Salaries and Bonuses in Quant Finance: broken down by role, seniority & region
If you're looking for a job in quant finance, chances are you're after one of the coveted and high-paying quantitative researcher roles. Not everyone can get those, however, so what is compensation like in the broader quant finance ecosystem?
The Certificate in Quantitative Finance program (CQF) recently released a 2024 careers guide to quantitative finance, containing average salary and total compensation (TC) ranges for multiple roles. In North America, quant research dominates across the board.
Early career quant developers can earn a higher base salary than researchers on average, $200k compared to $175k, but the bonus potential for researchers even at associate level is enormous. TC for quant development associates goes up to $250k, while for quant researchers it reaches $325k.
The gap only widens as you progress up the ranks. At director level, a quant developer can earn a TC of up to $500k on average, while quant researchers can earn $300k more.
Comparatively, risk management looks like a small fish in a big pond; the middle-office function pays $275k at director level. Data science isn't exactly front-office either, but due to its more complex nature, can pay a more handsome $400k on average at director level.
In Europe, things are much the same, albeit with lower pay.
Director level quant researchers in Europe interestingly have the same lower TC limit, but North America's upper limit is $100k higher. This indicates that you can earn very good money as a quant in Paris or London, but if you're truly elite, you should consider a move to New York.
Quant developer pay looks much more disappointing in Europe. You'd be better served going into data science; European data science directors have an equal upper TC average, $300k, but earn $25k more at the lower end.
It can always be worse, however. The new guide says average quant developer pay in Asia is significantly lower.
In Asia, the earning potential for data science directors is clearly higher than quant development. Developers do, however, earn significantly more on the lower boundary of their TC range, making it perhaps the safer option of the two.
Quant research pay dwarfs all others in Asia, as expected. Upper limit TC for a quant research director is $500k, more than double the upper limit of the next highest paying function: data science.
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