Prop Firm and Quant Finance Compensation Guide 2025

Quant finance is one of the highest-paying career paths for mathematically strong candidates. The numbers are real — but they vary enormously by firm, role, performance, and seniority.

This guide covers what to realistically expect at each major firm tier, how compensation is structured, and what drives the variance.

How Quant Finance Compensation Works

Most quant firms pay in two components:

Base salary: Fixed, paid regardless of performance. Relatively consistent across top firms for comparable roles. Higher than typical tech salaries.

Bonus: Variable, performance-linked. This is where the numbers get interesting — and where the variance explodes. At top prop trading firms, a strong bonus can be 5–15× base salary for a good year.

Some firms also offer:

• Profit sharing / carry (more common at hedge funds)
• Deferred compensation (paid over 2–4 years, creates retention)
• Benefits that can add meaningfully to total comp

Firm Tiers

Tier 1: Highest-Paying Prop Firms

Jane Street Capital

Jane Street is consistently the highest-paying firm in quant finance for most roles.

• New grad (software engineer / quant trader): base $200–250k, bonus $200–400k+. Total: $400–650k in a typical first year.
• After 3 years: total comp can reach $1–2M+ for strong performers.
• Senior traders with 7–10 years: total comp $5–15M in good years (profit-share structure).

Jane Street is an outlier. Their culture is that traders and developers are deeply intertwined, and compensation reflects the firm's exceptional profitability.

Citadel Securities

• New grad (software engineer): base $200–220k, signing $100–200k, first-year total $400–600k.
• New grad (quant researcher): similar structure, typically $400–600k first year.
• Senior roles: $1–3M+ in strong years.

Optiver (US)

• New grad trader (after passing the 80-in-8): base $150–180k, bonus $100–300k, first-year total $250–500k.
• After 5 years: $500k–1.5M+ depending on performance and market conditions.
• Options traders with significant P&L: can earn much more.

Tier 1B: Major Hedge Funds

Two Sigma

• New grad quant researcher: base $175–200k, bonus $150–300k, total $325–500k first year.
• The research role has a longer feedback loop — you're building models, not directly trading. Comp reflects this slightly lower ceiling early on.
• Senior researchers: $500k–3M+ depending on strategy success.

D.E. Shaw

• New grad computational scientist: base $150–200k, bonus $150–250k+, total $300–450k.
• D.E. Shaw has a reputation for being excellent but slightly below Jane Street / Citadel at the very top. Still exceptional by any other comparison.
• Long-term employees: significant comp in successful years; the firm is private so exact numbers are less public.

HRT (Hudson River Trading)

• New grad algorithm developer / researcher: base $175–225k, first-year total $350–600k.
• HRT is known for very high technical standards and competitive compensation.
• Mid-level engineer/researcher after 3–5 years: $500k–1.5M.

Tier 2: Strong Regional and Specialist Firms

Akuna Capital

• New grad options trader: base $125–160k, bonus $50–200k, total $175–360k.
• Known for being excellent at developing junior traders; compensation grows significantly with performance.

IMC Financial Markets

• New grad: base $120–150k, bonus $80–200k, total $200–350k.
• Strong European presence (Amsterdam headquarters).

DRW

• New grad: base $150–200k, bonus $100–300k, total $250–500k.
• Diverse firm — trades everything from commodities to crypto.

Susquehanna International Group (SIG)

• New grad options trader: base $125–150k, bonus $100–250k, total $225–400k.
• Famous for the poker training program and high culture fit investment.

Tower Research Capital

• New grad: base $150–180k, bonus $100–300k, total $250–480k.
• Strong focus on high-frequency trading infrastructure.

Tier 3: Systematic Hedge Funds

Renaissance Technologies

• Almost entirely senior hires (rare to hire directly from undergrad/grad school).
• When they do hire: compensation is extremely high. The Medallion Fund returns are legendary.
• Not realistic to target for new grads.

Bridgewater

• Different model: research-focused, not quantitative trading in the prop firm sense.
• New grad research associate: $150–200k total comp.
• Less directly comparable to the prop firms above.

Role Breakdown

Quant Trader / Prop Trader

At prop firms like Optiver, Jane Street, and SIG, traders are the core P&L-generating role.

Typical structure:

• First year: heavily supervised, limited risk taking
• Years 2–4: growing risk authority, significant leverage on your P&L in the bonus
• Year 5+: senior trader with meaningful P&L and comp

What drives comp: directional P&L, risk-adjusted returns, Sharpe ratio. A trader who makes $10M on high risk is worth less than one who makes $8M on low risk.

Quantitative Researcher

At Two Sigma, D.E. Shaw, and research arms of Citadel:

• Longer feedback loop — models take years to validate
• Base salaries typically similar to or higher than traders
• Bonus is tied to model/strategy performance, which is harder to attribute than trading P&L
• More stable comp trajectory, less extreme upside

Software Engineer / Algorithm Developer

At HRT, Jane Street, and Citadel Securities, top engineers are extremely well compensated:

• Engineers are paid comparably to researchers because their work is directly in the trading loop
• Jane Street is notable for paying engineers comparably to traders
• Standard big tech (Google, Meta) engineer comp: $300–600k total. Jane Street / HRT engineers: $400–800k+ new grad

Quantitative Analyst

At large banks (Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan) as a QA/Strat:

• Base $150–200k, bonus $100–250k, first-year total $250–450k
• Lower ceiling than prop firms — the upside is more capped
• More regulatory constraints, more bureaucracy
• If your goal is maximizing comp, target prop firms over banks

What Drives the Variance

Market conditions: Prop firm bonuses are heavily correlated with market volatility and opportunity. 2020, 2022, and 2023 were exceptional years for market makers. 2021 and parts of 2019 were harder.

Individual P&L: At trading-focused firms, your P&L is directly visible. A trader at Optiver who makes $20M in their second year will be compensated very differently from one who makes $3M.

Firm profitability: Even for researchers and engineers, aggregate firm performance matters. At Two Sigma, if the flagship fund has a bad year, bonuses are constrained even for people doing excellent work.

Role leverage: Traders have more levered comp than researchers. Engineers are somewhere in between. If you want maximum expected comp, prop trading roles have higher expected value but also higher variance.

The Realistic New Grad Path

Most candidates interviewing at top quant firms should expect:

Best case (Jane Street / Citadel first year): $400–650k total Strong case (Optiver, HRT, Two Sigma): $300–500k total Good case (Akuna, SIG, IMC): $200–400k total

These numbers are extraordinary compared to almost any other career path for new grads. But they come with trade-offs: intense work, high expectations, and comp that's genuinely tied to performance (it can also go down).

How to Maximize Compensation

1. Target the right firm tier. Jane Street and Citadel Securities genuinely pay 30–50% more than Tier 2 firms at comparable experience. Getting an offer there is worth significant interview prep investment.

2. Get multiple offers and negotiate. Firms will sometimes match or beat competing offers. Having two simultaneous offers is significantly more negotiating power than one.

3. Perform in the role. The variance in comp at year 3–5 vs. year 1 dwarfs the offer negotiation. Getting to a position with genuine P&L or model attribution is what drives the comp growth.

4. Consider the trajectory. A slightly lower offer at a firm where you'll develop faster might be worth more than a higher offer at a firm where career growth is slow.

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The interview that gets you to these compensation levels requires genuine quantitative skill. Build that skill daily at Fermiq — the firms paying these numbers are selecting for the candidates with the strongest quantitative instincts and fastest problem-solving.