Graduate Quantitative Researcher (2027 Start)

If you enjoy using mathematics and code to investigate difficult questions, you could make a direct contribution to Optiver’s success in global markets. As a Graduate Quantitative Researcher, you’ll work across the full research process, from framing the question and choosing the data to building, testing and deploying models. Machine Learning is central to the work, whether you’re extracting signals, forecasting prices or modelling relationships. Our data, compute and production infrastructure let you test ideas quickly, understand where they fail and decide what to investigate next. Our researchers believe in academic discourse and invite fellow researchers, traders and engineers to challenge each hypothesis. Different perspectives help improve the question, the model and how it performs in production. Through constant testing, analysis and refinement, you’ll help our quantitative models adapt as markets evolve.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• You’ll participate in Global Optiver Academy, a structured onboarding programme for graduates. It gives new joiners a shared foundation in how Optiver trades, builds systems, and manages risk before they move into their teams. As part of your onboarding, you'll gain exposure to the AI tools and technologies that support research and development across the business.
• Your responsibilities depending on the team you join, you'll own the research end to end. That could include:
• Building models for pricing, forecasting and signal discovery, choosing the statistical, mathematical or Machine Learning methods that best fit the problem.
• Working across petabytes of market, order-flow and unstructured data to find signals that improve strategies as conditions change.
• Monitoring models in production and using live behaviour to refine your assumptions and decide what to investigate next.
• Using deep learning and AI-enabled workflows to shorten the loop from hypothesis to evidence.
• Working directly with researchers, traders and engineers to shape problems and understand how system constraints affect performance.

WHO YOU ARE

We're looking for aspiring Quantitative Researchers who are versatile and creative in innovating and suggesting new solutions. In return, we'll give you the freedom to pursue your ideas and implement them right into our production systems. In terms of skills and qualifications, we're looking for:

• An academic degree in Engineering, Physics, Maths, Econometrics, Computer science or equivalent, with outstanding academic achievements.
• Programming experience in any language (preferably Python, but C, C++, Basic, JAVA, etc. are also a plus).
• Ability to apply concepts of probability, calculus and linear algebra.
• Competitive attitude and eagerness to constantly improve.
• Ability to learn quickly.
• Excellent verbal and written English language skills.

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. Motivated by a passion for continuous improvement, you’ll thrive in a supportive, high-performing environment alongside talented colleagues, working collaboratively to tackle the toughest problems in the financial markets. In addition, you’ll receive:

• A performance-based bonus structure, enabling all of our employees to benefit from our global profit pool.
• The opportunity to work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 50 countries.
• 25 paid vacation days in your first year, increasing to 30 from your second year onwards.
• Training opportunities, discounts on health benefits, and fully paid first-class commuting expenses.
• Extensive office perks, including breakfast, lunch and dinner, world-class barista coffee, bi-weekly chair massages, Friday afternoon drinks, a bicycle to explore Amsterdam and much more.
• Training and continuous learning opportunities, including access to conferences and tech events.
• Competitive relocation packages and visa sponsorship where necessary for expats.

Diversity statement

Optiver is committed to diversity and inclusion. 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. Please let us know if you would like to request any reasonable adjustments.