Graduate Trading Operations Analyst (2025 Start)

Join Optiver as a Trading Operations Analyst and dive into the exhilarating world of market making and trading systems. As a Trading Operations Analyst, you will work on the trading floor, gaining in-depth exposure across our quantitative trading, development and corporate strategy teams. You will play a central and crucial connectivity role between these various departments and will be responsible for operating and optimizing the entire trade cycle, managing the implementation of cutting-edge trading strategies and technologies and providing valuable data-driven insights to improve our market-making activities.

Who we are:

At Optiver, our mission is to constantly improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and acting as a stabilizing force no matter the market conditions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we participate in the safeguarding of healthy and efficient markets for everyone who participates. We tackle the toughest problems, challenge the status quo and always aim for excellence. As one of the largest market making institutions, we are a trusted partner of 70+ exchanges across the globe.

Optiver Chicago’s culture parallels the energetic city we’re immersed in. Home to the Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago has established itself as the derivatives trading capital of the US. Active on leading US exchanges, Optiver’s Chicago office trades a wide range of products from listed derivatives to cash equities, ETFs, bonds and foreign exchange.

What you’ll do:

At Optiver, we hire academically accomplished, well-rounded thinkers and mold them into great Trading Operations Analysts. No prior trading or finance knowledge is needed. You begin your career with comprehensive training on the fundamentals of trading: theory, markets, strategy and cutting-edge technology.                    

From there, you join your team on the trading floor. You will handle large amounts of data every single day, escalating the need to be diligent, precise, and carry out tasks within a certain time frame – all while collaborating with stakeholders across the trading function.

You will also be:

• Operating and optimizing our world class automated trading system
• Leveraging your technical skills to automate manual processes and scale our business
• Creating automated data visualizations and reporting out on key insights
• Working on projects directly related to improving trading profitability and risk
• Monitoring and optimizing:
  • Financing, capital and electronic trading fees and rebates
  • Stock lending, short-sale costs and settlement/buy-in risks

Who you are:

• Graduating with a bachelor’s, master’s or PhD in a STEM or related field
• Have an expected graduation date of Spring 2025 (Fall 2025 start date)
• Proficient with a programming language, preferably Python
• Possess superior analytical, quantitative and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communicator and team player
• Able to work in an accurate and structured way
• Driven to constantly improve and optimize
• Able to work under pressure and multi-task

What you’ll get:

• Work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries.
• Performance based bonus structure that is unmatched anywhere in the industry. We combine our profits across desks, teams and offices into a global profit pool fostering a truly collaborative environment to work in.
• Ownership over initiatives that directly solve business problems.  

Additionally, you’ll get great other benefits such as 25 paid vacation days and market holidays, fully paid commuting expenses and health insurance, daily breakfast and lunch, training opportunities, 401(k) match up to 50% and charitable match opportunities, regular social events and clubs, and many more.

*We accept one application per role per year. If you have previously applied to this position during this season and have been unsuccessful, you can reapply once the next recruitment season begins in 2025.

 At Optiver, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. Optiver recruits, employs, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, or other legally protected characteristics.