Data Operations Engineer

Optiver; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus program

401(k) matching

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

Disability coverage

Life insurance

Mental health coverage

Breakfast & snacks

Annual social events

Job summary

Optiver, a leading global market maker, is hiring a Data Operations Engineer in Chicago to join the Global Data Engineering team. You'll work with traders, researchers and engineers to ensure the data platform runs reliably at scale, troubleshooting production issues and onboarding new datasets.

You'll design and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines, implement data quality and monitoring, and build APIs exposing market data for trading and research.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of data engineering or data operations experience in a high-performance environment.
• Proficient in Python and data tooling (Pandas, PyArrow, Spark).
• Experience building scalable ETL/ELT pipelines and APIs.
• Strong understanding of data modeling, normalization, and quality.
• Familiarity with lakehouse tech (Delta Lake, Databricks) preferred.
• Experience with real-time and historical market data is a plus.
• Excellent communication and ownership mindset; able to collaborate with traders and researchers.

Responsibilities

• Own data platform reliability and support for traders and researchers.
• Investigate data quality, freshness, and availability across datasets.
• Monitor ingestion pipelines and real-time feeds; respond to alerts.
• Onboard new datasets; perform schema mapping and backfills.
• Develop automated data quality validation and anomaly detection.
• Build high-performance APIs exposing market data to platforms.
• Collaborate with data vendors to resolve upstream issues.

Skills

Python

Pandas

PyArrow

Spark

ETL Pipelines

APIs

Data Modeling

Data Quality

Observability

Stakeholder Collaboration

Tools

Delta Lake

Databricks

Airflow

Kubernetes

Job description

At Optiver, technology and data are at the core of every trading decision we make. As a leading global market maker, we rely on accurate, reliable, and scalable data platforms to power our trading, research, and analytics systems in some of the world's fastest financial markets.

As a Data Operations Engineer, you'll join our Global Data Engineering team in Chicago, partnering closely with traders, researchers, and engineers to ensure our data platform operates reliably at scale. Combining software engineering with operational ownership, you'll troubleshoot production issues, onboard new datasets, improve platform reliability, and build the systems that keep our trading teams supplied with high-quality data every day.

What you'll do

As a Data Operations Engineer, your key responsibilities include:

Operational Ownership

• Serve as the primary point of contact for traders, researchers, and engineers on data platform issues and operational support
• Investigate and resolve data quality, freshness, and availability issues across business-critical datasets
• Monitor data ingestion pipelines, scheduled workflows, and real-time market data feeds, responding rapidly to alerts and minimizing production impact
• Partner directly with external data vendors to resolve upstream issues, manage specification changes, and ensure timely delivery of accurate datasets
• Communicate clearly during production incidents, providing timely updates and driving issues through to resolution

Engineering & Platform Reliability

• Integrate and operationalize new datasets, including schema mapping, normalization, historical backfills, and metadata management
• Design, build, and maintain reliable, scalable ETL/ELT pipelines supporting both real-time trading systems and research platforms
• Develop automated data quality validation, monitoring, and anomaly detection frameworks to proactively identify issues
• Model and normalize complex financial datasets to ensure they are accurate, consistent, and production-ready
• Build and maintain high-performance APIs that expose market and reference data to trading, research, and analytics platforms
• Partner closely with traders, researchers, and engineering teams to understand evolving data requirements and deliver scalable solutions
• Contribute to the ongoing evolution of Optiver's global data platform, improving reliability, observability, and operational excellence

What you'll get

You'll join a culture of collaboration and excellence, surrounded by curious thinkers and creative problem-solvers. Motivated by continuous improvement, you'll thrive in a supportive, high-performing environment alongside talented colleagues while solving some of the toughest data engineering challenges in the financial markets.

In addition, you'll receive:

• The opportunity to work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries
• Highly competitive compensation package including performance-based bonus structure
• 401(k) matching up to 50%
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, disability, life, and mental health coverage
• Extensive office perks, including breakfast, lunch and snacks, regular social events, clubs, sporting leagues, and more

Who you are

• 3+ years of experience as a Data Engineer, Data Operations Engineer, Software Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer, or similar role in a high-performance or mission-critical environment
• Strong Python programming skills, including experience with libraries such as Pandas, PyArrow, and Spark
• Experience building and maintaining scalable data pipelines, APIs, and data processing systems
• Strong understanding of data modeling, normalization, and data quality best practices
• Experience with modern lakehouse technologies such as Delta Lake, Databricks, or cloud-based data platforms is preferred
• Exposure to real-time and historical financial market data (such as equities, ETFs, fixed income, or credit) is advantageous
• Strong operational mindset with a passion for ownership, troubleshooting, automation, and continuous improvement
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to partner effectively with traders, researchers, engineering teams, and external data vendors
• Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required; we will not sponsor individuals for employment authorization for this role

Who we are

At Optiver, our mission is to improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and stabilizing the market no matter the conditions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we prioritize 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

Our differences are our edge. Optiver does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, or other legally protected characteristics.

Below is the expected base salary for this position. This is a good‑faith estimate of the base pay scale for this position and offers will ultimately be determined based on experience, education, skill set, and performance in the interview process. This position will also be eligible for a discretionary bonus (if determined by Optiver) and Optiver’s benefits package with the benefits listed above.