Quantitative Risk Analyst — Derivatives & Clearing

Unchain Data; New York, Northern (NY, KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary & equity

Unlimited PTO

Full Health, Vision, & Dental coverage

401k match

Hardware setup: MacBook Pro, big desk

Job summary

Polymarket is seeking a Quantitative Risk Analyst to design and implement enterprise-scale risk models central to our clearing operation. You will own models for market risk, volatility, and correlation of derivatives, stress testing, and automated liquidation.

The role involves building models in production code, validating AI-generated outputs against established risk models, and collaborating with engineering and trading teams.

Qualifications

• 5-7 years of quantitative risk experience at a clearinghouse, exchange, or similar.
• Proven production-grade risk models experience, not just prototypes.
• Deep experience with volatility, correlation, and option pricing at scale.
• Hands-on market risk modeling, stress testing, and auto-liquidation mechanics.
• Strong ability to validate AI-generated models against established risk models.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain enterprise-scale risk models for market risk, margin, and exposure.
• Build volatility and correlation models for derivatives and related instruments.
• Develop stress-testing frameworks including historical and hypothetical scenarios.
• Design auto-liquidation logic and safeguards against cascading liquidations.
• Leverage AI tools to accelerate model development and validate outputs rigorously.
• Monitor production model performance and iterate quickly to fixes.
• Partner with engineering, trading, and product teams to embed risk controls.
• Document model assumptions and validation results for audits.

Skills

Python programming

AI-assisted development

Mathematical analytics

Risk modeling intuition

Education

Advanced degree in quantitative field

Tools

NumPy

pandas

SciPy

C++

Job description

About Polymarket

Polymarket is the world's largest prediction market platform. We enable individuals to express views on real-world events by trading on outcomes across politics, economics, sports, culture, and current affairs. Built as a peer-to-peer marketplace with no centralized "house," Polymarket aggregates diverse opinions into transparent, market-based probabilities that reflect collective expectations about the future.

We're growing fast - both in terms of volume ($21B traded in 2025) and adoption as an alternative news source. Our ambition is to become a ubiquitous beacon of truth in global media and we need your help adding fuel to the fire.

About the Role

Polymarket is hiring a Quantitative Risk Analyst to design and implement enterprise-scale risk models at the heart of our clearing operation. You'll own models for market risk, volatility and correlation of derivatives, stress testing, and automated liquidation - the systems that keep the platform solvent and users protected in fast-moving markets.

This is a hands-on role: you'll be building models in production code, not just specifying them. We expect you to work fluently with AI tools for development and research - and to be the skeptic in the room, pressure-test AI-generated models and code against well-established risk models before anything ships.

What You'll Do

• Design, implement, and maintain enterprise-scale risk models covering market risk, margin, and counterparty exposure for a clearing organization

• Build volatility and correlation models for derivatives, including calibration, backtesting, and ongoing model validation

• Develop and run stress-testing frameworks: historical scenarios, hypothetical shocks, and reverse stress tests

• Design and tune auto-liquidation logic - trigger thresholds, liquidation waterfalls, and safeguards against cascading liquidations

• Use AI tools extensively to accelerate model development, coding, and research - and rigorously validate AI outputs against established risk models before deployment

• Monitor model performance in production, investigate breaks, and iterate quickly

• Partner with engineering, trading, and product teams to embed risk controls into platform architecture

• Document model assumptions, limitations, and validation results to an audit-ready standard

What We're Looking For

• 5-7 years of quantitative risk experience at a clearinghouse, exchange, prime broker, trading firm, or similar

• Proven expertise designing and implementing risk models at enterprise scale - production systems, not just research prototypes

• Deep experience modeling volatility, correlation, option skews, and option pricing at scale for trad-fi derivatives, perpetuals, and fully collateralized event contracts

• Hands-on experience with market risk modeling, stress testing, and auto-liquidation mechanics in a clearing context

• Strong fluency with AI-assisted development and coding, paired with the judgment to pressure-test AI outputs against well-established risk models and catch what looks plausible but is wrong

• Expert-level Python (NumPy, pandas, SciPy; solid software engineering practices)

• Advanced degree in a quantitative field (math, statistics, physics, financial engineering, CS) or equivalent experience

• Strong mathematical foundation in stochastic calculus and linear algebra

• (Plus) C# and/or C++ for performance-critical or production systems

• (Plus) Familiarity with crypto market structure, perpetuals, or prediction markets

• (Plus) Experience with CCP risk frameworks (CPMI-IOSCO PFMI, default management, margin methodology)

• (Plus) Experience building real-time risk systems

Benefits

• Competitive salary & equity

• Unlimited PTO

• Full Health, Vision, & Dental coverage

• 401k match

• Hardware setup: new MacBook Pro, big display, & accessories