At OptionsCity, we partner with financial institutions to streamline their trading operations by providing services and tools including pricing, risk management, execution and automated trading systems. Our vision is to change the way trading professionals think about and utilize technology.

Our Systems Administrator role provides a unique opportunity for individuals with a Linux background who are looking to start their career in the finance industry. Through our training you will gain technology and industry-related skills and knowledge that will allow you to pursue various career paths. 

What you’ll do:

• Provision new OptionsCity Software environments and execute software upgrades across all production, staging, and testing environments
  
• Manage and maintain deployment scripts/tools to facilitate (and improve) an error-free and iterative continuous software deployment process
  
• Troubleshoot server, network and application performance issues
  
• Provide recommendations on application design/implementation - metrics to capture, multicast settings to apply, server and network configuration, etc.
  
• Kernel tuning for low-latency, low-noise, high-throughput performance
  
• Stay vigilant of pertinent new technologies as they become available
  
• Take personal responsibility for the availability and reliability of the services you support
  
• Identify problems and inefficiencies in the current environment and make strategic recommendations for future improvements
  
• Work closely with other teams to build automation tools
  
• Support internal Ubuntu Linux users (development and operations teams) and administer internal services
  

What we’re looking for: 

• IT, Computer Science or Engineering degree (or 6+ years of SysAdmin experience)
  
• Moderate to expert knowledge of Linux (CentOS/Scientific Linux)
  
• Scripting language experience (required)
  
• Experience supporting databases (MySQL)
  
• Knowledge of the TCP/IP stack (ip/route, iptables, packet capture and analysis, etc)
  
• Familiarity with Java-based application environments
  
• Bonus points for Python (or Java) experience!
  
• Large installation systems administration experience
  
• Experience with configuration management and monitoring tools (Chef, Puppet, Docker, Nagios) and virtualization (KVM, Docker) is a big plus.
  
• Solid communication and coordination skills (you’ll work closely with development and operations teams and will also need to learn their processes, standards and tools)
  
• Willingness to learn and understand the business side of things (Exchange connectivity, multicast topics, application functionality, etc.)
  
• Strong desire to re-engineer processes to improve them (performance optimization is your second nature!  Your first nature is to automate everything.)
  
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What we’re offering:

• Technology-driven company, founded by software developers
  
• Chance to make impact immediately in open, merit-based environment
  
• Open-ended career path: grow and move to software development, product management, or manage teams
  
• Competitive salary + equity incentive
  
• Outstanding benefits: Equity incentives; health, dental, vision plan; 401K plan; tuition reimbursement; lunch, beverages and snacks provided DAILY by the company
  

About OptionsCity

Founded in 2006, OptionsCity revolutionized the way traders access fixed income, energy and commodity markets at major exchanges including CME, CBOE, ICE, and Eurex. OptionsCity customers include professional traders, proprietary trading firms, hedge funds, and large financial institutions. OptionsCity fosters a culture of innovation and leadership in the financial technology space. With over 50 employees, OptionsCity has offices in New York and London, in addition to corporate headquarters in Chicago, IL.

OptionsCity Metro, an end-to-end electronic platform for trading and managing risk was launched in 2007 and  awarded the “Best Options Trading Platform” by Wall Street Letter. In 2011, OptionsCity innovated again with Freeway, a low-latency algorithmic trading platform that accelerates the process of building, testing, and executing multi-asset strategies. Freeway was named a 2012 Chicago Innovation Award winner. 

In the beginning of 2015 OptionsCity launched Metro NOW, the next generation of its flagship platform, which allows users to build and buy by combining built-in execution, risk management and pricing functionality with a growing library of custom in-house Apps. 

Originally launched in 2012, the OptionsCity City Store is “The Marketplace of the Trading World”. City Store is a collaborative ecosystem where OptionsCity, third-party developers and customers can interact by building and purchasing custom Metro NOW Apps and bringing a new level of personalization to the trading experience. The City Store integrates seamlessly with our Metro NOW platform, turning it into the new method of deploying functionality to the customers.

In the middle of 2015, OptionsCity launched CityTrader and accompanying City API, a cloud-powered, web-based trading platform that offers advanced functionality, such as spread-building and RFQ’s. 

Our Culture: At OptionsCity we win through continuous innovation and taking care of our people. Here’s what you can expect as a member of the OptionsCity family.

Big ideas and big changes: Even after nine years of growth and three successful products, we continue to drive innovation with major launches of our software. As a tech startup, we are not afraid (at an executive team level or a developer level) of taking calculated risks in order to push our products forward. It also helps that we are voracious competitors – once our developers see how an innovative idea to change one of our products can strengthen our leadership position, they become single-mindedly focused on making that idea a reality.

Passion for technology (and Java): Our people include major open source contributors, authors of coding books and JavaOne conference speakers. Our team is passionate about our software, about technology and about Java.

Entrepreneurial intensity: To realize our growth potential we need people who enjoy identifying problems, asking tough questions, and rolling up their sleeves to tackle difficult challenges. As you might imagine, customers in the financial industry demand the best performance to help them remain competitive - and that’s our mission.

Family of owners: We hire genuinely friendly people to make OptionsCity a nice, fun place to work. And we make it natural to act in the best interest of the company, to act like owners, by giving you a piece of the company.

Growing yourself with the company: We’re as proud of developing our people as we are of our company’s success. We’ll push you into new roles with more responsibility and opportunities to learn (and teach). And to help you build new skills and contacts we even offer a $4,000 annual education benefit.

A Great Team: In addition to Friday happy hour, we have company-sponsored team-building activities, internal competitions, charity events, and a company softball league!

Great Benefits: Besides equity incentives and tuition reimbursement we offer health, dental, vision, 401K, life, long term disability and commuter plans, Monday morning breakfasts, and lunch + beverages provided daily.