Production Operations Engineer (Trading Systems / SRE / Application Support)

The Global Production Operations Engineering (ProdOps) team is responsible for maintaining and scaling Optiver’s low-latency trading systems. The team ensures a safe, stable, and efficient production environment while supporting profitability and sustainable growth across various regions. Collaborating closely with traders, development, and operational teams, the engineer will deploy, monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize our trading infrastructure to enhance reliability, performance, and automation.

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.

Since its establishment in 2012, our Shanghai office is a rapidly growing participant in the Chinese markets, trading exchange-listed futures, options and equities in China mainland. Our vision is to become the trusted partner in the development of Chinese financial markets. With the culture of a start-up but the backing of a 35+ year-old trading firm, the Optiver Shanghai office is truly unique. Everyone who joins us will help shape the future of our company and its global impact. Get ready: we are only just beginning.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Provide technical expertise and support to high-frequency trading floors, troubleshooting complex issues and resolving incidents in a fast-paced, dynamic setting.

• Working hours will involve a combination of standard business hours and rotational weekend for weekend trading support and test (with time off during the week).

• Deploy, maintain, and monitor proprietary trading applications, ensuring stability and performance in the trading environment.

• Review and analyze incidents to identify recurring themes, driving improvements to enhance automation and operational efficiency.

• Coordinate deployments of new trading products, systems, and exchanges, ensuring readiness for events such as corporate actions or special announcements.

• Architect and maintain services to maximize reliability, ensuring the trading systems operate within performance thresholds.

• Collaborate with development teams to establish best practices and ensure the long-term stability of production systems, even under extreme conditions.

• Set standards for system configuration and deployment to minimize risks and support smooth scaling.

• Manage the colocation to ensure the right level of redundancy and capacity for growth is available

• Automate system management processes, while maintaining control over critical operations.

WHO YOU ARE

Technical Skills:

• Solid experience managing complex distributed systems in Linux environments (L2/L3 support), with a strong understanding of networking fundamentals, build, deployment, and version control systems.

• Fundamental efficiency with CI/CD tooling and scripting in Python or similar languages to automate tasks.

• Experience with relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL) or other database systems.

• Demonstrated ability to drive system improvements and work across global teams to deliver changes.

Non-Technical Skills:

• A collaborative team player with a positive attitude, capable of coordinating effectively across departments.

• A pragmatic and logical thinker who thrives under pressure in high-intensity environments, with strong troubleshooting skills and the ability to resolve incidents efficiently.

• Effective communicator, able to clearly explain technical concepts and ask insightful questions.

• Highly organized, able to manage multiple responsibilities while keeping stakeholders informed.

• Passionate about technology, curious about the interaction between hardware and software, and driven to learn and grow by embracing frequent change.

• Prior experience in high-frequency trading environments is a plus but not required.

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 snacks.

  • Gym membership, sports and leisure activities, plus weekly in-house chair massages

  • Regular social events, clubs and Friday afternoon drinks.

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.