Quantitative Researcher

About Akuna:

Akuna Capital is an innovative trading firm with a strong focus on collaboration, cutting-edge technology, data driven solutions and automation. We specialise in providing liquidity as an options market maker – meaning we are committed to providing competitive quotes that we are willing to both buy and sell. To do this successfully we design and implement our own low latency technologies, trading strategies and mathematical models. At Akuna we have a flat structure, where the best idea wins.

Our Founding Partners, including Andrew Killion, first conceptualized Akuna in their hometown of Sydney. They opened the firm’s first office in 2011 in the heart of the derivatives industry and the options capital of the world – Chicago. Today, Akuna is proud to operate from additional offices in Sydney, Shanghai, Singapore, Boston and London.

What you’ll do as a Quantitative Researcher at Akuna:

Akuna’s Quantitative Trading and Research team is looking to add Quant Researchers to a team of mathematicians, statisticians and technologists. This team creates trading strategies scientifically by combining its quantitative expertise with a sophisticated understanding of derivatives and financial markets. We are looking for talented researchers who can apply and develop machine learning algorithms to contribute to Akuna’s strategy portfolio. In this role, you will:

• Develop trading strategies using statistical and machine learning algorithms
• Help identify, design, backtest and optimize low latency strategies using big data
• Build metrics to evaluate strategy execution and perform post trade analysis
• Design and implement optimization algorithms for portfolio construction
• Develop quantitative models describing market behavior
• Advance existing initiatives and explore opportunities for new research topics

Requirements:

• 3+ years of strong professional work experience in statistics, machine learning, option trading or related area
• BS/MS/PhD degree in a technical field – Engineering, Computer Science, Maths, Physics, or similar
• Proven research background in academic or professional environment
• Experience building mathematical models for complex real-world problems
• Expertise in statistics
• Programming skills in Python

Qualities that make great candidates:

• Collaboration, teamwork, and excellent communication skills
• Strong drive to deliver meaningful results
• Financial experience or knowledge or trading is a plus