--- title: 'Senior Quantitative Researcher - Options Market Making at Maven' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-quantitative-researcher-options-market-making-maven-chicago-pj9bhx2d3asq' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-14' --- # Senior Quantitative Researcher - Options Market Making at Maven - **Company:** Maven - **Location:** Chicago, IL - **Posted:** 2024-04-04 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/mavensecuritiesholdingltd/jobs/5848395 ## Job description Senior Quantitative Researcher - Options Market Making Maven is a market-leading proprietary trading firm deploying its own capital across discretionary, systematic, and market-making strategies. Backed by deep expertise in trading, technology, and research, we are relentlessly focused on improving liquidity across global listed derivatives. Through advanced execution and pricing technologies, we improve how financial markets operate. The role: As a Senior Quantitative Researcher, you will lead projects that have a direct impact on our trading performance. You will work collaboratively with other researchers and traders from various scientific fields and prestigious academic institutions, to develop innovative real-time trading models and solutions for low latency trading systems for exchange-traded options. You will share your knowledge and expertise with other researchers to tackle various challenging projects including but not limited to option pricing and volatility models, algorithm design and alpha research. What we’re looking for: - Academic degree in applied mathematics, computer science, statistics engineering or physics. PhD or any other track record in conducting independent research. - Minimum 3+ years of experience in the financial industry, particularly electronic options trading. - Ability to research advanced algorithms, develop predictive models and verify complex hypotheses using large datasets. - Proactive interest in improving existing trading strategies and identifying new opportunities. - A collaborative bridge between developers, and traders who aligns technical work with commercial impact and the broader strategic vision, and a real team player with other quants in the team. Why you should apply: - Rare opportunity to take a high level of responsibility at a fast-growing global trading firm - Opportunity to be highly involved in the decisions that shape our trading - Flexible research environment to iterate on your ideas quickly and see the impact of your work in production - Leadership opportunities as the team grow - Great engineering environment where technology, creativity and innovation is key to our success - An environment where you’re empowered and supported to achieve your ambitions - Friendly, informal and highly rewarding culture - The upside of a start-up without the associated risks ## WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU - Competitive compensation - Annual discretionary bonus - Fully catered breakfast and lunch - 25 days’ annual leave - Informal dress code - Private healthcare and life assurance - Group Pension plan The Options Market Making team at Maven Securities operates under a strict direct sourcing model. We are committed to managing all recruitment activities internally to ensure a consistent and transparent candidate experience. As such, we do not accept unsolicited CVs or introductions from recruitment agencies. If you're interested in this opportunity, please apply directly. ## About Maven ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Maven Securities is a market-leading proprietary trading firm that allocates internal capital between discretionary, systematic, and market-making strategies across global financial markets. - **Entity Type**: Private - **Headquarters**: London, England, United Kingdom - **Founded**: 2011 - **Founders**: Not publicly available ## Core Business - Primary industry/industries: Financial Services, Proprietary Trading, Market Making, Technology - Target customers: B2B (institutional), with the firm trading only its own capital (no external clients) - Mission or purpose statement: To be a market-leading proprietary trading business committed to realizing the full potential of its people, combining effective risk management with advanced technology to achieve trading excellence and consistent returns. ## Products & Services Maven operates as a multi-strategy proprietary trading firm. Its core activities include: - **Discretionary Trading**: Fundamental long/short equity strategies across global markets, managed by Portfolio Managers. - **Systematic Trading**: Quantitative strategies driven by data, research, and algorithms, including systematic equities. - **Market Making**: Providing liquidity in options and other financial instruments across European, US, and Asian markets. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (privately held) - **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue of $10.1M (estimated by LinkedIn); Total Funding: Not applicable (bootstrapped with internal capital) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not applicable (privately held, uses only group capital) - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount of 312 employees, with a yearly growth of +13.6% (+48 people) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/maven-securities) - Active job postings have increased by +217.6% year-over-year [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/maven-securities) - Operates in 11 countries across 10 offices, including London (HQ), New York, Chicago, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Monaco, and Singapore [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/maven-securities) - Strong talent pipeline from top competitors like Optiver, IMC Trading, Jane Street, and Morgan Stanley [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/maven-securities) ## Competitive Advantages - **Pure Proprietary Trading**: Maven trades only its own capital, eliminating conflicts of interest and allowing for long-term strategic thinking without external pressure. - **Technology-First Approach**: The firm considers itself as much a technology firm as a trading firm, investing heavily in advanced technology, data, and infrastructure to empower its traders and strategies [mavensecurities.com](https://www.mavensecurities.com/about-us/). - **Multi-Strategy Platform**: The ability to allocate capital across discretionary, systematic, and market-making strategies provides diversification and resilience. - **Strong Talent Magnet**: Attracts top talent from leading trading and financial firms globally, indicating a strong reputation and competitive compensation culture [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/maven-securities). - **Conservative Risk Management**: Meticulous and attentive execution paired with conservative risk management is a core part of their operational philosophy [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/maven-securities). ## Strategic Focus - **Continued Global Expansion**: Opening and growing offices in key financial hubs like Chicago, Amsterdam, and Hong Kong, indicating a focus on capturing market share in US and Asian markets. - **Technology Investment**: Heavy ongoing investment in technology roles (C++, Python, FPGA, Kubernetes, Linux, Network Engineering) to maintain a competitive edge in speed, data analysis, and infrastructure [job-boards.greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/mavensecuritiesholdingltd). - **Talent Acquisition**: A massive surge in hiring (+1700% monthly job posting trend) suggests aggressive scaling across all areas, particularly in quantitative research, trading, and technology [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/maven-securities). - **ESG and DEI Commitment**: Actively allocating capital and employee time to environmental, societal, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, signaling a focus on sustainable and ethical growth [mavensecurities.com](https://www.mavensecurities.com/about-us/). ## Why Work Here - **High-Impact Environment**: Work directly with internal capital on sophisticated trading strategies, with a flat structure that values autonomy and ownership. - **Technology-Driven Culture**: A strong emphasis on engineering and technology as core to the business, offering challenging roles in C++, Python, FPGA, and platform engineering. - **Global Opportunities**: With offices in London, New York, Chicago, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and Monaco, there are opportunities for international mobility and exposure to global markets. - **Strong Compensation**: Competitive compensation is implied by the firm's ability to attract talent from top-tier firms like Jane Street, Optiver, and Goldman Sachs [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/maven-securities). - **Values-Driven**: The firm explicitly values integrity, humility, creativity, and discipline, aiming to balance bold ambition with a modest and supportive culture [mavensecurities.com](https://www.mavensecurities.com/our-values/). - **Work Policy**: Likely hybrid/office-based given the nature of trading (roles in Chicago, London, Amsterdam, New York, and Hong Kong are clearly location-specific). - **Employee Rating**: 4.1/5.0 on LinkedIn (108 reviews), with high marks for Work-Life (3.9), Compensation (3.8), and Culture (3.5) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/maven-securities). ## Sources 1. [Maven Securities - About Us](https://www.mavensecurities.com/about-us/) 2. [Maven Securities - Our Values](https://www.mavensecurities.com/our-values/) 3. [Maven Securities - Job Openings (Greenhouse)](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/mavensecuritiesholdingltd) 4. 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