Linux Systems Engineer - Bare Metal & Kubernetes
Optiver is a global technology- and research-driven proprietary trading firm and market maker providing liquidity across financial markets, including through an active 24/7 Digital Assets desk.
Maintainer signals as of 9/2/2026
About Optiver
Founded in Amsterdam in 1986, Optiver uses its own capital, quantitative research and proprietary technology to continuously quote, price and trade financial instruments across global markets. Its activities include listed derivatives, cash equities, ETFs, bonds, foreign currencies and digital assets; its Digital Assets desk operates crypto options market-making strategies across major venues with follow-the-sun coverage.
Skills
Candidate Availability
Required and preferred rules are kept separate and reflect the wording in the original posting.
About the Role
You will design, deploy, and operate Rancher-managed Kubernetes clusters in a bare-metal environment. You will maintain production Linux infrastructure, including provisioning, lifecycle management, and performance tuning. You will operate core Kubernetes components such as Cilium, ArgoCD, and Rancher, build CI/CD workflows with GitHub Actions, and maintain infrastructure as code with Terraform. You will troubleshoot kernel, container, and network performance issues, participate in on-call coverage and incident response, improve reliability and security, and create documentation and runbooks that help others operate the platforms effectively.
Requirements
- Demonstrate strong Linux systems engineering experience in production environments
- Have hands-on experience operating on-premises Kubernetes rather than only managed cloud offerings
- Have experience with Rancher
- Have experience with Cilium or other CNI technologies
- Have experience with ArgoCD and GitOps workflows
- Have experience with Terraform
- Have experience with CI/CD systems such as GitHub Actions
- Understand L2 and L3 networking, routing, firewalls, and load balancing
- Troubleshoot performance issues across kernel, container, and network layers
- Have production experience with incident response and post-mortem-driven improvements
- Experience building monitoring stacks such as Prometheus and Grafana is preferred
- Experience with Kubernetes network policies, RBAC, or policy engines is preferred
- Knowledge of low-latency or performance-sensitive environments is preferred
- Experience contributing to internal platform tooling is preferred
Responsibilities
- Design, deploy, and operate on-premises Kubernetes clusters in a Rancher-managed bare-metal environment
- Maintain and improve bare-metal Linux infrastructure through provisioning, lifecycle management, and performance tuning
- Own and operate Cilium, ArgoCD, Rancher, and other core Kubernetes components
- Build and maintain CI/CD workflows for infrastructure and cluster deployments using ArgoCD and GitHub Actions
- Develop and maintain infrastructure as code using Terraform and bespoke on-premises systems
- Participate in the on-call rotation for Kubernetes clusters and Linux-based production systems
- Improve the reliability, scalability, and performance of containerized and non-containerized workloads
- Strengthen monitoring, observability, and security across Linux and Kubernetes platforms
- Create documentation and operational runbooks
- Provide practical guidance for operating and supporting Kubernetes and Linux platforms
Benefits
- Performance-based bonus through a global profit pool
- Discounted health insurance
- Fully paid first-class commuting expenses
- Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
- Barista coffee
- In-house physiotherapy and chair massages
- Organized sports and leisure activities