Quantitative Research Analyst (Systematic Trading Strategies)

Quant Lab SFO FZCO; Dubai; On-site; AED 32,000 - 39,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Relocation support

Visa & medical insurance

Job summary

Quant Lab SFO FZCO in Dubai seeks an analyst to own the development of new systematic trading strategies, from initial hypothesis through live deployment, reporting to the Managing Director.

The role requires building end-to-end strategies, backtesting rigor, and monitoring live performance, with high emphasis on uncovering insights that contradict prior conclusions and driving informed decisions.

Qualifications

• Strong ability to structure ambiguous problems and test hypotheses.
• Experience with backtesting and validating trading strategies.
• Fluent written and spoken English with ability to present technical results to non-specialists.

Responsibilities

• Develop systematic trading strategies end to end from hypothesis to live deployment.
• Design and conduct backtests; quantify divergence between simulated and live performance.
• Analyze trade-level data to identify source of returns and losses.
• Quantify impact of findings to enable ranking of recommendations.
• Perform out-of-sample tests; control for overfitting and alternative explanations.
• Implement strategy logic in trading platform and monitor for anomalies.

Skills

Quant research

AI coding tools

English proficiency

C# programming

US equity markets

Education

Quant/Math/CS/Engineering degree

Tools

C#

Job description

Company: Quant Lab SFO FZCO

Location: Dubai, UAE (DMCC)

Contract: Full-time, permanent

Salary: AED 35,000 per month in a zero-tax environment

Reports to: Managing Director

ABOUT US

Quant Lab SFO FZCO is a Dubai-based single family office trading proprietary family capital. We combine quantitative research, AI-powered strategy development and automated execution, built on disciplined risk control, strict position-sizing and long-term performance. Family-funded since 2021, DMCC licensed and independently audited.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are appointing an analyst to own the development of new systematic trading strategies, reporting directly to the Managing Director. The successful candidate will carry each strategy from initial hypothesis through to live deployment, and will be accountable for the work throughout. A significant proportion of our findings contradict established practice, and frequently contradict conclusions we ourselves reached in preceding months. Candidates whose instinct on encountering an unfamiliar result is to explain why it must be mistaken, rather than to investigate it, are unlikely to find the role rewarding.

Principal responsibilities

• Develop new systematic strategies end to end, from initial hypothesis through data preparation, backtesting and validation to hand-off into live trading.
• Design and conduct backtests, and quantify the sources of divergence between simulated and live performance, including execution, liquidity and transaction-cost effects.
• Analyse trade-level data to establish where returns are generated and where they are lost.
• Quantify the expected impact of each finding, so that competing recommendations may be ranked on a common basis.
• Subject conclusions to out-of-sample testing, controls for overfitting and consideration of alternative explanations before presenting them.
• Implement strategy logic in the trading platform, directing AI coding assistants, and monitor deployed strategies for anomalies in execution and performance.
• Present findings, their quantified impact and the associated risks, together with a recommended course of action.

The position is based in Dubai. Candidates located elsewhere must be willing to relocate for no less than 50 per cent of working time.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS

Effectiveness

• A material decision having been taken on the strength of your analysis, and knowledge of the outcome.
• The capacity to work effectively as the sole analyst, without a team across which workload or credit is distributed, and evidence of having previously reached an unusually high standard in something demanding, whether professional or otherwise.
• A disposition to treat an assertion that something cannot be done as a proposition to be tested, and to exercise your own judgement where no guidance is available.
• The ability to become effective in an unfamiliar domain quickly.
• Intellectual honesty: a willingness to report findings that contradict a position you have previously advanced.
• Daily, substantive use of AI coding and research tools such as Claude Code, Codex or Copilot. Our minimum expectation is that such tools are embedded in your core work, that you have established repeatable systems rather than isolated prompts, and that you can articulate their effect on the quality or speed of your output.

Problem Solving

• Exceptional analytical ability: the capacity to structure an ambiguous problem, decompose it and identify which component determines the answer.
• Rigorous empirical judgement, including appropriate scepticism towards results that appear unusually favourable, and the discipline to establish the cause before drawing a conclusion.

Communication

• Excellent written and spoken English, and the ability to convey a technical result to a non-specialist audience without loss of substance.
• The ability to sustain a position under challenge by reference to evidence, and to revise it where the evidence warrants.

PREFERRED

• Three or more years in quantitative research, systematic trading or data-intensive analytics, or a demonstrable record of independently developing and testing systematic strategies.
• Familiarity with the specific mechanisms by which a backtest misleads, including look-ahead bias, survivorship bias, in-sample parameter selection, and unmodelled transaction and borrowing costs.
• Working knowledge of equity market mechanics — order types, liquidity, trading halts and transaction costs — and experience of US equity markets in particular.
• The ability to read and modify object-oriented code, for example C#.
• A degree in mathematics, statistics, physics, computer science, engineering or quantitative finance.

WHAT WE OFFER

• Remuneration of AED 35,000 per month, free of personal income tax, together with an annual bonus linked to the performance of the strategies you develop, and an annual salary review.
• Full ownership of your research agenda from the outset, with no intermediate management layer between you and the decision-maker.
• UAE employment visa, medical insurance, and relocation support covering flights, initial accommodation and visa administration.