Graduate software engineer
$200,000
Base salary in Optiver’s Chicago ad
Graduate quant researcher, PhD
$200,000
Base salary, New York
Quant researcher, 4 to 5 years
$200,000
Base salary, Chicago
US software engineer total
ReportedAbout $394,000
Median base plus bonus, all levels
Chicago quant trader, first year
EstimateAbout $255,000 to $450,000
Base plus bonus at every firm, for comparison
Amsterdam quant trader, first year
EstimateAbout €150,000 to €300,000
Base plus bonus at every firm, in euros
Optiver is a market maker founded in Amsterdam, with offices in London, Chicago, Austin, New York, Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Mumbai. It had 2,233 full-time employees in 2025.
Its US ads state one base per role rather than a range: $200,000 for a graduate software engineer in Chicago, a graduate quant researcher with a PhD in New York, and a quant researcher with four to five years of experience. Every permanent hire is also eligible for a discretionary bonus paid from a global profit-sharing pool, which Optiver does not publish.
How much does Optiver pay graduates?
A graduate software engineer at Optiver in Chicago starts on a $200,000 base, and so does a graduate quant researcher with a PhD in New York. The ads state the figure at both ends of the range, $200,000 to $200,000: one base, not a band.
The base then barely moves. A quant researcher with four to five years of experience in Chicago is advertised at the same $200,000, so what grows with experience is the bonus.
The US salary filings say the same. Optiver files one exact wage per position, and across every level the typical filed base is $200,000 for traders, $175,000 to $200,000 for researchers and $175,000 to $200,000 for developers.
Filed US base salaries, July 2025 to June 2026
| Job title as filed | Median base | Lowest to highest |
|---|---|---|
| Trader | $200,000 | $150,000 to $200,000 |
| Quantitative Researcher | $200,000 | $150,000 to $200,000 |
| Software Engineer | $200,000 | $150,000 to $200,000 |
| Equity Analyst | $171,000 | $171,000 to $240,000 |
The median is the middle filing for the title; the range runs from the lowest to the highest, across every level the firm hires at.
How does the Optiver bonus work?
Optiver’s ads describe a discretionary bonus, paid from a global profit-sharing pool with a performance-based bonus structure. The firm does not publish the size of the pool, how it is shared or whether any of it is deferred.
What it does publish is how much the firm makes. In 2025 Optiver reported net trading income of €4.556 billion, up 30% on 2024, and a net profit of €1.769 billion. Across its 2,233 full-time employees, that is about €2.0 million of trading income per person.
What does a year at Optiver pay in total?
With the first bonus, our estimate for a first-year quant trader in Chicago is $255,000 to $450,000. That estimate covers every firm in the city, not Optiver alone. For the firm itself, what its employees report is the closest view.
Reported by employeesReported
Software engineers at Optiver in the US report a median total of about $394,000 on a median base of $200,000, across all levels (145 reports). In Chicago, entry-level engineers report about $314,000 in total, with a bonus of about $111,000. Quant traders in the US report an average total of about $312,000 (39 reports).
How much do Optiver interns earn?
Optiver states intern pay as one figure for base pay and sign-on bonus together. For Summer 2027 in Chicago, that is $70,000 to $85,000 for a software engineering intern and $80,000 for an FPGA engineering intern. Optiver also covers flights, living accommodation and a commuting stipend.
What does Optiver pay in Amsterdam?
For a first-year quant trader in Amsterdam, our estimate is €150,000 to €300,000 with the bonus, across every firm in the city. Optiver’s Amsterdam ads state no pay, so what its employees there report is the closest view of the firm itself.
Reported by employeesReported
Traders at Optiver in Amsterdam report a median base of about $205,000 in US dollars (97 reports, February 2026). Software engineers in the Netherlands report a median total of €142,650.
How does Optiver compare with other firms?
At $200,000, Optiver’s graduate base is below the $300,000 that Jane Street, Hudson River Trading and SIG advertise, and below IMC’s $250,000. Base pay is only a guide to total pay, though: at a firm with a large profit-sharing pool, the bonus does most of the work.
Optiver states $200,000. 7 firms advertise a higher graduate base, up to $300k. This is base pay only: the bonus comes on top, and within a few years it grows to match or pass the base.
- Hudson River Trading$300,000
- Jane Street$300,000
- Jump Tradingintern rate$300,000
- SIG$300,000
- DRW$250,000 to $300,000
- Citadel$235,000 to $300,000
- Citadel Securities$235,000 to $300,000
- IMC$250,000
- Optiver$200,000
- Two Sigma$165,000 to $190,000
- Flow Traders$175,000
The base salary each firm states in its US graduate job ads, September 2026. The bonus comes on top.
How do you get an Optiver offer?
Optiver’s process opens with a set of timed online tests: fast mental arithmetic, number sequences, probability, estimation and orderbook questions, and a short set of cognitive games. Later rounds move to probability puzzles and market-making, where you quote a price and adjust it as trades come in, and to coding for engineers.
The practice page has tests built on the same kinds of question, timed the same way, so the first orderbook question you see is not the one that counts.