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In HFT (and often stat arb) the front and back office dichotomy doesn't apply as much. Basically anyone doing nontrivial engineering work has an opportunity to

In HFT (and often stat arb) the front and back office dichotomy doesn't apply as much. Basically anyone doing nontrivial engineering work has an opportunity to share in the profits of the firm at Jane Street. They don't need to be a quantitative researcher or trader.

twic 6y ago
Are you stating this from specific knowledge of Jane Street? The division in trading firms, IMLE, is between front office (making and executing trading decisions) and back office (book-keeping, accounting, risk control, compliance, administration, etc). Both sides have technical and financial people. But only front office - both technical and financial - is likely to get wild bonuses from doing good trades. Back office bonuses are more about doing the job well. If Jane Street is sharing some of the trading profit with back office staff, good on them.
- fractionalhare 6y ago
  I am, yes. I'm more familiar with their researchers, but I know (or have spoken to) people across different functions there. They have security engineers who earn over $1M/year (for one example of something which isn't usually "front office"). For Jane Street it's about impact: if you substantially improve something at the firm, you share in the spoils. That doesn't mean literally everyone who works there is rich, and the quants will do better relatively speaking. But in the sense of engineers being second class citizens: no, I wouldn't say that's the case at all.
  - whatok 6y ago
    Most buyside joints don't have anything resembling a security engineer. If they actually need one, it's closer to a front office role than not. You also don't want some random jabroni in charge of something mission critical like that.
IshKebab 6y ago
That isn't the case at the few London HFT companies I've applied to. They had a clear division between quants and everyone else.
rokobobo 6y ago
In HFT firms algorithm developers are front office as much as traders. (And in some firms, traders don’t even exist as a role.)
- kyawzazaw 6y ago
  which firms don't have traders?

twic 6y ago

Are you stating this from specific knowledge of Jane Street? The division in trading firms, IMLE, is between front office (making and executing trading decisions) and back office (book-keeping, accounting, risk control, compliance, administration, etc). Both sides have technical and financial people. But only front office - both technical and financial - is likely to get wild bonuses from doing good trades. Back office bonuses are more about doing the job well. If Jane Street is sharing some of the trading profit with back office staff, good on them.

fractionalhare 6y ago
I am, yes. I'm more familiar with their researchers, but I know (or have spoken to) people across different functions there. They have security engineers who earn over $1M/year (for one example of something which isn't usually "front office"). For Jane Street it's about impact: if you substantially improve something at the firm, you share in the spoils. That doesn't mean literally everyone who works there is rich, and the quants will do better relatively speaking. But in the sense of engineers being second class citizens: no, I wouldn't say that's the case at all.
- whatok 6y ago
  Most buyside joints don't have anything resembling a security engineer. If they actually need one, it's closer to a front office role than not. You also don't want some random jabroni in charge of something mission critical like that.

IshKebab 6y ago

That isn't the case at the few London HFT companies I've applied to. They had a clear division between quants and everyone else.

rokobobo 6y ago

In HFT firms algorithm developers are front office as much as traders. (And in some firms, traders don’t even exist as a role.)

kyawzazaw 6y ago
which firms don't have traders?