Senior Equity Analyst

Optiver; Illinois; On-site; USD 170,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Global team

Profit sharing

401(k) match

Health coverage

Vacation days

Office perks

Job summary

Optiver in the United States (Illinois) seeks a Senior Equity Analyst to sit on the trading desk, influencing real-time decisions with direct P&L impact. This is not traditional equity research; speed, adaptability, and commercial judgment drive value in live trading environments.

You’ll own sector coverage and translate fundamentals into short-term price action and volatility, collaborating with traders to optimize positions across the analyst and market-making books and applying your framework

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience as an equity analyst in a market-making environment, prop trading firm, or event-driven trading hedge fund.
• Proven track record of owning sector coverage and delivering differentiated, actionable insights.
• Strong understanding of how fundamentals translate into short-term price moves and volatility.

Responsibilities

• Leverage fundamental, event-driven, and short-term catalysts to identify trading opportunities and money-making opportunities.
• Partner with traders to optimize analyst and market making positions and directly own risk in both books.
• Support market making desk with insights to improve day-to-day trading decisions.
• Perform scenario and sensitivity analyses for upcoming events and corporate developments affecting equity and volatility.
• Translate research insights into actionable strategies across equities and options.
• Contribute to process improvements and share knowledge to monetize insights in a market-making context.
• Mentor junior analysts and support growth of the equity research function.

Skills

Equity analysis

Market making

P&L driven

Event-driven trading

Volatility awareness

Job description

As a Senior Equity Analyst, you’ll sit directly on the trading desk, influencing real-time decisions and shaping positions with direct P&L impact. This is not a traditional equity research role – your work will be used in live trading environments where speed, adaptability, and commercial judgement are critical.

You’ll bring strong experience owning sector coverage, along with a keen understanding of how fundamentals drive short-term price action and volatility. While we are open to candidates from any sector background, you should be comfortable applying your framework across new names and situations.

This is a high-impact role designed for analysts who thrive in fast-paced, collaborative environments – and who are eager to apply their market-making instincts, short-horizon research, and option-aware thinking to drive tangible results.

What you’ll do

As a Senior Equity Analyst, your key responsibilities include:

• Leverage fundamental, event-driven, and short-term catalysts to create an orthogonal trading revenue stream expressed via the analyst book identify and evaluate trading opportunities

• Partner with traders to help optimize analyst and market making positions, directly owning risk in both the analyst and market making books

• Support market making desk with general insights that improve day-to-day trading decisions

• Perform scenario and sensitivity analyses for upcoming events and corporate developments, assessing their potential impact on both equity and volatility

• Translate research insights into actionable strategies across equities and options

• Contribute to process improvements and knowledge sharing across the analyst team, refining how fundamental insights are monetized in a market‑making context

• Mentor junior analysts and support the continued growth of the equity research function

What you’ll get

• The opportunity to work alongside best‑in‑class professionals from over 40 different countries

• Highly competitive compensation package

• Global profit‑sharing pool and performance‑based bonus structure

• 401(k) match up to 50%

• Comprehensive health, mental, dental, vision, disability, and life coverage

• 25 paid vacation days alongside market holidays

• Extensive office perks, including breakfast, lunch and snacks, regular social events, clubs, sporting leagues and more

Who you are

• 5+ years of experience as an equity analyst, within a market‑making environment, proprietary trading firm, or event‑driven / trading‑oriented hedge fund

• Proven track record of owning sector coverage and generating differentiated, actionable insights

• Strong understanding of how fundamentals translate into short‑term price moves and volatility

• Experience working closely with trading desks or in fast‑feedback, P&L‑driven environments

• Comfortable applying your research process across sectors, with the ability to quickly build conviction on new names

• Familiarity with options and volatility dynamics, or a strong interest in developing this expertise

• Highly analytical with strong problem‑solving skills; thrives in fast‑moving, information‑rich environments

• Clear communicator who proactively shares views and collaborates effectively with traders and researchers

• Passionate about the markets, adaptable, and driven by impact and continuous learning

• Comfortable working with large data sets and building scalable, repeatable processes

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.

Base Salary Range

$200,000—$200,000 USD