Ready to accelerate your engineering career in just five days?

At Optiver, engineers build the systems powering millions of trades a day across the globe: from core low-latency platforms, machine learning research pipelines, to real-time execution workflows. The challenges are complex, the impact is immediate, and the learning never stops.

Career Kickstarter: Tech is a five-day, all-expenses-paid program designed for students eager to explore the engineering challenges of building mission-critical trading systems that keep global markets moving. Hosted at our Amsterdam headquarters, you’ll work through hands-on coding sessions, system design workshops and a collaborative engineering project that mirrors the work of our engineers.

Top performers will be considered for a direct offer to join Optiver as a Graduate Software Engineer.

• When: May 11-15, 2026

• Where: Optiver’s Amsterdam Headquarters

• Application deadline: February 23, 2026, at 17:00 CET

What you’ll do

A week of building, learning and engineering at scale. Throughout the program, our full-time Education Team will be there to mentor you, offering guidance and feedback designed to accelerate your development.

Learning and skill development:

• Hands-on engineering: Work on a real engineering project that challenges you to design, build and iterate as part of a real engineering team.

• Technical exploration: Join lectures and panel sessions with senior engineers to explore potential career paths and understand how real systems are designed, built and improved.

• Systems thinking: Take part in system design workshops to learn how high-performance systems are architected, optimised and scaled.

• Pathway to a career: Demonstrate your potential during the program, and you may be considered for a direct offer to join Optiver as a Graduate Software Engineer.

Culture and perks:

• Industry insights: Gain a deeper understanding of the industry and build the confidence needed to excel in a high-performance environment.

• Cultural immersion: Get a taste of Optiver’s incredible company culture and take advantage of our perks and benefits firsthand, including daily breakfast, lunch, coffee and more.

• Amsterdam up close: Picture your future career based in our vibrant city, sampling a taste of life in the historic Dutch capital.

• Hotel & travel: Enjoy a comfortable stay with fully covered accommodation and travel expenses, allowing you to focus on making the most of the program.

Who You Are

You’re curious, collaborative and excited to apply your problem-solving and engineering skills to real-world systems.

To join, you must:

• Be a current student or graduate (BSc, MSc or PhD) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or a related technical field, with a graduation date between May 2024 and August 2027.

• Be proficient in industry-standard coding languages such as C++, Python, or Java, with a strong understanding of underlying computer architecture and system operations

• Have a solid grasp of algorithms, memory and concurrency models, CPU-architecture, operating systems and relational databases

• Be studying, or have graduated from, a university in the EU, EEA or UK.

• Be able to demonstrate at the time of application that you have the requisite visa or other travel arrangements or authorisations in place to allow you to attend the program in person.

• Be able to start full-time as a Software Engineer directly after the program, or at the latest by September 2027.

No finance or trading experience required. Curiosity, problem-solving ability and a willingness to learn matter most.

Who We Are

Optiver is a tech-driven trading firm and leading global market maker. For over 35 years, Optiver has been improving financial markets around the world, making them more transparent and efficient for all participants. With more than 2,000 employees in offices around the world, we’re united in our commitment to improve the market through competitive pricing, execution and thorough risk management. By providing liquidity on multiple exchanges across the world, we actively trade on 70+ exchanges, where we’re trusted to always provide accurate buy and sell pricing – no matter the market conditions.

Apply Now

Does this sound like the future you’re looking for? Take up the opportunity and apply today!

Please note that the application process consists of two stages: an online assessment and a technical interview.

• The online assessment will be held between end of February and beginning of March 2026.

• The technical interview will take place in March 2026.

Further details and invitations to the next stages will be shared after applications close on 23rd February 2026.

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 by contacting the Recruitment team via the contact form, selecting “Reasonable Adjustments” as the subject of your inquiry.

For answers to some of our most frequently asked questions, refer to our Campus FAQs.