Lead Sysadmin/SRE

optimal sp. z o.o.; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Optimal Market Technologies, LLC in Chicago or NYC is seeking a hands-on Systems Administrator to join a fintech startup building a cutting-edge trading platform. You will own the infrastructure, collaborate with a senior Production Engineer, and automate routine tasks to move knowledge into documented systems.

The role covers Linux and network administration across on-prem and cloud, with incident response, IaC automation, and close partnership with development for deployments.

Qualifications

• Hands-on Linux and network administration experience.
• Strong scripting and automation skills.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (tool-agnostic).
• Production support and incident response background.
• Experience using AI tools, Claude Code preferred.
• Ownership and status communication without prompting.
• Clear communication in a small team.

Responsibilities

• Own the Linux and network estate across colocation and cloud.
• Automate routine work via Infrastructure as Code.
• Own infrastructure security: hardening, backups, and incident response.
• Diagnose and resolve production infrastructure issues.
• Ensure end-to-end connectivity monitoring to exchanges.
• Document runbooks and post-incident reviews.
• Collaborate with development on deployments and capacity planning.
• On-call coverage during market hours and rotations.

Skills

Linux administration

Network administration

Scripting

Infrastructure as Code

Incident response

Ownership

Communication

Tools

Nagios

Ansible

SQL

Python

C++

Azure

Claude Code

Job description

About Us

Optimal Market Technologies is a FINRA-registered broker-dealer with an innovative platform of wholesale options and execution solutions designed to meet the needs of today’s dynamic market participants. Optimal can quickly and seamlessly enhance its platform, adapt to regulatory changes, and offer a more efficient implementation that scales as clients grow. Optimal is disrupting the US Options Wholesale landscape by introducing a Competition for Order Flow model through which market makers compete for retail flow on our platform based on best execution quality. Additional offerings include an Institutional Alternative Trading System (ATS) for discreet execution and price improvement and Execution Services for institutional-grade routing and algorithmic execution designed to balance price capture, speed, and market impact across trading objectives.

This is an opportunity to work for a fintech start-up and to be an integral part of growing a broker-dealer from the ground up. As a small, hardworking team, we pride ourselves on our entrepreneurial culture and cross-team collaboration. We recently raised funding from several strategic partners and are in a very exciting stage of growth.

Position: Systems Administrator
Company:Optimal Market Technologies, LLC
Location: Chicago or NYC, hybrid
Salary: $140,000 - $200,000 base salary + discretionary bonus (commensurate with experience)

Position Overview

We are seeking a hands-on Systems Administrator, working alongside our existing sysadmin, to keep our production infrastructure running and to grow it. You and your colleague own the infrastructure layer: hosts, network, storage, and connectivity, with some services supported by external providers. Application-level production support and incident coordination sit with our senior Production Engineer. You will build and operate what you put in place, automate routine work, and help us move from individual knowledge to reliable, documented systems.

Our environment

We run an automated trading system with single-digit-millisecond latency requirements on bare-metal Linux. We use cloud for storage and are investigating wider use. We currently use Nagios and Ansible; our applications are written in C++, Python and SQL. We are actively modernizing, upgrading technologies (e.g. CentOS7 to RHEL9), and have legacy and new systems running in parallel. You will deliver a stream of technology changes.

Primary Responsibilities

• Own the Linux and network estate across colocation and cloud: deployment, capacity, and failover.
• Automate routine work through Infrastructure as Code.
• Own infrastructure security: hardening, access control, recoverable backups, and security incident response.
• Diagnose and resolve infrastructure issues in production. Take part in incident response and the on-call rotation.
• Own end-to-end connectivity monitoring, from client servers through our systems to the exchanges, and identify where and why it fails.
• Track what breaks in production and why and turn repeat firefighting into automation that prevents it.
• Own recovery runbooks and drills and run the technical side of post-incident review.
• Partner with the development team on deployments, performance tracking and capacity planning.
• On-call coverage is market hours plus a support rotation.

What We're Looking For

• Strong hands-on Linux and network administration.
• Strong scripting and automation skills.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (we are open on which tools).
• A track record in production support and incident response.
• Experience using AI tools, ideally Claude Code.
• Ownership: you take responsibility for what you run and communicate status without being asked.
• Clear communication and the ability to work well in a small team.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience at a start-up.
• Experience in real-time critical systems.
• Experience in an order-management or exchange-connected financial business.
• Python
• Cloud services, ideally Azure including AVD.

Salary Range

$140,000 - $200,000 USD

Optimal is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.