Principal Quantitative Researcher – Systematic
A principal-level research leadership role at an options market maker, setting direction for research areas while still doing hands-on work. It spans research, pricing infrastructure and cross-team coordination.
What you’d work on
Our reading of the posting: what a new hire in this role would most likely spend their first months on.
- Set a long-term research vision to find new revenue
- Do commercially focused research and support others' research
- Direct development of pricing models and research platforms
- Coordinate between risk, development and research teams
What they ask for
Required
- 10+ years in a top systematic trading team as a quant researcher
- Track record of profitable research
- Independent high-quality research
- Software development lifecycle and advanced programming
- Python with NumPy and pandas
- Communication of complex ideas
Preferred
- Team management experience
- Market and alternative data
- US options markets and volatility surfaces
- Industry publications
- Education
- PhD in a science or engineering field strongly preferred
- Experience
- 10+ years in top systematic trading teams as a quantitative researcher
- Languages and tools
- Markets
- options
How to prepare
- Study how options market makers structure research, pricing and risk
- Prepare examples of research you have led and its P&L effect
- Review volatility surface modelling and its use in trading
- Practise explaining a research roadmap to non-researchers
What to study
- Derivatives Pricing and Computational Finance
- Market Microstructure and Execution
- Professional Quant Practice
- Quantitative Research, Data and Backtesting
The Volatility Quant roadmap sets out the stages for this kind of role, with free resources for each.
Open the roadmapApply
Read the full posting on Chicago Trading Company’s site before applying: requirements, location and pay can change after we check them.
View the posting on Chicago Trading Company’s site ↗
SelfMadeQuant wrote this summary from the employer’s public posting, last checked 6 November 2026. SelfMadeQuant isn’t affiliated with Chicago Trading Company and doesn’t handle applications.