Quantitative Trading Strategist - Equity Options

IMC B.V.; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 225,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

Paid leave

Insurance benefits

Job summary

A leading global trading firm is seeking experienced quantitative professionals to enhance automated trading decisions in Chicago. Responsibilities include developing quantitative models, analyzing trading datasets, and collaborating with teams across trading, research, and development. Ideal candidates should have expertise in quantitative research and programming in Python, with strong analytical abilities. This role offers a competitive salary of $250,000, along with bonuses and benefits.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in quantitative research or trading.
• Strong programming skills, preferably in Python.
• Strong understanding of market structure.

Responsibilities

• Develop and refine quantitative models for trading.
• Analyze trading datasets for improvements.
• Design and deploy strategy enhancements.

Skills

Quantitative research

Systematic trading

Market microstructure

Programming (Python)

Data analysis

Job description

IMC is seeking experienced quantitative professionals to join our US Equity Options market‑making business. We are a leading scaled liquidity provider in US equity options, operating a large‑scale systematic trading platform spanning thousands of underlyings. Our platform integrates quantitative research, trading strategy development, and production engineering within a collaborative, non‑siloed environment across trading, research, and development teams.

This role focuses on improving how automated trading decisions are designed, evaluated, and deployed in live markets. You will work at the intersection of quantitative research, execution, and risk management to enhance pricing quality, execution performance, and overall system robustness. Improvements influence the broader platform rather than a single seat, providing meaningful ownership and impact from day one. Compensation is competitive and aligned with individual contribution.

Your Core Responsibilities

• Develop and refine quantitative models that improve pricing, execution, and risk management.
• Analyze large‑scale market and trading datasets to identify structural improvements.
• Design, test, and deploy strategy enhancements into production systems.
• Collaborate closely with traders, researchers, and engineers to iterate on live trading logic.
• Contribute to scalable solutions that impact a broad universe of equity options products.
• Drive research from idea generation through backtesting, implementation, and real‑time monitoring.

Your Skills and Experience

• 3+ years of experience in quantitative research, systematic trading, or market microstructure‑focused roles.
• Experience working with exchange‑traded products, ideally equity options.
• Strong understanding of market structure and trading system behavior.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct rigorous analysis on large, real‑world datasets.
• Strong programming skills (Python required; C++ or similar preferred).
• Experience integrating research into production trading systems.
• Background in statistics, probability, time series analysis, or optimization is strongly preferred.

The Base Salary for the role is included below. Base salary is only one component of total compensation; all full‑time, permanent positions are eligible for a discretionary bonus and benefits, including paid leave and insurance. Please visit Benefits - US | IMC Trading for more comprehensive information.

Salary

$250,000

About Us

IMC is a global trading firm powered by a cutting‑edge research environment and a world‑class technology backbone. Since 1989, we’ve been a stabilizing force in financial markets, providing essential liquidity upon which market participants depend. Across our offices in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, and India, our talented quant researchers, engineers, traders, and business operations professionals are united by our uniquely collaborative, high‑performance culture, and our commitment to giving back. From entering dynamic new markets to embracing disruptive technologies, and from developing an innovative research environment to diversifying our trading strategies, we dare to continuously innovate and collaborate to succeed.