Toxic culture not worth the amazing top tier pay - Software Engineer Optiver Employee Review

2.0
Feb 13, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Amazing compensation (perhaps THE best in the country. Comparable to USA pay at top tier firms). Amazing benefits (restaurant quality freshly made food on site, barista on site, annual company trip). Very smart people.

Cons

Bullying from management and the company does nothing about it despite being aware of the numerous problems. Long hours and demands things get done very fast (sometimes 12+ hours per day). Messy undocumented legacy code and nobody in the organization seems to even know the business requirements it solves so it's nearly impossible to rewrite. Extremely poor code quality (e.g. things checked into code that should be in the database or at the very least in a config, more layers of abstraction than needed, not adhering to best practices, etc.). Very poor culture. Colleagues are obsessed with money. Seriously all they talk about is work and money. Yes I like money too but there's more to life than money. You effectively can’t trade the stock market with personal funds as long as you’re an employee due to huge restrictions they place on you being able to trade with personal funds.

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

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