London Prop Trading Firms 2026: Best Firms Hiring Quants

Which Prop Trading Firms Hire Quants in London?

The largest quant employers in London's proprietary trading scene are Optiver, IMC Trading, Jane Street, XTX Markets, Jump Trading, Maven Securities, Flow Traders, Akuna Capital, DRW, Qube Research & Technologies, and G-Research. Between them, they cover market making, systematic trading, and high-frequency execution across equities, options, FX, and fixed income, and collectively hire several hundred quant researchers, traders, and developers out of London each year.

London sits second only to Chicago and New York as a global hub for this kind of hiring, helped by favourable time zone overlap with both Asian and US markets, a deep STEM graduate pool from UK universities, and several firms - XTX Markets, Maven Securities, and Qube Research & Technologies among them - that are actually headquartered here rather than just running a satellite office. This guide covers who is hiring, what each firm actually does, how the roles differ, and how the London hiring process compares to its US equivalent.

Editorial note: headcount, focus areas, and role descriptions below combine public reporting, firm websites, and job postings. They are not employer-verified and firms' hiring plans change throughout the year.

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London Prop Trading Firms at a Glance

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Firm Profiles

Optiver

Optiver's London office is one of the largest options and derivatives market-making operations in the city, with a well-regarded graduate training programme that combines trading, quantitative research, and technology tracks. The firm has grown its London headcount consistently over recent years and is one of the more accessible entry points among the elite-tier firms for strong graduates without prior trading experience. See our Optiver interview guide for what the process actually involves.

IMC Trading

IMC runs a similarly structured operation to Optiver out of its London office, focused on options and ETF market making with a strong technology investment. IMC is somewhat lower-profile publicly than Optiver but is considered equally competitive on both hiring bar and compensation, and hires across trading, quant research, and software engineering.

Jane Street

Jane Street's London office is one of the firm's two major hubs, not a token satellite. It covers the same broad, multi-asset market-making and trading activity as its New York headquarters, and the interview process (probability puzzles, mental maths, trading games) is identical regardless of location. Jane Street's use of OCaml as a primary language is a distinguishing feature worth knowing before you interview.

XTX Markets

XTX Markets is one of the largest electronic market makers in FX and fixed income globally, and it is headquartered in London rather than merely operating an office here. Founded by former GSA Capital staff, XTX runs a lean team relative to its trading volume, which means individual quants and developers tend to have outsized ownership over the systems and models they work on. It is one of the most natural targets for UK-based quants who want to stay in London long-term.

Jump Trading

Jump Trading operates a London office alongside a technology-focused site in Bristol, with the London office concentrated on trading European markets across futures, index products, and other liquid instruments. Jump is notably secretive about its internal operations, consistent with its broader culture across all offices, but the London site houses quant researchers, traders, and engineers working across the same high-frequency, technology-heavy strategies the firm is known for globally.

Maven Securities

Maven Securities is headquartered in London and has grown into one of the leading options and derivatives market makers in Europe and Asia-Pacific since its founding in 2011. It runs discretionary, systematic, and market-making strategies side by side, and is known for a strong graduate training programme and an entrepreneurial, relatively flat culture compared to some larger competitors.

Flow Traders

Flow Traders specialises in exchange-traded product (ETP) market making, and its London office sits alongside primary trading floors in Amsterdam, New York, and Singapore. Being publicly listed on Euronext Amsterdam gives unusually clear visibility into the firm's financial performance compared to most of its private competitors. See our Flow Traders interview guide for the specifics of their process.

Akuna Capital

Akuna Capital, an options market maker headquartered in Chicago, runs a London office covering trading, quantitative research, and technology functions. It is a smaller footprint in London than Optiver or IMC, but the firm's four-department structure (technology, trading, quant, and operations) means London-based quants and developers work closely with colleagues across the firm's global sites rather than in an isolated regional silo.

DRW

DRW runs both systematic and discretionary strategies out of its London office, covering a broad range of asset classes rather than specialising narrowly in one product type the way some market makers do. This breadth makes DRW a reasonable option for candidates who are not yet certain which specific strategy type or asset class they want to specialise in long-term.

Qube Research & Technologies (QRT)

Qube Research & Technologies is headquartered in London and runs systematic, multi-asset trading strategies with a strong technology and data science orientation. QRT has grown rapidly since its founding and is increasingly mentioned alongside the more established systematic firms when London-based quants discuss target employers.

G-Research

G-Research is a London-headquartered quantitative research firm, distinct from the market makers on this list in that it focuses primarily on systematic research and machine learning applications rather than direct market making. It sits within the wider Trenchant group of trading entities and has built a strong reputation specifically for machine learning and data science applications in systematic trading, making it a common target for quants with a stronger computational or ML background relative to traditional derivatives pricing.

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How London Hiring Differs From the US

The core hiring mechanics - online assessments, probability and mental maths interviews, and a final "superday" style round - are broadly consistent between London and US offices at the same firm, since most of these are global firms running a standardised process. The differences that matter are more about market and scale.

Smaller absolute headcount per firm. Even large London offices are typically smaller than the equivalent US site for global firms like Jane Street or Jump Trading, which means fewer openings per cycle and, in practice, a marginally more competitive ratio of applicants to roles at some firms.

A stronger cluster of London-native firms. Unlike the US market, where nearly every major prop firm is headquartered in New York or Chicago, London has several home-grown firms - XTX Markets, Maven Securities, and Qube Research & Technologies - which changes the character of the local market and gives London-based candidates more options that are not simply "the London office of a US firm."

Product specialisation skews differently. London hiring leans more heavily toward FX and fixed income than the US market does, reflecting London's role as the centre of global FX trading, while US hiring skews more toward equities and futures given the concentration of US exchanges and equity market structure.

Visa considerations cut in a different direction. For non-UK candidates, London hiring involves UK sponsorship processes rather than US visa routes, which some firms handle more smoothly than others depending on their existing sponsorship infrastructure. This is worth asking about directly during the interview process rather than assuming it will be straightforward.

For the broader trade-off between prop trading firms and hedge funds as employer types, regardless of location, see our hedge fund vs prop trading firm guide, and for a global (not London-specific) ranking of the largest prop firms, see our top prop trading firms guide.

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Compensation & recruiting notes

Firm headcount figures, focus area descriptions, and hiring characterisations above are general estimates based on public reporting, firm websites, and job postings, not verified employer data. Compensation and hiring plans change throughout the year and vary by role, level, and individual performance - always confirm current details directly with each firm during the recruiting process.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which London prop trading firm is easiest to get into?

None of the firms on this list are easy to get into, but those running larger structured graduate programmes - Optiver, IMC Trading, and Maven Securities among them - process more candidates per cycle than smaller, more specialised operations like XTX Markets or G-Research, which can translate into marginally more openings relative to applicants in a given year.

Do I need to be based in London already to apply?

No. Most of these firms run centralised graduate and experienced-hire recruiting that accepts applications from outside the UK, and several provide visa sponsorship for strong candidates. Being based in London can help with networking and firm events, but it is not a prerequisite for applying.

Which London prop firms pay the most?

Jane Street, Optiver, and XTX Markets are generally reported to sit at or near the top of London prop trading compensation, particularly at senior levels, though exact figures are not publicly disclosed by any of these firms and vary significantly by role and individual performance.

Is XTX Markets a good alternative to the bigger US firms?

For UK-based quants who want to stay in London long-term, XTX Markets is a strong option precisely because it is headquartered here rather than being a regional office of a US firm. Its lean team structure also means more individual ownership over models and systems than at some larger competitors.

What is the difference between Optiver, IMC and Maven Securities?

All three are options and derivatives market makers with broadly similar business models, but Optiver and IMC are Amsterdam-headquartered firms with large London offices, while Maven Securities is headquartered in London itself. Culturally, all three run structured graduate training, though Maven is generally considered to have a flatter, more entrepreneurial structure given its smaller relative size.

Do these firms hire quant developers as well as traders?

Yes. Every firm on this list hires quant developers or software engineers alongside traders and quant researchers, since market-making and systematic trading strategies depend heavily on low-latency execution systems, data infrastructure, and pricing engines. Technology roles at these firms are compensated similarly to trading and research roles at equivalent seniority.