Quantitative Trading Internship - 2026-27

As our Quantitative Trading Intern, you’ll spend your summer tackling complex, quantitative problems at one of the world’s leading tech-driven trading firms. Under the guidance and mentorship of industry experts, you’ll apply your strong reasoning skills to design, develop and enhance our innovative trading strategies, fully immersing in the world of market making.   

From derivative theory training to hands-on trading experience, you’ll have deepened your understanding of the quantitative trading industry by the end of the 8-week internship. Plus, if you’ve excelled over the summer, you’ll receive an offer to return as a Graduate Quantitative Trader.  

What you’ll do 

Requiring a pragmatic mindset, logical problem-solving skills and mathematical precision, our internship is as close as you can get to a real trading experience. Led by our dedicated in-house education team that consists of former traders and engineers, our Quantitative Trading Internship offers you the opportunity to: 

• Complete our curated series of lectures and coursework on trading fundamentals, covering topics such as options pricing, financial markets, trading strategies and cutting-edge technology. 

• Apply your recently acquired knowledge in a simulated trading environment, trading options using live market data for a realistic hands-on experience. 

• Analyse real historical data to develop your own algorithmic trading strategy and backtest to see how it performed. 

• Learn directly from our team of full-time educators and current traders, gaining exposure to our various trading desks and experience the financial markets first-hand. 

• Test your potential and accelerate your growth in a fascinating and high-performing environment. 

Find your niche in trading 

During the internship, you will gain exposure to the various trading desks at Optiver. Discover some of our teams below.  

• Read Will’s story to discover how he leverages the data available to make informed trading decisions in the Index Options team. 

• Read Jason’s story to discover how he uses cutting-edge statistical models and machine learning algorithms to optimise our autotraders in the Delta 1 team. 

• Read Matt’s story to discover how he works closely with external counterparties to provide pricing, liquidity and negotiate large trades in the Institutional Trading team.  

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. Driven by a passion for continuous improvement, you’ll thrive in a supportive, high-performing environment alongside talented colleagues, working collectively to tackle the most complex problems in the financial markets.  

In addition, you’ll receive: 

• A highly competitive remuneration package. 

• Optiver-covered flights and accommodation for the duration of the internship. 

• The opportunity to work alongside best-in-class professionals. 

• Training, mentorship and personal development opportunities. 

• Gym membership, plus weekly in-house chair massages. 

• Daily breakfast, lunch and in-house barista. 

• Regular social events. 

Who you are 

• A penultimate university student. If you are a pre-penultimate university student, discover our 2026 FutureFocus program. 

• An Australian or New Zealand Citizen, Australian Permanent Resident or able to provide evidence of full working rights. 

• Lateral thinker, with a passion for quantitative problems and working in collaborative, dynamic environments. 

• Holds superior logical reasoning skills. 

• Experienced in programming or scripting in Python a plus. 

Diversity statement  

Optiver is committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage applications from candidates from all backgrounds, and welcome requests for reasonable adjustments during the process to ensure that you can best demonstrate your abilities. 

Questions? Get in touch with the team at [email protected].  

We accept one application per role per year. If you have previously applied to this position during this season and have been unsuccessful, you can re-apply when the next recruitment season begins in 2027.