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.   

Who We Are

Optiver is a global market maker founded in Amsterdam, with offices in London, Chicago, Austin, New York, Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Mumbai. Established in 1986, today we are a leading liquidity provider, with close to 2,000 employees in offices around the world, united in our commitment to improve the market through competitive pricing, execution and risk management. By providing liquidity on multiple exchanges across the world in various financial instruments we participate in the safeguarding of healthy and efficient markets. We provide liquidity to financial markets using our own capital, at our own risk, trading a wide range of products: listed derivatives, cash equities, ETFs, bonds and foreign currencies.

Optiver’s Sydney office is one of the primary players within Asian markets, trading a range of products. Established in 1996, we're an active participant on the Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan exchanges, and act as Optiver’s APAC head office. 

What You’ll Do

Optiver is looking for a senior engineer to work with our low latency execution platforms, including software that interfaces directly with FPGA-based components. Our execution platforms are responsible for placing orders from auto-trading algorithms with as low a latency as possible, implementing risk boundary checks, order management and exchange connectivity.

As a senior engineer you will be responsible for working with internal stakeholders across the company including trading, risk, compliance and research teams to design key features in our execution applications and own their implementation end-to-end. Our engineers design, implement, test, and deploy their ideas, and feel the success of their work in live trading markets across Asia. Trade execution in Asia isn’t simple - you’ll study exchange microstructure in depth and use your creativity to invent new ways to optimise order placement and packet delivery. Our development is often fast paced, fulfilling, and rewarding, with the ability to work on features and see them running in live markets within days.

You will:

• Partner with trading and research teams to understand our trade execution performance and look for inventive ways to boost trade execution rates, ensuring Optiver retains its number one status in the market.

• Flex your understanding of computer science fundamentals to optimise C++ applications to perform with high order throughput and low end-to-end latency.

• Directly interface with the live production environment to get fast feedback from live trading and feel the impact of your work.

• Ensure quality is maintained throughout our systems by contributing to code reviews and the design of last-line-of-defence systems.

• Provide advice and guidance to junior developers.

Who you are

We’re looking for candidates:

• With at least 5 years' experience as a software engineer working with performance-critical high throughput or low latency systems.

• Who are skilled at object-oriented programming in C++, or Java/C# with a strong desire to work in C++.

• Who have a strong understanding of network technologies (10G Ethernet, UDP, TCP) and Linux networking.

• Who have an excellent understanding of computer science fundamentals like operating systems, data structures and algorithms.

• Who are excited by technically challenging problems.

• Who embrace AI tools for parts of their role, without sacrificing code quality or runtime performance.

If any of these describe you, we’re even more excited to talk to you:

• Highly skilled in C++ development.

• Experienced working in a high frequency trading firm.

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 some of the most complex problems in the financial markets.

In return for your expertise, you will have access to a range of Optiver perks, including:

• A performance-based bonus structure unmatched anywhere in the industry. We combine our profits across desks, teams and offices into a global profit pool, fostering a truly collaborative environment.

• The chance to work alongside diverse and intelligent peers in a rewarding environment.

• Training, mentorship and personal development opportunities.

• Daily breakfast, lunch and an in-house barista.

• Gym membership plus weekly in-house chair massages.

• Regular social events, including a company trip every two years.

• Guided relocation, a competitive relocation package and visa sponsorship where necessary.

Optiver is committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, and welcome requests for reasonable adjustments during the process.

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

ABOUT THE ROLE:

At IMC, we continually innovate new solutions to remain competitive in a dynamic financial landscape. We can never sit still. We need to continually improve to stay ahead. If the challenge of using the latest technology to solve problems sounds appealing, then the IMC Hardware Engineering Internship is a great fit for you.

Hardware Engineers don’t just write code and design technology. They are responsible for spotting new opportunities, developing new technologies and solving problems. Every day, our software makes millions of trading decisions in some of the most competitive markets across the globe, and we win by making smarter and faster decisions than our competition. Our Hardware Engineers deliver results and make a difference.

As a Hardware Engineer Intern at IMC, you will be supported by a mentor who will oversee your projects and professional development, while having access to pair programming and code reviews. During your internship, you will work on a real project, providing value to developers and traders. Your assigned hardware project likely to be focussed on Low Latency.

Low Latency
Dedicated to the development and execution of ultra-fast systems that underpin IMC’s trading infrastructure, you will be building and maintaining systems with minimal latency to support high-frequency trading. You will be largely working on SystemVerilog and C++. You shall interact with software, performance and network engineers.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

• During the internship, you will be immersed in real projects, complex problem-solving, and opportunities to learn from our strongest engineers and traders.
• Develop your knowledge of algorithm complexity, professional design and writing fluent code with our state-of-the-art FPGA technology.
• Learn both hardware and software development skills.
• Develop with C++ and SystemVerilog programming languages.
• Work collaboratively in an environment where creativity, teamwork and innovation are recognised and rewarded. Our flat structure fosters a culture of openness and collaboration, encouraging the sharing of ideas and knowledge.
• Enhance your knowledge of high-frequency trading.
• Build key relationships across our trading and technology teams.
• Have the opportunity to secure a full-time role with IMC once you graduate.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• An academic background in Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent, with a minimum Distinction average required; High Distinction preferred.
• Have the right to work in Australia or New Zealand.
• Have commenced your penultimate year of study.
• Proficient in SystemVerilog, Verilog or VHDL.
• Proficient in C++.
• Knowledge of Python.
• Knowledge of logic design.
• Demonstrated high impact across experiences, including scholarships, competitions and internships.
• Must be able to start the internship in November 2026.

LIFE AT IMC:

Culture & Values

IMC offers an open, collaborative and low-hierarchy environment where our people are empowered to make an impact from day one. We invest heavily in learning and development to help our people grow quickly, with collaboration at the core of how we work. We also give back, donating 2% of annual profits to our Charitable Foundations and supporting employee-led volunteering initiatives.

Our values guide how we work: Dare to continuously innovate. Collaborate to succeed. Champion the best ideas. Take responsibility. Keep both feet on the ground. Build for our future.

We also offer a competitive salary package and a range of perks and benefits to ensure you are set up for success.

Perks & Benefits

• Work from our spectacular new Sydney office in Circular Quay with sweeping harbour views that was recently named “World Building of the Year 2022”.
• 6-week traineeship for graduates in one of our global offices, with opportunities to travel and work overseas in one of our 9 offices across APAC, India, US, UK and Europe.
• In-house chef with daily breakfast, lunch and dinner provided, as well as an in-house barista for free coffee all day!
• Social events including Friday night drinks, annual weekend away, social clubs, and regular team events.
• Opportunities to give back with in-house charity days, paid volunteering leave and dollar-matched charity donations.
• Wellbeing allowance and complimentary workout sessions including Barry's bootcamp, Pilates and boxing.

Think you have what it takes? We’d love to hear from you. Apply now.