IIT Hyderabad student lands Rs 2.5 crore offer from Jane Street-rival Optiver: All about the HFT firm's India plans

IIT Hyderabad student lands Rs 2.5 crore offer from Jane Street-rival Optiver: All about the HFT firm's India plans

• IIT Hyderabad student receives Rs 2.5 crore job offer from Optiver, a record high.
• Edward Nathan Varghese joins Optiver Netherlands after converting internship to PPO
• India and China markets are among those growing rapidly for Optiver, which has more than 2,000 people worldwide

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A final-year computer science engineering student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IITH), secured a whopping Rs 2.5 crore job offer during the 2025 placement season, marking the highest individual package recorded by the institute since its establishment in 2008.

The offer was received by Edward Nathan Varghese, 21, who will join Optiver, a rival of high frequency trading firm Jane Street, as a software engineer from July. The appointment followed the conversion of a two-month summer internship into a pre-placement offer (PPO).

While two students were selected for the Optiver internship programme, Varghese was the only one to receive a full-time offer. The internship comprised two weeks of training followed by a six-week project. He will be based at the firm’s Netherlands office.

Optiver in India

Dutch firm Optiver reported a $44 million profit in its first full year in India (FY25), reversing losses in the first six months.

The firm, founded in Amsterdam by trader Johann Kaemingk, is expanding its capabilities in artificial intelligence and machine learning to sharpen trading strategies, said Darcy Harding, the company’s co-head of index options, in June 2025.

Optiver, which focuses on listed futures, options, and exchange-traded funds and operates on more than 100 exchanges globally, is privately owned by current and former staff.

India and China markets are among those growing rapidly for Optiver, which has more than 2,000 people worldwide, reported Bloomberg in June 2025.

Netherlands-based Optiver, which launched India operations in 2024, plans to grow its team to 100 by the end of 2025, a spokesperson said in June 2025, up from the then 70.

"Optiver is investing ambitiously in India, with a view to expanding to 100 FTEs by year-end and scaling further in the years ahead," the spokesperson had added.

The influx of global trading firms has opened up opportunities for India's two main exchanges, which are both upgrading their tech infrastructure.

The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) plans to add 2,000 co-location racks over the next two years while older stalwart the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) aims to scale up to 500 by the end of fiscal 2026, from none in March 2024.

Such racks are servers at exchanges that cut trade execution times to microseconds.