Optiver Chicago is seeking a seasoned Data Architect to support and advance the data capabilities of our local research team and contribute to our broader Lakehouse architecture vision. In this role, you'll work with cutting-edge tools like Databricks, Apache Spark, and Delta Lake, translating experimental research workflows into scalable, production-grade systems.

As a critical engineering presence in Chicago, you'll directly influence local data strategy while collaborating with our Global Research and Data Platform teams. Your work will drive real-time insights, enable predictive analytics, and power decision-making across the trading lifecycle.

This role combines hands-on data engineering, cross-regional collaboration, and platform innovation—all within a high-performance, data-driven environment.

What you’ll do:

• Design, build, and maintain reliable ETL/ELT pipelines using Spark, Structured Streaming, Databricks, and our in-house high-performance tools
• Optimize and productionize research workflows with a strong focus on scalability, resilience, and performance tuning
• Collaborate with power users to develop and share reusable patterns, templates, and onboarding pathways
• Define, document, and enforce data engineering best practices
• Mentor junior engineers and drive a culture of continuous learning and DataOps excellence

What You’ll Get

• Immediate impact on the data systems powering world-class research and real-time trading decisions.
• A unique opportunity to shape Lakehouse engineering in the United States and influence global data architecture.
• High autonomy to own complex workflows and template “how-to” solutions across teams.
• Close collaboration with quant researchers and traders to unlock predictive insights and trading alpha.
• Partnership with best-in-class engineers across Chicago, Amsterdam, and Sydney.

In addition, you’ll receive:

• The opportunity to work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries
• 401(k) match up to 50%
• Comprehensive health, mental, dental, vision, disability, and life coverage
• 25 paid vacation days alongside market holidays
• Extensive office perks, including breakfast, lunch and snacks, regular social events, clubs, sporting leagues and more

Who you are:

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in data engineering, delivering robust pipelines at scale
• Advanced Python skills and deep experience with Apache Spark and the Databricks platform
• Familiarity with Delta Lake, streaming data systems (e.g., Kafka), and distributed compute environments
• Solid understanding of cloud-native data architectures (preferably AWS) and infrastructure cost optimization principles
• Proficiency in relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL) and modern orchestration tools
• Bonus: Experience with system-level languages (e.g., C++, Rust) and exposure to MLOps or MLflow
• Proven ability to lead projects independently and deliver outcomes in fast-paced environments
• Clear communicator who collaborates well with researchers, traders, and engineers alike
• Enthusiastic mentor and strong advocate for engineering rigor and platform scalability
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline

Who we are:

At Optiver, our mission is to improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and stabilizing the market no matter the conditions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we prioritize safeguarding the health and efficiency of the markets for all participants. As one of the largest market making institutions, we are a respected partner on 100+ exchanges across the globe.

Our differences are our edge. Optiver does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, or other legally protected characteristics.

Optiver Chicago is seeking a seasoned Data Engineer to support and advance the data capabilities of our local research team and contribute to our broader Lakehouse architecture vision. In this role, you'll work with cutting-edge tools like Databricks, Apache Spark, and Delta Lake, translating experimental research workflows into scalable, production-grade systems.

As a critical engineering presence in Chicago, you'll directly influence local data strategy while collaborating with our Global Research and Data Platform teams. Your work will drive real-time insights, enable predictive analytics, and power decision-making across the trading lifecycle.

This role combines hands-on data engineering, cross-regional collaboration, and platform innovation—all within a high-performance, data-driven environment.

What you’ll do:

• Design, build, and maintain reliable ETL/ELT pipelines using Spark, Structured Streaming, Databricks, and our in-house high-performance tools
• Optimize and productionize research workflows with a strong focus on scalability, resilience, and performance tuning
• Collaborate with power users to develop and share reusable patterns, templates, and onboarding pathways
• Define, document, and enforce data engineering best practices
• Mentor junior engineers and drive a culture of continuous learning and DataOps excellence

What You’ll Get

• Immediate impact on the data systems powering world-class research and real-time trading decisions.
• A unique opportunity to shape Lakehouse engineering in the United States and influence global data architecture.
• High autonomy to own complex workflows and template “how-to” solutions across teams.
• Close collaboration with quant researchers and traders to unlock predictive insights and trading alpha.
• Partnership with best-in-class engineers across Chicago, Amsterdam, and Sydney.

In addition, you’ll receive:

• The opportunity to work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries
• 401(k) match up to 50%
• Comprehensive health, mental, dental, vision, disability, and life coverage
• 25 paid vacation days alongside market holidays
• Extensive office perks, including breakfast, lunch and snacks, regular social events, clubs, sporting leagues and more

Who you are:

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in data engineering, delivering robust pipelines at scale
• Advanced Python skills and deep experience with Apache Spark and the Databricks platform
• Familiarity with Delta Lake, streaming data systems (e.g., Kafka), and distributed compute environments
• Solid understanding of cloud-native data architectures (preferably AWS) and infrastructure cost optimization principles
• Proficiency in relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL) and modern orchestration tools
• Bonus: Experience with system-level languages (e.g., C++, Rust) and exposure to MLOps or MLflow
• Proven ability to lead projects independently and deliver outcomes in fast-paced environments
• Clear communicator who collaborates well with researchers, traders, and engineers alike
• Enthusiastic mentor and strong advocate for engineering rigor and platform scalability
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline

Who we are:

At Optiver, our mission is to improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and stabilizing the market no matter the conditions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we prioritize safeguarding the health and efficiency of the markets for all participants. As one of the largest market making institutions, we are a respected partner on 100+ exchanges across the globe.

Our differences are our edge. Optiver does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, or other legally protected characteristics.

The Optiver Research Platform (ORP) is a vertically integrated platform team that manages both high-performance compute infrastructure and the software platform layered on top. ORP enables Optiver’s global research teams to define and execute large-scale computational problems such as simulations and model training through streamlined orchestration of complex workflows. By owning the full stack, from datacenter hardware to distributed research tooling, ORP provides the fastest possible turnaround time for experiments and continually expands Optiver’s ability to generate insights from the markets we operate in.

What you’ll do:

• Expand the Optiver Research Platform’s capabilities by building features and improving performance across service orchestration, job scheduling, cluster management, big-data processing, and other core services that business teams directly interface with.
• Build and evolve a fully managed compute & data platform layer for improved scale & reliability in Python & Rust.
• Explore cutting-edge technologies and integrate them into Optiver’s research workflows to enhance performance and allow deriving better insights.
• Collaborate globally with Optiver business teams including traders, researchers, and engineers to push their understanding of the market to new heights.

What you’ll get:

You’ll join a culture of collaboration and excellence, surrounded by curious thinkers and creative problem-solvers. Motivated by a passion for continuous improvement, you’ll thrive in a supportive, high-performing environment alongside talented colleagues, collectively tackling some of the toughest challenges in the financial markets.

In addition, you’ll receive:

• The opportunity to work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries
• A highly competitive compensation package
• Global profit-sharing pool and performance-based bonus structure
• 401(k) match up to 50%
• Comprehensive health, mental, dental, vision, disability, and life coverage
• 25 paid vacation days alongside market holidays
• Extensive office perks, including breakfast, lunch and snacks, regular social events, clubs, sporting leagues and more

Who you are:

• Experience leading large-scale engineering projects
• Strong engineering instincts and a deep understanding of computer science fundamentals
• Experience in distributed systems
• Expertise in Python is required; experience with C, C++, or Rust is a plus
• Experience working with GPUs and the CUDA ecosystem is a plus
• Ability to tackle complex technical problems at the intersection of infrastructure and research enablement
• Commitment to continuous learning and improvement in a rapidly evolving environment
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills for working with global researchers and engineers
• Readiness to set technical direction, promote engineering principles, and do the right thing

Who we are:

Optiver is a global market maker driven by technology. Our mission is to improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and stabilizing the market no matter the conditions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we prioritize safeguarding the health and efficiency of the markets for all participants. As one of the largest market making institutions, we are a respected partner on 100+ exchanges across the globe.

Applicants may submit up to three application per calendar year across all open roles.

Our differences are our edge. Optiver does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, or other legally protected characteristics.

The Optiver Research Platform (ORP) is a vertically integrated platform team that manages both high-performance compute infrastructure and the software platform layered on top. ORP enables Optiver’s global research teams to define and execute large-scale computational problems such as simulations and model training through streamlined orchestration of complex workflows. By owning the full stack, from datacenter hardware to distributed research tooling, ORP provides the fastest possible turnaround time for experiments and continually expands Optiver’s ability to generate insights from the markets we operate in.

What you’ll do:

• Expand the Optiver Research Platform’s capabilities by building features and improving performance across service orchestration, job scheduling, cluster management, big-data processing, and other core services that business teams directly interface with.
• Build and evolve a fully managed compute & data platform layer for improved scale & reliability in Python & Rust.
• Explore cutting-edge technologies and integrate them into Optiver’s research workflows to enhance performance and allow deriving better insights.
• Collaborate globally with Optiver business teams including traders, researchers, and engineers to push their understanding of the market to new heights.

What you’ll get:

You’ll join a culture of collaboration and excellence, surrounded by curious thinkers and creative problem-solvers. Motivated by a passion for continuous improvement, you’ll thrive in a supportive, high-performing environment alongside talented colleagues, collectively tackling some of the toughest challenges in the financial markets.

In addition, you’ll receive:

• The opportunity to work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries
• A highly competitive compensation package
• Global profit-sharing pool and performance-based bonus structure
• 401(k) match up to 50%
• Comprehensive health, mental, dental, vision, disability, and life coverage
• 25 paid vacation days alongside market holidays
• Extensive office perks, including breakfast, lunch and snacks, regular social events, clubs, sporting leagues and more

Who you are:

• Experience leading large-scale engineering projects
• Strong engineering instincts and a deep understanding of computer science fundamentals
• Experience in distributed systems
• Expertise in Python is required; experience with C, C++, or Rust is a plus
• Experience working with GPUs and the CUDA ecosystem is a plus
• Ability to tackle complex technical problems at the intersection of infrastructure and research enablement
• Commitment to continuous learning and improvement in a rapidly evolving environment
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills for working with global researchers and engineers
• Readiness to set technical direction, promote engineering principles, and do the right thing

Who we are:

Optiver is a global market maker driven by technology. Our mission is to improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and stabilizing the market no matter the conditions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we prioritize safeguarding the health and efficiency of the markets for all participants. As one of the largest market making institutions, we are a respected partner on 100+ exchanges across the globe.

Applicants may submit up to three application per calendar year across all open roles.

Our differences are our edge. Optiver does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, or other legally protected characteristics.

Who we are:

At Focused, we move quickly to deliver quality software that achieves client outcomes and meets their customer’s needs. We strategically partner with our clients to leverage our expertise in design and software, while our clients bring their own domain expertise. We work with a variety of clients from different industries, collaborating as we get new products to market, modernizing legacy systems, or helping teams learn the skills they need to be successful.   

Our values:

• Listen first • We are experts in product practices but life long learners in the domain of our customers. We research, collaborate, and understand. 
• Learn why • We ask questions and talk to users to understand problem spaces, objectives, and goals, which allows us to deeply invest and drive towards the outcomes of our clients. 
• Love your craft • We love diving into a variety of domains and solving problems.  We take pride in delivering value, in communicating progress, and guiding our clients to success.

We are seeking an experienced Observability Consultant with deep expertise in OpenTelemetry and strong Platform Engineering capabilities to help organizations implement, optimize, and scale their observability infrastructure. This role requires a specialist who can design comprehensive telemetry strategies, implement distributed tracing solutions, establish robust monitoring practices, and interface closely with clients on the observability journey.

Key Responsibilities:

OpenTelemetry & Observability

• Design and implement end-to-end OpenTelemetry solutions across diverse technology stacks
• Configure and deploy OpenTelemetry Collectors for efficient data collection, processing, sampling, and routing
• Establish telemetry pipelines for metrics, traces, and logs across microservices architectures
• Optimize collector configurations for performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness

Platform Engineering & Infrastructure

• Augment existing infrastructure with with integrated observability solutions
• Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions using Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, etc.
• Architect and manage Kubernetes clusters with comprehensive monitoring and logging
• Build CI/CD pipelines with embedded observability and automated testing

Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)

• Establish and maintain Service Level Indicators (SLIs), Objectives (SLOs), and Agreements (SLAs)
• Implement error budgets, toil reduction strategies, and capacity planning
• Support incident response procedures and post-mortem processes

Cloud & DevOps Engineering

• Deploy and manage observability infrastructure across AWS, GCP, and Azure
• Establish security, compliance, and governance frameworks for telemetry data
• Experience automating Agent Evaluations in CI/CD pipelines and observability backends.

Required Qualifications:

Core Observability & OpenTelemetry

• 3-5 years of experience in observability, monitoring, and distributed systems
• Deep hands-on experience with OpenTelemetry ecosystem, including SDKs, APIs, and specifications
• Proficiency with OpenTelemetry Collector configuration, processors, exporters, and receivers
• Strong understanding of telemetry data models, semantic conventions, and instrumentation best practices

Platform Engineering & DevOps

• 5+ years of Platform Engineering or DevOps experience with focus on site reliability, observability, and incident response
• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code tools (Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, CDK)
• Strong experience with CI/CD platforms (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, ArgoCD)

Cloud & Infrastructure

• Hands-on experience with major cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure) and their observability services
• Experience with container technologies (Docker, Podman) and container registries
• Knowledge of networking, security, load balancing, and distributed systems concepts

Site Reliability Engineering

• Experience implementing SRE practices including error budgets and toil metrics
• Proficiency in incident management, on-call procedures, and post-mortem culture
• Experience with capacity planning, performance optimization, and scalability design

Programming & Automation

• Proficiency in multiple programming languages preferred (Go, Python, Java, Node.js, Rust)
• Strong scripting and automation skills (Bash, Python, PowerShell)
• Understanding of software engineering best practices and testing methodologies

Preferred Qualifications (Exceptional Candidates)

AI & Agentic Frameworks

• Understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs) and their application in DevOps
• Knowledge of vector databases, embeddings, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
• Experience with AI/ML model deployment and monitoring in production environments

Leadership & Communication

• Strong technical writing and documentation skills
• Ability to present complex technical concepts to diverse stakeholders
• A passion for knowledge sharing

Key Competencies

• Systems thinking and ability to design holistic observability solutions
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills for complex distributed systems
• Curiosity about emerging technologies, particularly AI applications in operations
• Adaptability to rapidly evolving cloud-native and observability technologies
• Collaborative mindset with focus on enabling developer productivity and system reliability

What Sets Exceptional Candidates Apart:

• Experience with Honeycomb
• Contributions to open-source observability or AI framework projects
• Track record of implementing platform engineering solutions that significantly improved developer experience
• Experience scaling observability infrastructure to handle high event volume

What to know before you apply: 

• This role will require being in the Chicago office three days per week and up to 20% travel within the United States.
• Focused is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of the employment Visa process at this time.
• The Chicago base salary range for this role is $130,000 - $170,000.