As a senior leader of our Enterprise Technology Operations capability you will bring IT operations leadership, experience and best practices to Optiver.  We are looking to evolve and mature our global team to more efficiently scale with the firm’s technology and growth ambitions, while simultaneously improving our employees’ ability to collaborate globally and intuitively leverage our enterprise technology stack in fulfilment of their work.

This is a unique opportunity to transform Optiver’s technology enablement capability from local to global, to establish an enterprise managed service offering from inception, to instil best practices from the outset and to bring about lasting change to the firm.

This opportunity will suit an experienced leader looking for more ownership of their team structure, who has a clear vision of how to run IT Operations, who is ready for a new challenge and eager to get back to in-person collaboration and problem-solving in a firm that prides itself on its open, transparent culture and dedication to continuous improvement.

Who we are

Optiver is a tech-driven trading firm and leading global market maker. As one of the oldest market making institutions, we are a trusted partner of 70+ exchanges across the globe. Our mission is to constantly improve the market by injecting liquidity, providing accurate pricing, increasing transparency and acting as a stabilizing force no matter the market conditions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we participate in the safeguarding of healthy and efficient markets for everyone who participates.

Optiver Chicago’s culture parallels the energetic city we’re immersed in. Home to the Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago has established itself as the trading capital of the US. Active on leading US exchanges, Optiver’s Chicago office trades a wide range of products from listed derivatives to cash equities, ETFs, bonds and foreign exchange.

What you’ll do

• Lead and develop a team of technology professionals in delivery of a world-class enterprise technology experience to our employees
• Establish a scalable and efficient operational and global support model across both first and second line and across service desk and managed service capabilities
• Collaborate with technical colleagues and business stakeholders to continuously improve our offering without sacrificing simplicity, scalability, or resiliency
• Identify, hire, engage and mentor members of the team to build and grow a high-performing culture

Who you are

• You will ideally have a variety of background experiences including project and program management, and IT implementations and/or transformations, especially with packaged software and SaaS products.
• Experience managing IT Operations teams (Service Desk, Help Desk, User/Customer Support, etc.) and/or software engineering teams.
• Understanding of the software development life-cycle (SDLC), including planning, testing, change management, and release management.
• IT transformation and leadership experience
• Experience leading a team of teams with an ability to develop managers
• Proven track record of leading a globally distributed team and driving high engagement in a high performance culture
• Expertise in Service Desk, Technology Implementation, and Managed Service operational excellence
• Work management strategies that optimize efficiency and balance agility with technical risk management
• Strong knowledge of program management frameworks and fundamentals
• Executive presence
• Strong desire to partner across business functions to identify, prioritize, and achieve desired outcomes

What you’ll get

• Work alongside best-in-class professionals from over 40 different countries.
• Performance based bonus structure that is unmatched anywhere in the industry. We combine our profits across desks, teams and offices into a global profit pool fostering a truly collaborative environment to work in.
• Ownership over initiatives that directly solve business problems.  

Alongside this you will get great other benefits such as 25 paid vacation days and market holidays, fully paid commuting expenses and health insurance, daily breakfast and lunch, training opportunities, 401(k) match up to 50% and charitable match opportunities, regular social events and clubs, and many more.