I assume obviously being a trader pays more, but I wanted to know how much of a difference is there in the beginning years?
Additionally I wanted to know if it's possible to transition to from a being a Dev / SWE to a trader later on?
Thanks in advance
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The difference in pay is more about structure than “more or less”. As a quant “trader” (any position where you have direct PnL linkage) the comp will almost always be tied to PnL. So yes, more if you are good, but less if you are bad (higher volatility in your comp). The SWE tends to be more stable and less upside.
I’ve generally seen that early in the career (1-3 years) the paths have similar comp. But they diverge as you get more PnL based comp.
Totally agreed with the above poster regarding compensation. As for switching from SWE to trader/researcher, don't count on it. Very different skillsets and scope of work, there is nothing transferable between the two roles besides knowing how to code. There might be such opportunities in pods if the PM likes you.
I'm going to also agree with the comments above.
Quant Dev is an engineering role. Some funds don't even require any real finance experience to do this role. You start off at the same pay range (200k), and then slowly move up to 400k (or more for some top tier funds) over time. Non-managerial roles will usually top out at 500k. Bonus is often just a binary thing where as long as the fund is profitable, you will get 100% of your target bonus (i.e. not directly linked to PnL). Job security is good as you are more focused on infrastructure and deployment of code rather than development of profitable strategies.
Quant Trader is a statistics/ML role. It also goes by the name "quant researcher". Most quant traders will have PhDs or similar education. They will know a lot about machine learning and statistics, and have applied math or physics backgrounds. You will code, but at more established funds you will defer the actual production implementation to quant devs. You will also work with quant devs to utilize shared toolkits or libraries to facilitate research/backtesting/etc. Early on you are still looking at 200k total comp, but as you become more senior you will have PnL linkage against the strategies you come up with. So the sky is the limit. I'd estimate average comp for a mid-level quant researcher to be high six figures (800k). High-performing quants at the right fund will obviously be in the millions.
So obviously quant trader is better, right? Not necessarily - only if you are profitable. Just like a fundamental hedge fund role, if you don't make money, you will not get paid. If you continue not performing, you may get canned. Quant strategies usually are employed in more liquid sectors where there are many funds vying for the same alpha. There's competition. Not everyone will be successful. I'd also add, there is a long road to get to a role like this, for one, you need a PhD which takes years to achieve. Some funds will look for that you have cited published research.
Thank you this is very informative!
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