Quantitative Analyst – Volatility Arbitrage

The Role

We are looking for an outstanding Quantitative Analyst to join our Volatility Arbitrage desk within a hedge fund. This is a front-office quantitative role working directly with the investment team. The successful candidate will help us analyse volatility markets, develop and improve our analytical framework, process large datasets, build quantitative tools and identify dislocations and relative-value opportunities across volatility products.

We are looking primarily for exceptional quantitative ability rather than extensive industry experience. The position would suit a high-calibre graduate or someone with up to two years of professional experience who wants to apply strong mathematical and programming skills directly to financial markets.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyse implied and realised volatility across equities, indices and related derivatives markets.
• Develop quantitative analysis of volatility surfaces, term structures, skew, convexity, correlation.
• Analyse options and volatility products and investigate relative-value relationships across instruments, maturities, strikes and underlying assets.
• Build and maintain datasets combining market prices, volatility measures, fundamental information and historical time series.
• Develop tools for option pricing, volatility analysis, backtesting, scenario analysis and risk monitoring.
• Research statistical relationships and market anomalies that could lead to new volatility-arbitrage or relative-value investment ideas.
• Improve the desk's existing quantitative models, analytics and research infrastructure.
• Automate recurring analysis and enhance the reliability and efficiency of the desk's research processes.
• Work closely with portfolio managers and traders to translate quantitative analysis into actionable trading and risk insights.
• Contribute to the continuous development of the desk's investment and risk-management framework.

Candidate Profile

We are looking for candidates with exceptional mathematical and analytical skills and a genuine interest in derivatives and financial markets.

A Master's degree, engineering degree or equivalent is expected.

Particularly relevant academic exposure includes probability theory, stochastic processes, statistics, optimisation, numerical methods, time-series analysis, machine learning and differential equations.

0 to 2 years of professional experience. We are explicitly open to hiring an exceptional graduate. Previous experience through an internship or full-time role in quantitative research, derivatives, systematic trading, market making or a hedge fund would be valuable but is not a prerequisite.

Technical skills

Essential:

• Excellent mathematical and statistical skills.
• Strong programming skills
• Ability to manipulate, clean and analyse large financial datasets.
• Strong understanding of statistical analysis and quantitative modelling.
• Ability to write clear, reliable and maintainable analytical code.

Highly desirable:

• Knowledge of options and derivatives pricing.
• Understanding of the Greeks, implied volatility, volatility surfaces and stochastic volatility.
• Experience with SQL and structured market datasets.

Prior professional experience with volatility products is not required if the candidate demonstrates exceptional quantitative ability and a strong capacity to learn.

What We Are Looking For

Beyond technical ability, we are looking for someone who is:

• Intellectually curious, with a desire to understand why markets behave as they do.
• Comfortable moving from mathematical concepts to empirical analysis and ultimately to investment decisions.
• Able to challenge assumptions and test hypotheses rigorously.
• Detail-oriented and naturally sceptical of data and model outputs.
• Interested in markets rather than purely theoretical quantitative research.
• Comfortable working in a small, demanding and highly collaborative investment team.
• Pragmatic and willing to improve existing tools as well as develop new ideas from scratch.

Why Join

This is an opportunity to join a specialist investment desk where quantitative analysis is directly connected to positioning, trading and risk-taking.

The successful candidate will gain exposure to sophisticated volatility strategies and will work closely with experienced investors, with substantial responsibility from an early stage.

For someone with outstanding mathematical ability, strong programming skills and a real interest in derivatives markets, the role offers an unusually direct path from data and quantitative research to real investment decisions.