Role guide · updated October 22, 2026

Quant Developer salary: base pay, bonus and career progression

Quant developer salaries cover several kinds of work: trading systems, research platforms, data infrastructure and model implementation. Software engineering at a quant firm belongs in the comparison, but the title alone does not tell you whether a role involves research or low-latency execution.

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Starting salary and graduate offers

IMC’s Chicago graduate software-engineer role lists $200,000 base. Akuna’s junior quantitative developer and strategist role publishes a $145,000 minimum, which is a floor rather than a complete offer band. Jane Street’s New York software-engineer posting lists $300,000 but is not restricted to a graduate intake.

Published annual base pay · USD · bonus excluded

IMC · Graduate Software Engineer$200,000 / year

Chicago · 2027 graduate intake · Source

Quant Developer pay by firm and level

RoleFirmCareer stage

9 employer disclosures · USD · base pay, not total compensation

Published employer base salaries with source links, scope, and review dates
Firm / role	Location / scope	Published base pay	Bonus / source
Jane Street Software Engineer	New York Multiple levels · See role requirements	$300,000 / year	Annual discretionary bonus; amount not disclosed. Employer posting Disclosure reviewed 2026-10-22
Jump Trading Software Engineer	New York / Chicago Experienced · See engineering requirements	$200,000–$250,000 / year	Bonus is separate from the published base; see the employer’s terms. Original posting URL Historical disclosure · no longer listed when checked 2026-10-22 Pay recorded 2026-10-11. The original page may no longer show the role.
IMC Graduate Software Engineer	Chicago Graduate · 2027 graduate intake	$200,000 / year	Bonus is separate from the published base; see the employer’s terms. Employer posting Disclosure reviewed 2026-10-11
DRW Quantitative Developer	New York Experienced · Quantitative development	$175,000–$250,000 / year	Bonus is separate from the published base; see the employer’s terms. Employer posting Disclosure reviewed 2026-10-11
Point72/Cubist Quant Library Developer, Macro Technology	United States Experienced · Macro technology; quantitative library work	$200,000–$300,000 / year	Bonus is separate from the published base; see the employer’s terms. Employer posting Disclosure reviewed 2026-10-11
Schonfeld Principal Software Engineer	New York Experienced · Principal software engineer	$275,000–$300,000 / year	Bonus is separate from the published base; see the employer’s terms. Employer posting Disclosure reviewed 2026-10-11
Schonfeld Senior Quantitative Data Engineer	New York Experienced · Quantitative data engineering; 7+ years requested	$200,000–$220,000 / year	Bonus is separate from the published base; see the employer’s terms. Employer posting Disclosure reviewed 2026-10-11
Akuna Capital Junior Quantitative Developer & Strategist	Chicago Graduate · Published minimum, not a salary ceiling; junior role	From $145,000 / year	Bonus is separate from the published base; see the employer’s terms. Employer posting Disclosure reviewed 2026-10-11
WorldQuant Quantitative Developer	New York Experienced · Published range applies to New York	$125,000–$175,000 / year	Bonus is separate from the published base; see the employer’s terms. Employer posting Disclosure reviewed 2026-10-11

Internship pay: 1 employer disclosures

Internships cover a different work period from full-time roles. Compare the stated rate with the paid duration using the internship salary guide.

1 employer disclosures · USD · base pay, not total compensation

Published employer base salaries with source links, scope, and review dates
Firm / role	Location / scope	Published base pay	Bonus / source
Jump Trading Campus Software Engineer (Intern)	Chicago Internship · Software engineering internship; 10 weeks	$250,000 / year Annualized rate, not the amount paid for the internship. Compare program pay.	Annualized internship base rate; not total program earnings. No bonus amount disclosed. Employer posting Disclosure reviewed 2026-10-22

What the role involves

A trading-systems engineer may focus on C++, operating systems, networking and latency. A research developer may focus on Python, numerical methods, data pipelines and reproducible experiments. Match your preparation and salary benchmark to the responsibilities.

Experienced and senior compensation

DRW’s New York quantitative-developer posting lists $175,000–$250,000 base, while Schonfeld’s principal software-engineer posting lists $275,000–$300,000. The principal position is a different level; the gap is not evidence that one employer pays every developer more.

How to prepare for this career

Build fluency in algorithms and data structures, then prepare the systems or numerical topics required by the role. Bring a project whose performance, testing and design tradeoffs you can explain. For C++ roles, include memory management, concurrency and profiling.

Start with the free quant diagnostic, then use the four-week interview study plan to turn gaps into specific practice. For a short placement, use the internship pay guide to compare annualized rates with program earnings.

Prepare for the Roles You Are Targeting

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Your goals · your preparation · your next steps

Compare individual employers

IMC salary Jane Street salary DRW salary Schonfeld salary WorldQuant salary

Salary questions, answered

What is a starting quant developer salary?

How do base salary and total compensation differ?

Base salary is the fixed recurring amount. Total compensation may also include signing payments, guaranteed bonuses and discretionary performance pay. Check payment timing, deferral and repayment conditions, and compare the first year separately from later years.

How does experience affect compensation?

What should I study for a quant developer role?

How to read these salary figures

A posting is one observation

Each row links to an employer disclosure and identifies the role, location, pay period and review date. A posted range is not a measured average of employee earnings, an accepted offer, or a hiring guarantee.

Keep base and bonus separate

Base pay excludes discretionary bonuses unless the source explicitly says otherwise. We do not estimate an undisclosed bonus or turn a base range into a total-compensation claim.

Match the role and pay period

Compare the same location, experience requirements and work period. Internship rates remain in their original units. An annualized rate is not the summer paycheck: use the paid duration to estimate program earnings. See the internship pay examples.

Check the original source

Each disclosure has its own review date. When a later check finds a role is no longer listed, we keep its historical pay with that status beside it and exclude it from the summary ranges and charts. A review date is not a promise the job remains open. This is a selected set of postings, not a representative salary survey.

Separate the guaranteed and variable parts of your offer