At Optiver we pride ourselves on being real engineers, not just coders. Our engineers work closely with traders to identify the business problems we face and determine how they should be solved. We apply a disciplined and scientific approach. We engineer simple, well-architected solutions that meet the dynamic needs of our traders. Our passion is to solve problems which really matter to the business, and we take pride in the quality of our solutions.

Hardware Engineers at Optiver build hardware-based trading systems ranging from low latency algorithms to high bandwidth computation. They are responsible for owning all aspects of the development process from ideation to implementation creating bespoke solutions to our complex trading problems. Their systems have little room for failure which add to the stability of the market, not detract from it. Working in close collaboration with software engineers and traders, hardware engineers deeply understand our trading problems and create dynamic, well-architected systems that make an impact in a matter of days and weeks rather than months and years.

What you’ll do: 

• Accelerate network infrastructure and trading system components with high-speed hardware designs.
• Research new low-latency techniques and platforms and identify opportunities for integration with our trading system.
• Work in a multidisciplinary team of traders, software developers, and infrastructure engineers.
• Leverage the best hardware available or build in-house versions to ensure our FPGAs can interface with cutting edge server hardware.
• Manage relationships with 3rd party vendors.

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:

• A Bachelor’s degree in CE, EE, CS, or related technical field.
• Experience designing, coding, testing, and verifying FPGAs and/or ASICs.
• Experience coding in VHDL, Verilog, SystemVerilog as well as C or C++.
• Experience with RTL synthesis, writing timing, area, and other relevant constraints.
• Experience with digital simulators and self-checking test benches.
• Experience supporting post-silicon bring-up and debugging a plus.
• Ability to work closely with software developers to rapidly deliver integrated systems.

Who we are:

At Optiver, our mission is to improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency, and stabilising the market no matter the conditions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we prioritise 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.

About the Position

We are looking to hire an Engineer with experience in both software and hardware design to help us build our FPGA-based applications. 

We're big believers in the ability of tools to make programming faster, more pleasant, and more reliable. We apply these same principles to our FPGA Engineering work, and we’re looking for people who are interested in using programming language technology to improve the process of designing, testing, and validating hardware designs. We use Hardcaml, an OCaml library for succinctly describing hardware in RTL. Hardcaml is tightly integrated into our development environment, so you’ll also gain lots of exposure to the libraries and tools that are foundational to our internal systems. No previous knowledge of Hardcaml is required.

In this role, you’ll work on the ground-up design and implementation of new FPGA applications, and help extend and refine the high-level design and testing tools that we use internally. Your day-to-day work will predominantly involve OCaml & Hardcaml, for both RTL design and testing/integration, but you can also expect to work with some Verilog and C. While you don’t need to have worked with OCaml specifically, a good background in typed programming languages is a plus.

If you’d like to learn more, you can read about our interview process, meet some of our newest hires, or check out our OCaml All The Way Down talk and Programmable Hardware podcast episode.

About You

We don’t expect you to have a background in OCaml, finance, or any other specific field—we’re looking for smart programmers who will approach hardware design with a software engineering mindset. We’re more interested in how you think and learn than what you currently know. You should be:

• A top-notch programmer with a love for technology
• Comfortable with a software programming language
• Intellectually curious, collaborative, and eager to learn
• Humble and unafraid to ask questions and admit mistakes
• Experienced with a Hardware Description (or Construction) language (VHDL, Verilog, Chisel, Pymtl, or other), for both writing and testing hardware designs
• Experienced working with FPGA vendor tools (Vivado or Quartus)
• Experienced with building a working FPGA project through an academic, professional, or personal project
• Interested in learning how to use FPGAs in the context of networking

If you're a recruiting agency and want to partner with us, please reach out to agency-partnerships@janestreet.com.