Quantitative Trader: Equity Quantitative Research - University Graduate (US)

Citadel LLC; City of Rochester (NY); On-site; USD 235,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Incentive compensation

Retirement plan

Job summary

Citadel LLC in New York seeks an Equity Quantitative Trader to optimize trading strategies and maximize profitability with real capital. You will own portfolio-level risk, adapt allocations to changing conditions, and work with researchers and engineers to productionize research into live strategies.

You will evaluate market signals, tune models, and monitor performance across regimes while maintaining a strong culture of rigor and intellectual curiosity.

Qualifications

• Strong background in statistics, mathematics, computer science, or physics.
• Experience applying theory to trading/markets.
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills.
• Graduate research or competition experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Turn research into production trading strategies.
• Optimize trading strategies to maximize profitability.
• Manage portfolio-level risk in real time.
• Collaborate with researchers and engineers to productionize research.
• Monitor strategy performance across market regimes.

Skills

Game theory

Decision theory

Optimization

Risk management

Profit optimization

Communication

Self-starter

Quantitative degree

Education

Quantitative degree

Job description

Equity Quantitative Research (EQR) seeks to capitalize on market inefficiencies identified through a combination of structural analysis, leading-edge quantitative research and technology. The team trades billions of dollars a day by applying statistics, computer science and economic principles.

EQR manages several systematic and semi-systematic equities strategies in addition to equities trading. Every investment idea or trade requires an understanding of market flows, sophisticated mathematics and large-scale data analysis.

The Role

As a Quantitative Trader your core mandate is to optimize trading strategies to maximize profitability. You will decide how capital is allocated and risk is deployed across signals and strategies, tuning the portfolio so that every unit of risk earns as much as possible. You will work side by side with quantitative researchers and engineers to translate research into production strategies that trade real capital – by working to improve the optimizer, model and minimize trading costs and market impact, and manage capacity and financing. You will own portfolio-level risk as a first line of defense — reasoning about exposures, intervening tactically as conditions change, and doing research and statistical analysis to continuously push the portfolio's risk‑adjusted returns higher. This is a high‑ownership seat where you make decisions under time constraints, mentored by leaders who have realized PnL at scale.

Your Objectives

• Partner with quantitative researchers and engineers to turn research into production trading strategies.
• Conduct research to find where the portfolio is leaving money on the table and to generate additional returns from existing strategies.
• Manage portfolio‑level risk and exposures in real time, adapting allocation as market conditions change to protect and grow PnL.
• Continuously monitor strategy performance, diagnose issues, and iterate to keep strategies performing across market regimes.

Your Skills & Talents

• A strong interest in game theory, decision theory, and strategy games, and the instinct to apply them to markets.
• Effective problem‑solving skills and the rigor to reason about optimization, risk, and profitability from first principles — with the judgment to know where the next dollar of PnL comes from.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• A self‑starter who is not afraid to question the status quo.
• A degree from a top university in a quantitative field such as statistics, mathematics, computer science, or physics — strong candidates often bring graduate research or competition experience.

Why Join Us

• Direct ownership: your decisions trade real capital, and you see their impact immediately.
• Small, flat teams with no layers between your idea and production.
• Best‑in‑class data, compute, and engineering support, backed by the scale of Citadel's platform.
• A culture of intellectual rigor where the best idea wins, always.
• Learn directly from senior practitioners with deep research‑to‑production track records, who invest in developing the next generation of quantitative talent.

Opportunities available in New York.

In accordance with applicable law, the base salary range for this role is $235,000 to $300,000. In addition, the employee who fills this role will be eligible to participate in a discretionary incentive compensation program, as well as a wide array of benefit programs, such as medical and life insurance, retirement and tax‑free savings plans, and access to other healthcare programs.