Career Kickstarter in Sydney

Want to fast-track your career path from student to full-time researcher? Join Career Kickstarter: Research, our five-day immersive program designed to accelerate your journey from university to a full-time research career. Experience the fast-paced world of quantitative trading and discover what it takes to excel as a researcher, from mastering options theory to developing highly practical industry skills.

Through a blend of interactive lectures, trading simulations, and mentorship from our world-class education team, you’ll sharpen your analytical edge and learn how to think, and act, like a researcher by the end of the week. Plus, if you’ve excelled in the program, you could receive an offer for our 2028 Graduate Program.

Eligible for final year university students (graduating in 2027 or earlier), with Australian working rights.

Program dates: March 2027

Application close: January 2027

Where: Optiver Sydney office

Note: If you reside outside of Sydney, Optiver will cover your travel and accommodation costs.

What you’ll do:

• Led by Optiver’s world-class education team, you’ll gain a deep understanding of market making and trading strategies, through a blend of hands-on and classroom learning.
• Learning and skill development:
• Discover options theory: Learn the fundamentals that underpin options trading, through engaging, interactive lectures.
• Explore trading strategies: Discover how data, reports, and proposals drive the development of impactful new trading strategies.
• Build and test your own trading algorithm: Gain hands-on experience designing and testing your own trading algorithm.
• Delve into real-world data: Analyse large datasets based on real-world financial data to better understand how researchers can identify profitable trading signals from the noise.
• Networking and culture:
• Gain expert mentorship: Learn directly from a dedicated team of educators, consisting of current and former researchers, traders and developers.
• Build your network: Enjoy connecting with traders, quantitative researchers, and developers through curated events.
• Experience Optiver’s culture: Immerse in our incredible culture and enjoy our benefits, including daily breakfast, lunch, coffee, and more.

Who you are:

• Final year university students (graduating in 2027 or earlier). All degree backgrounds are considered.
• An Australian or New Zealand Citizen, Australian Permanent Resident or able to provide evidence of full working rights.
• Studying (or studied) a quantitative or technically focused degree, such as Maths, Statistics, Physics, Electrical / Mechatronic / Software Engineering, Computer Science, Applied / Quantitative Finance or Econometrics.
• Inquisitive and critical thinker, who enjoys creating innovative, new solutions.
• Have a passion for quantitative problems and working in collaborative, dynamic environments.
• Pragmatic, focused on outcomes and can communicate technical concepts well.
• Enjoys utilising technology, programming, or maths in your daily life to solve problems.
• Possess programming experience in any language (C, C++, Python, Basic, JAVA, etc.).

Applying for the program:

The Career Kickstarter program offers three streams: Research, Trading or Technology. To help you choose the stream that aligns with your interests, please find more information below. Please note that you can only apply for one stream.

• Research: Our Researchers build models leveraging big data and machine learning to identify profitable signals that underpin our algorithmic trading strategies.
• Trading: Our Traders make trading decisions based on market conditions and other factors. They’re driven and have a flair for analytical problem solving.
• Technology: Our Software and FPGA Developers play a critical role in executing successful trades. Driven by the desire to find the simplest solutions to the most complex problems, they design and build high performance systems that solve real business problems.

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.

Diversity statement: Optiver is committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage applications from candidates from all backgrounds, and welcome requests for reasonable adjustments during the process to ensure that you can best demonstrate your abilities.

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 re-apply when the next recruitment season begins in 2028.