Quant Developer - Research Engineering

Chicago Trading Company; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 175,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Time off

Insurance

Parental leave

Free meals

Wellness reimbursement

Job summary

Chicago Trading Company (CTC) is a premier proprietary trading firm specializing in options market making. You will work at the boundary between quantitative research and production engineering, building the systems and datasets our researchers and traders depend on.

You will partner with quants to turn research into reliable, repeatable results, owning data pipelines and production-grade tooling. A strong focus on Python, C++, and scalable data platforms is required.

Qualifications

• Strong Python at production depth, with numpy and pandas fluency, vectorisation and profiling.
• Working proficiency in C++.
• Solid foundations in statistics—probability, regression and time series.

Responsibilities

• Partner with quantitative researchers and traders to understand research questions and design data, tooling and compute.
• Build, operate and optimise pipelines and execution frameworks behind research and backtesting.
• Take research prototypes into production with reliability and observability.
• Own foundational shared datasets across desks, ensuring quality and timeliness.
• Profile and optimise performance-critical numerical code, balancing runtime and cost.
• Migrate research pipelines onto modern data platforms and improve migrations.
• Build evaluation tooling for judging model performance.
• Collaborate across the data and technology organisation to improve the platform.

Skills

Python production depth

C++

Statistics

Data pipelines

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Apache Iceberg

Job description

Chicago Trading Company (CTC) is a premier proprietary trading firm specializing in options market making. Our collaborative culture fuels innovation in quantitative research, systematic trading strategies, and cutting-edge trading technology. For over three decades CTC has provided critical liquidity across derivatives exchanges worldwide - making them fairer, more transparent, and more efficient.

We strive to be the most innovative firm in the industry today, tomorrow, and long into the future while upholding ethical excellence. We believe that CTC makes a positive impact on the markets, the lives of our employees, and all the communities to which we belong. Started in 1995 by a team of forward-thinking Traders, we are proud to call ourselves an industry leader that keeps making markets and each other better.

As a Quantitative Developer you will work at the boundary between quantitative research and production engineering, building the systems and datasets our researchers and traders depend on. You will partner directly with quants across the firm, and own the infrastructure that turns research ideas into results that can be trusted and repeated.

What You'll Do

• Partner with quantitative researchers and traders to understand their research questions, and design the data, tooling and compute to answer them
• Build, operate and optimise the pipelines and execution frameworks behind our research and backtesting
• Take research prototypes into production, with the reliability, reproducibility and observability that production requires
• Own foundational shared datasets used across multiple desks, including their quality and timeliness
• Profile and optimise performance-critical numerical code, balancing runtime against compute and storage cost
• Migrate existing research pipelines onto modern data platforms, and improve the process for the migrations that follow
• Build evaluation tooling that lets researchers judge model performance
• Collaborate across the wider data and technology organisation to improve the platform every desk builds on

What We're Looking For

• Strong Python at production depth - numpy and pandas fluency, vectorisation, and profiling
• Working proficiency in C++
• Solid quantitative foundations, particularly statistics - probability, regression and time series with the judgement to distinguish signal from noise
• Strong software design skills and hands-on experience building and operating data pipelines at scale
• The interpersonal skills to work directly with quants and traders, and to turn an ambiguous research need into a concrete design
• A pragmatic bias toward getting something correct and useful into researchers' hands quickly

Nice to Haves

• Experience in options trading, market making, or another trading environment
• Backtesting, simulation, or research-platform infrastructure
• Hands-on experience with a major cloud provider and/or HPC managers
• Experience with Apache Iceberg or similar technology
• Experience with high volume market data capture
• C++ Template meta programming experience

Compensation

The salary range for this role is listed below. This role is also eligible for an annual discretionary bonus. The discretionary bonus will be dependent upon the individual's skills, experience, qualifications, and firm performance.

Salary Range

$175,000—$225,000 USD

Most teams at CTC, with the exception of Trading, follow a hybrid workplace model, subject to change based on business need.

OUR BENEFITS

We strongly believe in the well-being of our employees and their families so we offer outstanding benefits to support you both professionally and personally. These benefits include generous time off, insurance coverage, paid parental leave, free breakfast and lunch (plus healthy snacks, of course), wellness reimbursement, and a variety of other benefits focused on providing the best employee experience.

(Disclaimer: interns and contractors are not eligible for benefits at CTC)

OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY and INCLUSION

At CTC, we aim to cultivate a workplace that celebrates diversity and each person feels included, engaged and empowered. Where each of us feels we belong. We are committed to having a diverse workforce and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. CTC does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment.

If you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation in order to search for a job opening or to apply for a position, please contact us at [e-mail]. Note that emails sent to this email account for non-disability related issues, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.

USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)

Information submitted by job applicants may be subject to review and analysis by automated systems, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), as part of the recruitment process. Such systems are utilized to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our hiring procedures. Applicants are advised that any information provided may be evaluated by AI tools to ensure an equitable and thorough assessment.