A great place to work... 4 years ago (development) - Senior Software Engineer Optiver Employee Review

2.0
Dec 24, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Free breakfast and lunch, awesome barista. Great office building located in the heard of the Sydney financial district. Plenty of nice perks, e.g. gym membership, company trip, social events. Profit sharing can mean overall remuneration can be high (although unpredictable) if you're a senior. Work life balance is decent. 9/10 hour days are the norm.

Cons

The company has changed over the last 12 months. Lots of amazing talent (both technical and leadership) has left over the last two thirds of 2017. Slow to pick up modern development practices and technologies. Below market rate base salary ('compensated' by a discretionary profit sharing scheme that can be taken away at any time). Upper management is opaque, and decision making by middle management often appears to be motivated by what's best for their careers rather than what's best for the company or their team. The level of ego among many of the technical specialists can be extreme at times. They're the best of the best - and they're not humble about it. Personal performance appraisal is directly linked to compensation. Which sounds great in theory, but the performance appraisal process is opaque. It appears to be heavily based on how much your direct manager is willing to 'champion' your cause when individuals are ranked among all teams.

Explore other reviews about Optiver

5.0
Feb 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

worked on a lot of different areas of the trading stack; often close with researchers learned about technical components for data driven trading saw my impact day to day

Cons

constant office renovations were a bit distracting, but was told it should be done in 2026

3.0
May 21, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good compensation, collaborative environment. Company also seems to aim to be at forefront of new tech such as AI

Cons

When HR mgmt is on record stating things like the company shouldn’t hire females anymore, it really makes you wonder how they make decisions on who should fill management positions

1
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All