FPGA Engineer Intern (Summer 2027 - Chicago)

Optiver • Chicago, IL

15h • Onsite

About The Position

As an FPGA Engineer Intern, 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 — not hypothetical tasks — and your mentor will be fully invested in helping you build high-quality solutions designed to last. You’ll contribute to meaningful projects focusing on nanosecond response times, highly parallelized algorithms, and customized low-level networking. Optiver is building with cutting edge AI technology in the most competitive, data rich landscapes in the world: financial markets. That means no two days are the same, and every day brings new, exciting technical challenges to solve. This opportunity is also available in our Austin office — learn more and apply.

Requirements

• 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
• A student with 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

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.

Benefits

• 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

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Intern