information protection is of utmost importance to Optiver. Before you provide any personal information to us, we strongly urge you to read our Privacy Policy to acknowledge how we collect and process your personal information.

Ready to kickstart your career in one of the world's leading tech-driven trading firms?

Join FutureFocus, our immersive five-day program designed to ignite your potential as a future trader at Optiver.

Dive into the fundamentals of trading, gain unique insights into Optiver’s cutting-edge trading systems and build the key skills that our traders and researchers use every day.

Plus, if you've excelled in the program, you could receive a direct offer for our 2027 Summer Internship Program.

• Eligible for pre-penultimate university students (graduating in 2028), who are studying a bachelor's or master's degree

• Program dates:

Option 1: June 29, 2026 to July 3, 2026

Option 2: September 7, 2026 to September 11, 2026

• Where: Shanghai, details will be announced

*Note: If you reside outside of Shanghai, Optiver will cover your travel and accommodation costs.

What you'll do

Led by ex-traders and ex-engineers, our renowned in-house education team will guide you through the intricacies of market making. You will be immersed in a mix of hands-on and classroom learning, empowering you to thrive in the world of trading and technology.

As part of the FutureFocus program, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• Kickstart your journey in trading or research, as you learn the fundamentals of trading theory. You’ll also learn how to build trading strategies and deploy them in a virtual market.

• Immerse in our dynamic trading floor and see our cutting-edge systems in action. You'll discover unique insights into our in-house trading systems and understand how we remain at the forefront of the global financial markets.

• Connect with recent graduates and hear their personal experiences.

• Receive mentorship and support from our in-house trainers and senior traders, who are committed to ensuring you have the guidance and support needed to succeed.

• Experience Optiver's culture and enjoy our incredible perks, including daily breakfast, lunch and coffee, weekly massages and more.

Who you are

• A pre-penultimate university student, graduating in 2028 who are studying a bachelor's or master's degree

• An inquisitive thinker, with a passion for quantitative problems and working in collaborative, dynamic environments.

• Holds superior quantitative and logical reasoning skills, and enjoys working on an array of problems, with a strong focus on results.

• Excited to test yourself in one of the most dynamic areas of the financial market.

Applying for the program

Our Traders make trading decisions based on market conditions and other factors. They’re driven and have a flair for analytical problem solving. Check out Will’s ‘Day in the life’ story to learn more.

Ready to kickstart your career with Optiver? Apply for FutureFocus to ignite your potential today.

Diversity statement 

Optiver is committed to diversity and inclusion, and it 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.

Questions? Get in touch with our team at  Chinacareers@optiver.com.au

Privacy disclaimer

Optiver 重视个人信息的保护。请您在提供个人信息给我们之前，认真阅读Optiver China Privacy Notice, 了解我们如何收集及处理您的个人信息。

Personal information protection is of utmost importance to Optiver. Before you provide any personal information to us, we strongly urge you to read our Privacy Policy to acknowledge how we collect and process your personal information.