Quantitative Researcher - Machine Learning (Equity Quantitative Research)

Job Description

Citadel is one of the most successful investment firms in the world, deploying capital across global markets through a multi-strategy platform built on rigorous research, deep talent, and best-in-class technology. We turn the power of data, computation, and human insight into market-leading performance, and we attract people who want to do the most important work of their careers alongside exceptional colleagues.

The Equity Quantitative Research (EQR) group sits at the center of Citadel's systematic equities business. EQR researchers design and refine the models that drive a substantial book of equity trading - combining machine learning, statistics, and market intuition to find and exploit predictive signal at scale.

The Role

As a Machine Learning Quantitative Researcher in Equity Quantitative Research, you will design, train, and deploy machine learning models that extract predictive signal from large, noisy datasets. You will work at the intersection of modern deep learning and market research - developing market intuition to identify open problems, innovating on architectures, data, and approaches, and translating predictions into strategies that trade real capital. This is a hands on research seat where you will spend your time on deep, meaningful research, with the infrastructure and trading support to get ideas into production quickly.

What You'll Do

• Research, build, and validate machine learning models that forecast asset prices, volatility, and other market dynamics across a range of horizons.
• Engineer features and signals from large structured and unstructured datasets, including market, fundamental, and alternative data.
• Own the full research lifecycle: hypothesis, data acquisition, modeling, rigorous backtesting, and deployment into live trading.
• Develop and improve the statistical and software tooling that makes research faster and more reproducible.
• Continuously monitor live models, diagnose decay, and iterate to keep strategies performing in changing market regimes.
• Collaborate with traders, engineers, and fellow researchers to turn ideas into production strategies.

What We're Looking For

• A PhD in computer science, statistics, mathematics, physics, or a related quantitative field - or equivalent research experience.
• Deep, practical knowledge of machine learning and statistics, with the judgment to know which methods fit a problem and which don't.
• Strong programming skills, ideally in Python, and the ability to write clean, performant research code.
• Experience working with large datasets and the comfort to build the data pipelines your research depends on.
• A demonstrated ability to take ambiguous problems from first principles to a working result.
• Intellectual honesty, curiosity, and a healthy skepticism toward your own models.
• No prior finance experience is required - we will teach you the markets.

Why Join Us

• Direct ownership: your research trades real capital, and you see its 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.

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.

About Citadel

Citadel is one of the world's leading alternative investment managers. We manage capital on behalf of many of the world's preeminent private, public and nonprofit institutions. We seek the highest and best use of investor capital in order to deliver market leading results and contribute to broader economic growth. For over 30 years, Citadel has cultivated a culture of learning and collaboration among some of the most talented and accomplished investment professionals, researchers and engineers in the world. Our colleagues are empowered to test their ideas and develop commercial solutions that accelerate their growth and drive real impact.

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