Senior Procurement Analyst

Optiver; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a procurement professional to enhance their infrastructure purchasing strategies in a high-performance trading environment. This role offers the chance to engage in strategic sourcing, vendor negotiations, and process improvements for critical IT components. You will collaborate cross-functionally to align procurement strategies with business needs, ensuring efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Join a diverse team of professionals dedicated to continuous improvement and problem-solving in the financial markets, where your contributions will directly impact the company's success and operational excellence.

Benefits

401(k) match up to 50%

Fully paid health insurance

Breakfast, lunch, and snacks

Regular social events

Clubs and sporting leagues

Qualifications

• 3-6 years of experience in procurement or related fields, focusing on technology and infrastructure.
• Strong vendor management and negotiation skills for IT hardware and services.

Responsibilities

• Drive strategic sourcing and vendor negotiations for hardware and connectivity services.
• Analyze spend data to identify cost optimization opportunities.

Skills

Contract negotiation

Vendor management

Procurement process improvement

Analytical skills

Stakeholder management

Problem-solving

Attention to detail

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Job description

Optiver is looking for a procurement professional with expertise in infrastructure and connectivity purchasing to support our growing technical footprint and high-performance trading environment. The Procurement function drives strategic initiatives to ensure Optiver is buying goods and services in the most efficient way at the most competitive prices. We ensure that Optiver has the hardware, network infrastructure, and connectivity services needed to operate efficiently, securely, and at scale.

The team focuses on operational excellence and continuous improvement, which equips them with the ability to drive these wide-ranging initiatives forward consistently with efficiency and diligence while collaborating with all areas of the business. In this role, you will drive strategic sourcing, vendor negotiations, cost optimization, and procurement process improvements for mission-critical IT components and services—from datacenter fit-outs to hardware, networking equipment, and connectivity. You will work cross-functionally with infrastructure teams, development, and finance to align procurement strategies with business needs, ensuring efficiency, resilience, and cost-effectiveness in our infrastructure investments.

If you are interested in gaining experience in both the business and technical sides of a market making trading firm while leveraging and developing Procurement expertise, this role will provide that opportunity.

What you’ll do:

• Strategic Sourcing – Identify and execute sourcing opportunities for hardware, infrastructure, and connectivity services. Partner closely with business stakeholders to source with their top priorities in mind, foster accountability, and clearly communicate throughout. Build forecasts/models to optimize spend and proactively manage procurement cycles. Run RFx processes and competitive sourcing events where necessary, ensuring best pricing and terms.
• Vendor Relationship Management – Negotiate pricing, terms, and contracts for hardware, connectivity, and IT services. Ensure contracts align with internal standards and industry benchmarks. Build up vendor relationships to strategically partner together and proactively remediate supply constraints.
• Spend Analytics & Reporting – Review and analyze spend to identify trends, patterns, and areas for cost optimization. Create value-add metrics from our spend data to share with owners, to ultimately equip the business for better decision-making.
• Process Development – Identify and challenge process inefficiencies across Procurement operations, with a focus on how we purchase IT Infrastructure. Design and implement sustainable processes that target the overarching issues, not just patches and point solutions. Champion any process improvements to ensure they are effective and are adopted by impacted stakeholders, stressing importance of change management.
• Daily Procurement Operations – Purchase goods and services needed by the business – working with A/P, Legal, technical teams, and vendors to procure hardware, software, and services in a standardized fashion. Lead proactive communication with internal stakeholders with updates on expected timelines and progress of purchase requests.

What you’ll get:

You’ll join a culture of collaboration and excellence, where you’ll be surrounded by curious thinkers and creative problem-solvers. Motivated by a passion for continuous improvement, you’ll thrive in a supportive, high-performing environment alongside talented colleagues, working collectively to tackle the toughest problems in the financial markets.

In addition, you’ll receive:

• The opportunity to work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries
• 401(k) match up to 50% and fully paid health insurance
• Extensive office perks, including breakfast, lunch and snacks, regular social events, clubs, sporting leagues and more

Who you are:

• A Bachelor’s Degree
• 3-6 years of experience in procurement, supply chain, finance, or a related field, with a focus on technology, hardware, and/or infrastructure sourcing.
• Strong contract negotiation and vendor management skills, particularly for IT hardware, connectivity, and infrastructure services.
• Must be highly curious and willing to challenge assumptions—someone who asks the “why” behind decisions and actively seeks to understand how procurement impacts the business.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-performance environment where responsiveness, accuracy, and critical problem-solving are paramount.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, capable of interfacing with technical and business teams.
• Detail-oriented with a strong sense of ownership, accountability, and ability to work autonomously.
• Attention to detail, diligence, and a high personal bar for performance expectations.
• The ability to multitask and manage multiple processes simultaneously.
• Strong risk awareness and the ability to identify and escalate imminent risks.
• Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required; we will not sponsor individuals for employment authorization for this job opening.

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.