Investment Associate

The organisation

Optiver is one of the world’s leading market-making institutions and a proprietary trading firm. The company trades a wide range of products – e.g., derivatives, cash equities, ETFs, bonds, and foreign currencies – using its own capital and at its own risk. Optiver continuously provides liquidity to make markets more efficient, transparent, and stable. The company is a trusted partner of over fifty exchanges and safeguards healthy markets for everyone participating. Amsterdam is where it all began. Over thirty-five years ago, Optiver’s business started with a single trader on the floor of Amsterdam’s European Stock Exchange. Today, the firm employs over sixteen hundred people across nine offices in Europe, the US, and APAC. They are united in their commitment to improving markets through competitive pricing, execution, and risk management.

The position

Optiver is a market maker providing liquidity for thousands of financial instruments on all major exchanges worldwide. The Investment Associate will join the team that sources, closes, and manages Optiver’s strategic investments. They will be involved in all aspects of deal-making and interact with senior management frequently.

Tasks & responsibilities

The Investment Associate will become part of the Principal Strategic Investments (PSI) team. This team focuses on partnering with companies that share Optiver’s core mission of improving the market. Strategic relevance and long-term innovation capacity for their core market-making business are key. The company is agnostic to the size and stage of the potential partners. Examples are businesses in the trading and commodities spaces, as well as technologies related to the capital markets, exchanges, trading platforms, clearing and settlement, and brokerage. Companies building cutting-edge IT infrastructure are another area of interest. This can encompass, e.g., cybersecurity, cloud ecosystems, data processing and storage, analytics tools, and development tools.

The Investment Associate will be responsible for all aspects of investing, from sourcing and valuation to the negotiation of financial terms, project execution, and portfolio management. They will work in a small investment team, collaborating with colleagues with a background in trading, investment banking, and at top-tier strategy consulting firms. The Investment Associate will build investment cases, together with the business and due diligence experts, and bring proposals to Optiver’s Investment Committee. On average, they will be involved in three to five investments per year.

This position is an excellent fit for a finance professional who is familiar with the ins and outs of investing. At Optiver, the Investment Associate will get the opportunity to focus on long-term strategic value creation and develop themselves in all aspects of deal-making. Additionally, the Investment Associate will have lots of exposure to senior management, and interesting career development opportunities.  

Candidate profile*

• Over 3 years of work experience
• Background in the investment industry (PE, VC, or Investment Banking)
• Entrepreneurial
• Project management
• Interpersonal skills

* Research shows that while male candidates feel confident enough to apply when they meet about 60% of the requirements, female candidates only apply when they tick every box. So if this role has your name on it, but you’re not sure about the criteria, we still want to hear from you.

Interested?

You can apply to this position by using the link below. Optiver is working with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.