Summer 2025 Software Engineer Intern

Job Description

About Akuna Capital:

Akuna Capital is an innovative trading firm that specializes in providing liquidity as an options market-maker. They are committed to providing competitive quotes for both buying and selling options. To achieve this, Akuna designs and implements its own low-latency technologies, trading strategies, and mathematical models.

The firm was founded in Sydney and opened its first office in Chicago in 2011, becoming a prominent player in the derivatives industry. Today, Akuna has offices in Sydney, Shanghai, and London. They are known for their strong focus on collaboration, cutting-edge technology, data-driven solutions, and automation.

Software Engineer Intern – Data Engineering Team

Akuna is seeking Software Engineer Interns to join their growing technology team for their 10-week internship program, Akunacademy, taking place in their Chicago headquarters from June to August 2025.

Responsibilities:

• Work closely with Engineers, Quants, Traders, and Support personnel to create and maintain datasets that are crucial to the business.
• Design and build Scala/Python applications that provide high-performance access to data.
• Monitor and validate data pipelines by building monitoring and analysis tools.
• Gain exposure to financial markets and trading through the development and use of datasets.
• Evaluate and select open-source or proprietary tools to meet data requirements.
• Design and develop tools that enable users to answer research questions and solve data problems.
• Collaborate with various teams on data-intensive projects, including gathering requirements, advising users on integrating tools, and assisting traders and researchers in building new datasets and pipelines.

Qualities of Ideal Candidates:

• Pursuing a Bachelors, Masters, or PhD in a technical field (Computer Science/Engineering, Math, Physics, or equivalent)
• Graduating by August 2026
• GPA of 3.5 or above
• Strong knowledge of computer science fundamentals
• Clear understanding of both object-oriented and functional programming paradigms
• Ability to learn new technical systems and concepts quickly
• Asks insightful questions, identifies gaps in knowledge, and is eager to learn
• Desire to take ownership of smaller projects
• Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, Kafka, Flink/Spark/Kafka-Streams, and/or AWS Cloud technologies is a plus
• Excellent communication skills to explain complex technical topics clearly and concisely
• Passionate, pragmatic problem solver who can independently pursue solutions to complex problems
• Understanding of distributed computing, database design, and data storage concepts
• Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required on the first day of employment.

Note: This year, candidates will only be considered for their top preference role due to the high volume of applications. Resumes must be submitted in PDF format.