Software Engineer - Build Platform

What you’ll do

• Shape the future of C++ builds at Optiver by designing and rolling out modern build systems that accelerate build times, improve reliability, and create a more consistent developer experience;
• Develop common build libraries, reusable CI/CD pipelines, and container images used across the company;
• Build observability into our platform so we can measure performance, reliability and adoption, and use that data to guide further improvements;
• Improve build performance at scale through incremental execution, caching, dependency analysis and efficient scheduling;
• Design workflows that enable agents to compile, test, diagnose failures, and validate changes reliably with minimal human intervention;
• Work closely with engineering teams to understand where existing workflows create friction and turn those problems into scalable solutions;
• Help teams adopt new tools and working practices, balancing standardisation with the needs of different codebases and engineering groups;
• Stay current with industry trends and emerging tools in the developer experience and build systems space, helping guide our adoption of best-in-class solutions.

See the team lead's opinion on why DevEx matters here.

Who you are

• You are a strong software engineer with deep experience in C++ build systems and developer tooling;
• You have hands-on experience designing, adopting, or operating modern build systems such as Bazel, Buck2, Pants, or Gradle, ideally including migration from established tooling;
• You have a deep understanding of build system concepts including incremental builds, caching, reproducibility, dependency graphs, remote execution, and artifact management;
• You are skilled at diagnosing performance and reliability issues across the local development and continuous integration lifecycle, using data and observability to guide improvements;
• You have significant experience with CI/CD platforms such as GitHub Actions, Buildkite, Jenkins, or similar, and understand how to design reliable, scalable pipelines and the infrastructure that supports them;
• You hold a deep understanding of the end-to-end lifecycle of software development from ideation to deployment;
• You have experience building tools and workflows around source control platforms such as GitHub and GitLab;
• You are passionate about developer productivity and have a track record of delivering meaningful improvements to the software development lifecycle.

Who we are

At Optiver, our mission is to continuously improve the market. By providing liquidity and accurate pricing in various financial instruments, to multiple exchanges across the world, we participate in the safeguarding of healthy and efficient markets.

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

In addition, you’ll receive:

• A performance-based bonus structure, enabling all of our employees to benefit from our global profit pool.
• 27 paid vacation days plus all UK public holidays.
• Daily breakfast and lunch, along with support on commuting expenses.
• Private medical insurance, pension scheme, and ClassPass fitness membership.
• Training and continuous learning opportunities, including access to conferences and tech events.
• International transfer opportunities for global career growth.

How to apply:

Apply directly via the form below. If you have any questions feel free to contact our Recruitment team via our recruitment inquiry form. Please note, we cannot accept applications via email for data protection reasons. Kindly note that we do not require assistance from third-parties including agencies in the recruitment of this role.

Diversity statement:

Optiver is committed to diversity and inclusion.