FPGA Engineer Intern (Summer 2027 - Chicago)

About the role

You’ll work side-by-side with your mentor and teammates to build real-world applications that power a global trading firm. Your projects will be scoped based on your team’s real needs and your mentor will be fully invested in helping you build high-quality, lasting solutions. You’ll contribute to meaningful projects focusing on nanosecond response times, highly parallelized algorithms, and customized low-level networking at a leading trading firm that builds with cutting-edge AI technology.

Responsibilities

• Accelerate network infrastructure and trading system components with high-speed hardware designs.
• Research new low-latency techniques and platforms and identify opportunities for integration with our trading system.
• Collaborate in a multidisciplinary team of traders, software developers, and infrastructure engineers.
• Leverage the best hardware available or build in-house versions to ensure our FPGAs can interface with cutting-edge server hardware.

Qualifications

• A student pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s, or PhD in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or another related field.
• On track to graduate between December 2027 to June 2028, with junior standing or higher.
• Strong engineering instincts and hands-on experience in digital design with FPGAs or ASICs.
• Experienced in writing hardware in VHDL, Verilog, or System Verilog.
• Passionate for writing clean code, well-architected systems, and continuous improvement.
• A collaborative teammate comfortable working with developers, traders, and business teams.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries.
• Highly-competitive internship compensation package.
• Optiver-covered flights, living accommodations, and commuting stipends.
• Extensive office perks, including breakfast, lunch and snacks, regular social events, clubs, sporting leagues, and more.

Pay

Base Salary Range: $80,000 USD.

Who we are

Optiver is a leading technology- and research-driven trading firm. Our teams of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and traders work side by side to develop, test, and scale ideas that shape how we understand and trade global markets. Powered by a global platform built for rapid experimentation and iteration, we combine the scientific rigor of a research institution with the pace of a technology company.