DL Research Group Lead

pinely; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

pinely in Amsterdam is seeking a Research Group Lead to drive cutting-edge AI research and own a core subgroup. You will shape the research agenda, build foundation models for finance, and directly code and deploy strategies in a rapidly evolving market environment.

You will lead researchers, hire and mentor, and ensure fast, transparent results while integrating findings into a concrete product. This on-site role offers strong engineering support and close collaboration with the founders.

Responsibilities

• Drive the development of AI models — in particular, foundational models for market data — to predict prices for any financial instrument worldwide in extremely noisy, diverse, and constantly evolving markets
• Shape the research agenda: generate hypotheses, design and run experiments, and rigorously validate results
• Lead researchers: hire, motivate, develop, and retain talent
• Make the research process fast, transparent, and value-driven
• Integrate results from multiple researchers into a unified, working product
• Directly code and develop strategies, not just supervise
• Gradually expand the scope of responsibilities within the DL department

Job description

We are looking for a Research Group Lead to drive cutting-edge AI research and take full ownership of one of our core subgroups. This is one of the most important and promising roles in the company. As our DL strategies become an increasingly central driver of the business each year, the influence and scope of the team you will lead will keep growing across all major markets and asset classes.

What you will do:

• Drive the development of AI models — in particular, foundational models for market data — to predict prices for any financial instrument worldwide in extremely noisy, diverse, and constantly evolving markets;
• Shape the research agenda: generate hypotheses, design and run experiments, and rigorously validate results;
• Lead researchers: hire, motivate, develop, and retain talent;
• Make the research process fast, transparent, and value-driven;
• Integrate results from multiple researchers into a unified, working product;
• Directly code and develop strategies, not just supervise;
• Gradually expand the scope of responsibilities within the DL department

Who we are looking for:

• A motivated, versatile DL researcher with experience in technical leadership;
• Ideally, someone with expertise in competitive, application-driven AI domains: LLMs, reasoning systems, generative models (e.g., video);
• Someone driven by research depth and real-world impact, with a desire to make meaningful contributions to both the team and the field;
• A leader who can sustain a strong pace while fostering a healthy, supportive team culture;
• While prior trading experience can be useful, it's not a prerequisite. Our priority is a first-principles mindset and a willingness to rethink how things are done in quantitative markets

What we offer

• Impact on a core company function — DL is a central engine of business growth;
• Immediate impact on real PnL: minimal bureaucracy, fast feedback loops, and direct measurement of your work's effectiveness
• A unique environment for data-driven research: massive datasets, reproducible experiments, and results validated by billions of observations
• Strong engineering support and a Data Center with H200s, scaling 2× annually
• Working in our domain means tackling some of the most complex problems imaginable: a radically non-stationary, ultra-competitive environment with low signal-to-noise, time horizons ranging from nanoseconds to days, and massive amounts of weakly related data that demand creativity, rigor, and truly advanced thinking to turn chaos into edge
• The opportunity to build foundation models for finance, shaping the future of the quant industry
• Freedom to experiment, perform deep research, and define your own vision for model and strategy development
• An A* team, on-site in Amsterdam, strong offline collaboration, no multilayered hierarchy — you will work directly with the founders
• Direct influence on hiring and building a high-performing DL research team