Quant Trader – Equity Options

Trading Interview; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual discretionary bonus

Private healthcare

Life assurance

On-site gym

Breakfast, lunch, snacks

Monthly events

25 days annual leave

Job summary

Maven, a market-leading proprietary trading firm, is seeking an ambitious Equity Options Quant Trader to join the Vol Alpha Trading Team. This full-cycle role targets statistical arbitrage relative value volatility and dispersion trades across global equity options, with a current emphasis on US options.

The role covers alpha discovery, backtesting, and end-to-end trade execution, and requires collaboration with infrastructure and development teams to optimise electronic trading and manage risk

Qualifications

• 2–5 years’ experience in US equity options quantitative research or trading.
• Strong understanding of options markets, volatility, and equity derivatives.
• Interest in volatility relative value, carry, term structure, or dispersion strategies.
• Commercial trader mindset with appetite for risk ownership.
• Ability to operate in a fast-paced, opportunistic trading environment.
• Strong analytical and research skills.
• Familiarity with Python and SQL or similar programming and database languages.

Responsibilities

• Monitor and rationalise market flow to identify pricing dislocations
• Analyse and interpret other market participants’ positionings to identify trading opportunities
• Conduct research and backtests on pricing and structuring volatility curve, term structure, relative value and dispersion trades
• Contribute to new alpha discovery through market dynamics observations and quantitative research toolings
• Active participation in trading and risk-managing an extensive equity options portfolio as part of a team
• Active participation in the desk’s future build-out into a bigger set of alpha and systematic strategies
• Full end-to-end investment cycle from intuition, research, to execution
• Collaboration with infrastructure and development teams to optimise electronic trading execution and minimise dependencies

Skills

Python

SQL

Options markets knowledge

Job description

Maven is a market-leading proprietary trading firm deploying its own capital across discretionary, systematic, and market-making strategies. Backed by deep expertise in trading, technology, and research, we are relentlessly focused on improving liquidity across global listed derivatives. Through advanced execution and pricing technologies, we improve how financial markets operate.

THE ROLE

We are looking for an ambitious and proactive Equity Options Quant Trader to join our Vol Alpha Trading Team. This is a full-cycle quant trader position within a semi-systematic desk that specialises in statistical arbitrage relative value volatility, flow-aware volatility position taking, and opportunistic dispersion trades across global equity volatilities, with a current emphasis on US equity options.

The team runs an investment operation focusing on informed position taking combining statistical information and market flows observations. The successful candidate will play a key role in the desk’s day to day operation and future evolution as it expands its volatility strategies set as well as broader operation capabilities across products.

The role will suit candidates with quantitative research or trading experience as part of a large volatility desk who want to transition into a more hands-on buy side risk-taking role which deploy statistical methods to extract alpha while having full understanding on what is driving an alpha’s performance. The successful candidate will experience an end-to-end investment process from market intuition, alpha discovery, to trade execution, which translates to a potential heavy contribution to the desk’s success and take meaningful ownership in PnL.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Monitor and rationalise market flow to identify pricing dislocations
• Analyse and interpret other market participants’ positionings to identify trading opportunities
• Conduct research and backtests on pricing and structuring volatility curve, term structure, relative value and dispersion trades
• Contribute to new alpha discovery through a combination of market dynamics observations and quantitative research toolings
• Active participation in trading and risk-managing an extensive equity options portfolio as part of a team
• Active participation in the desk’s future build-out into a bigger set of alpha and systematic strategies
• Full end-to-end investment cycle from intuition, research, to execution
• Collaboration with infrastructure and development teams to optimise electronic trading execution and minimise dependencies

CANDIDATE SPECIFICATIONS

• 2–5 years’ experience in US equity options quantitative research or trading. Experience from a major vol desk is a plus (bank, or multi-strategy hedge fund preferred)
• Strong understanding of options markets, volatility, and equity derivatives
• Exposure to or strong interest in volatility relative value, volatility carry, term structure and path, or dispersion strategies
• Commercial trading mindset with appetite for risk ownership and strategy responsibility
• Strong interest and ability to operate in a fast-moving, opportunistic trading environment
• Strong analytical skills and research capabilities
• Familiarity with Python and SQL or similar programming and database languages

WHAT WE OFFER

• A fast-growing global firm with plenty of opportunities where you will have a significant impact
• Competitive compensation package
• Annual discretionary bonus
• Enhanced annual leave allowance after 2+ years’ service
• 25 days’ annual leave (plus public holidays)
• Fully catered breakfast, lunch, and snacks prepared by an in-house chef
• Private healthcare and life assurance
• On-site private gym with instructor-led classes including boxing, yoga, and more
• Monthly company events and social activities