About the Role

At Optiver, FPGAs play a critical role in executing successful trades. With no external clients, we operate in a fast feedback, quick release environment.  As a FPGA Developer Intern at Optiver, you’ll work alongside experienced hardware engineers to ensure we have the fastest and most reliable trading systems in the industry. You’ll constantly be innovating with new technology in the hardware space, ensuring our latency is optimised to nanoseconds. By the end of the 10-week internship, you’ll have deepened your understanding of how technology is used in the quantitative trading industry. Plus, if you’ve excelled over the summer, you’ll receive an offer to return as a Graduate FPGA Developer.

Responsibilities

Led by our in-house education team that consists of ex-traders and engineers, you’ll delve into advanced engineering concepts and lead innovative projects, during our world-class training program. In just a few weeks, you’ll develop latency-critical applications that contribute towards our trading success. During the internship, you will be paired with one of Optiver’s seasoned FPGA developers, providing you exposure to a variety of areas, including: - Designing highly accurate and efficient systems that respond to the financial markets in real time. - Accelerating network infrastructure and trading systems using the latest devices, tools and techniques. - Developing rigorous test benches using a combination of VHDL and System Verilog. - Exploring new mechanisms for faster data communication/processing to accelerate network infrastructure and trading systems. Aside from technical skills, our dedicated education team will also work with you on your development, including:   - Workshops on a variety of tech-based topics, along with soft skills to support your holistic growth as a developer. - A dedicated mentor who will guide you through our development process and how our trading systems work. - Trader training to get you up to speed on our business. This helps you understand the fundamentals of trading, enabling you to make an impact from the early stages of your Optiver career.

Requirements

- A penultimate university student. If you are a pre-penultimate university student, discover our [2025 FutureFocus program](https://optiver.com/working-at-optiver/career-opportunities/7821147002/) and apply today. - An Australian or New Zealand Citizen, Australian Permanent Resident or able to provide evidence of full working rights. - Studying an Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or similarly technical degree. - Deeply passionate about technology, particularly FPGA development, and have a range of out-of-classroom projects or activities to prove it. - Knowledgeable about HDL languages: VHDL and/or Verilog as well as some experience with Python and/or C++. - Understand network protocols: Ethernet, IP, TCP/UDP. - Familiar with FPGA logic elements, transceivers, memory and other on-chip resources - Have some experience developing algorithms in software. - Excited to create high-performance, low-latency designs that critically impact trading success. - Keen to work alongside the best developers and traders in the industry, with the humility to continually upskill and improve yourself.