Tech Lead - Data Systems

You'll be leading a team in our Amsterdam office, working on data, research, and trading platforms that directly influence our trading strategies for a wide range of products. You'll be focused on setting technical directions and culture for the team. We're believers in leading by example and so you'll be applying a hands-on approach to technical problem-solving and a collaborative mindset to meet the data needs of our traders and researchers. Your efforts will be key to enabling smarter, data-driven decision-making and positioning our trading practices at the forefront of the industry, evolving efforts to optimize and expand our trading and research potential through well engineered solutions.

You'll bring a background in developing large-scale data platforms, ready to apply your engineering expertise to our challenges and be excited by taking responsibility for leading our approach to building a new platform that meets our research needs, ensuring scalability and efficiency across our global trading operations.

 

WHO WE ARE:

Optiver is a tech-driven trading firm and leading global market maker. As one of the oldest market making institutions, we are a trusted partner of 50+ exchanges across the globe. Our mission is to constantly improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and acting as a stabilising 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.

Our Amsterdam office is where it all began. Over 35 years ago, Optiver’s business started with a single trader on the floor of Amsterdam’s European Stock Exchange. Since our 1986 founding, Optiver’s Amsterdam office has grown into one of the most dynamic and exciting trading floors in Europe. Our culture reflects the Dutch capital city’s progressive, innovative and inclusive nature. With its unique spirit, Amsterdam is the ideal hub for our teams to trade a wide range of products from listed derivatives to cash equities, ETFs, bonds and foreign exchange.

 

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

You'll balance leadership responsibilities with hands-on technical development equally. You will set strategic directions for major business initiatives and take ownership of the technical vision. Your role involves directly contributing to the development of cutting-edge applications and frameworks.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Collaborate with stakeholders across the company to solve data challenges from ingestion to utilization.
• Mentor a vibrant team of developers, promoting a culture of learning and innovation.
• Continually refine our frameworks to manage growing data volumes efficiently and accurately.
• Facilitate synergy across global teams to maintain a cohesive technology strategy.
• Lead by example in crafting scalable and efficient technological solutions, ensuring operational excellence in all aspects of data handling.

Current Team Initiatives: 

• Creating and managing a data lake sourced from internal and external systems, enabling comprehensive data analysis.
• Partnering with traders and researchers to develop datasets that support both historical insights and real-time data feeds through innovative batch and stream processing.
• Evolving frameworks that allow end-users to easily manipulate and extend data within the data lake.
• Handling large-scale data collection, storage, and processing to fuel advanced algorithmic trading strategies.
• Developing high-performance trading algorithms that leverage both historical and real-time market data.
• Integrating machine learning models with trading algorithms to boost predictive accuracy.

Projects You Might Help With: 

• Optimize trading strategies to perform at the scale we need. 
• Design research frameworks that allow access to a variety of data and quick path to production.
• Design data systems that automate recovery processes with minimal human involvement in case of interruptions or failures.
• Develop robust systems that enable effective data production, management, and repair.
• Implement safeguards within our data systems to prevent outages during high-demand periods.

 

WHO YOU ARE:

You are a leader excited about engineering sophisticated data platforms from the ground up:

• 3+ years in leading development teams and fostering innovative thinking.
• Expertise in designing and refining data platforms, learning from past challenges to build superior solutions.
• Experience writing software in C++, C#, C, and/or Python, with a genuine and deep desire to write clean and correct code.
• Commitment to upholding high standards of operational excellence and making informed decisions based on technical fundamentals, including networking, database behavior, and system performance.
• A collaborative spirit, working effectively with business and technical teams to achieve shared goals.

Nice To Have: 

• Familiarity with big data solutions, Linux containerization, and research frameworks.
• Experience with Pandas, Polars, PyArrow, Kafka, PostgreSQL, DeltaTable, or AWS.
• Background in trading and financial markets.

 

WHAT YOU'LL GET::

• The chance to start your career working alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries.
• Our performance based bonus structure 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.

Alongside this you will get great secondary benefits such as 25 paid vacation days, fully paid first-class commuting expenses, training opportunities, discounts on health insurance, breakfast and lunch facilities, sports and leisure activities, Friday afternoon drinks and even weekly in-house chair massages. Being highly international, we are accustomed to guiding expats through their relocation, offering competitive relocation packages and providing visa sponsorship where necessary.

 

Are you interested in furthering your career on one of the most dynamic and exciting trading floors in Europe?

Apply directly via the form below for the position of Tech Lead - Data Systems. Please provide us with a CV and letter of motivation in English. Applications without a letter of motivation will not be reviewed. When we think there is a potential match, you will hear from us sooner than you expect. If you have any questions feel free to contact our Recruiter Tommy Smith via tommysmith@optiver.com. Please note, we cannot accept applications via email for data protection reasons. 

Please note, if you are selected from your application to proceed to the next round for the position of Tech Lead - Data Systems you will be required to take an online assessment.

Kindly note that we do not require any assistance from third-parties including agencies in the recruitment of this role.

 

DIVERSITY STATEMENT:

As an intentionally flat organization, we believe that great ideas and impact can come from everyone. We are passionate about empowering individuals and creating diverse teams that thrive. Every person at Optiver should feel included, valued and respected, because we believe our best work is done together.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is hardwired through every stage of our hiring process. We encourage applications from candidates from any and all backgrounds, and we welcome requests for reasonable adjustments during the process to ensure that you can best demonstrate your abilities.

More information on how Optiver Europe processes your personal data can be found in our Privacy Policy.