Senior Developer
Optimal Market Technologies, LLC · Chicago, IL
$175,000–$225,000
Jul 1, 2026
Chicago, IL
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A hands-on engineering role building and maintaining a high-performance options trading platform, working across a multi-technology C++ and Python codebase. The position involves owning features end to end in production, participating in a support rotation, and engaging directly with clients, market makers, exchanges, and brokers to translate requirements into working systems. Suits an experienced developer with a background in financial or latency-sensitive environments.
Senior level · 5+ years · Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI · Full-time
Pay in the description: $175,000–$225,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 900 people in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 680–1,150
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $137,335 (middle half $106,829–$171,337). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The JD states '5+ years' as the primary bar but explicitly notes a strong 3+ year candidate with execution-services experience may also qualify — the overall years minimum is set to 5 (the stated floor) but hiring managers should be aware of this carve-out.
AI-assisted development is listed under required qualifications with firm language ('fluent, demonstrated use') and specifically calls out Claude Code as the preferred tool; it is treated as a hard gate on the capability, not on any single product.
Financial/trading domain experience (options, latency-sensitive systems) is stated as a requirement but names no specific technology or tool, so it is captured in context rather than as a named skill.
SQL/PostgreSQL appears under Preferred Qualifications with 'ideally PostgreSQL'; alternatives reflect other common relational databases a hiring manager might accept.
perf and gprof are listed together as examples of performance profiling tools; perf is used as the primary name with gprof in alternatives. Similarly, ASan and UBSan are listed together; ASan is primary with UBSan as alternative. gcov and lcov are listed together; gcov is primary with lcov as alternative.
Compensation is stated as base salary range only; a discretionary bonus is mentioned but not quantified.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): AI-assisted development.
Read the full posting
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