How Much Does Qube Pay?
Qube Research & Technologies is the fastest-rising name in London quant compensation conversations, and for a simple reason: the firm has grown from a 2018 spin-out of Credit Suisse's systematic trading business into a fund with a reported $20 billion+ in assets under management, posted strong returns through the recent period while several peers stumbled, and has been hiring aggressively across research, engineering and data roles. When a fund's assets and P&L grow that fast, its bonus pool tends to follow, and QRT's reported pay has moved from "competitive" to "at or near the top of the London market" in the space of a few years.
QRT is a systematic, quantitative fund: strategies are developed by researchers, implemented in software and run at scale across equities, futures, FX, credit and other liquid markets. It is London-headquartered with significant offices reported in Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, Zurich and New York among others, and its hiring mix is dominated by quantitative researchers, quantitative developers and data specialists rather than discretionary traders.
This guide breaks down QRT compensation by role and level, drawing on levels.fyi, recruiter-shared bands and candidate reports. Every figure is an estimate; the firm publishes nothing. For the interview side, see the Qube firm page on Quantt, and for market context our hedge fund salary UK guide.
The Headline Numbers
Graduate / Early-Career Total Compensation (London)
| Role | Base | Year 1 bonus (est.) | Total year 1 (est.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quantitative Researcher | £100,000 - £130,000 | £40,000 - £120,000+ | £140,000 - £250,000 |
| Quantitative Developer | £80,000 - £110,000 | £25,000 - £70,000 | £105,000 - £180,000 |
| Data Engineer | £70,000 - £100,000 | £15,000 - £50,000 | £85,000 - £150,000 |
| Software Engineer (platform) | £75,000 - £105,000 | £20,000 - £60,000 | £95,000 - £165,000 |
Sign-on payments are reported for competitive candidates, particularly researchers with competing offers from the US firms' London offices. The researcher premium over developer and engineering roles is real but narrower than at many peers, consistent with QRT's engineering-heavy model.
Compensation by Level
Quantitative Researcher
| Level | Years experience | Base (London) | Total comp (est.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Graduate / Junior QR | 0-2 | £100,000 - £130,000 | £140,000 - £250,000 |
| Mid QR | 2-5 | £120,000 - £160,000 | £250,000 - £500,000 |
| Senior QR | 5-10 | £150,000 - £200,000 | £400,000 - £1M+ |
| Strategy owner / team lead | 8+ | £180,000+ | £800,000 - several £M, P&L-dependent |
At the senior end, compensation becomes closely tied to the performance of the strategies a researcher owns or contributes to, which is where the very large numbers occur in strong years. QRT's recent performance has fed directly into unusually strong senior payouts, though as ever the variance between individuals and years is enormous. The industry-wide picture is in our quant researcher salary guide.
Quantitative Developer
| Level | Years experience | Base (London) | Total comp (est.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Graduate / Junior | 0-2 | £80,000 - £110,000 | £105,000 - £180,000 |
| Mid | 2-5 | £100,000 - £140,000 | £160,000 - £300,000 |
| Senior | 5-10 | £130,000 - £180,000 | £250,000 - £500,000 |
| Lead / Principal | 10+ | £160,000+ | £400,000 - £800,000+ |
Quant developers at QRT sit close to the strategies: implementing research, building execution and simulation systems, and owning production trading code. The pay gap to researchers narrows with seniority for developers whose work is tied to specific desks. For what the role involves day to day, see our quant developer career guide.
Data Engineer
| Level | Years experience | Base (London) | Total comp (est.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior | 0-2 | £70,000 - £100,000 | £85,000 - £150,000 |
| Mid | 2-5 | £90,000 - £125,000 | £130,000 - £220,000 |
| Senior | 5+ | £115,000 - £160,000 | £180,000 - £350,000 |
Systematic funds run on data, and QRT invests heavily in dataset acquisition, cleaning and point-in-time infrastructure. Data engineering pays below the researcher track but well above general-market data roles at technology companies in London.
How QRT Pay Is Structured
Base plus discretionary bonus. The standard systematic-fund model: a solid base salary and an annual discretionary bonus driven by firm performance, team performance and individual contribution. There is no equity; the firm is privately held by its partners.
The pool follows the P&L. QRT's reported strong years have coincided with reports of strong bonus rounds. The corollary is worth stating plainly: discretionary means discretionary, and a flat or negative year for the fund would compress the numbers in every table above.
Seniority shifts the mix. Early-career pay is mostly base and a bonus measured in tens of thousands. Senior researcher pay is mostly bonus, tied to strategy performance, and can vary by multiples between consecutive years.
Deferrals appear at size. As at most funds, larger bonuses are paid partly deferred over subsequent years, which matters when comparing offers or contemplating a move.
London Versus Paris, Singapore and New York
QRT is unusual among top quant funds in having Paris as a genuine research hub rather than a satellite. Reported patterns:
- London is the reference market for the tables above and the largest office.
- Paris packages are described as somewhat lower in gross terms, partly reflecting French employment costs and norms, though senior research pay converges toward London levels.
- Singapore and Hong Kong are broadly comparable to London in gross terms with lower personal taxes, making net pay attractive for equivalent roles.
- New York follows the US market and runs meaningfully higher in nominal terms, consistent with the general London-to-New York gap of roughly 20 to 40% for quant roles.
For how these gaps play out across the whole market, see our UK quant salary guide.
Beyond the Headline Number
Cash dominates quant compensation, but three non-cash factors matter when comparing a QRT offer with peers.
Growth exposure. Joining a fund whose assets have multiplied since 2018 is different from joining one at a steady state. Teams are being built rather than maintained, which means faster routes to strategy ownership for researchers and to platform ownership for engineers. That optionality has real value, and it is the part of the offer no table captures.
Benefits. Candidate reports describe the standard top-fund package: private medical cover, strong pension contributions, meals and the usual office comforts. Nothing here is unusual for the tier; the differentiation is in cash and trajectory rather than perks.
Deferral and notice terms. Larger bonuses carry deferral schedules, and senior contracts carry meaningful notice periods and restrictive covenants, in line with the wider systematic-fund market. When comparing offers, put the deferred portion and the covenant terms side by side with the headline number, because they change what the package is worth if you ever want to move.
How QRT Compares with Squarepoint, G-Research and Citadel London
Approximate first-year graduate quant researcher packages in London, using the same public-estimate methodology throughout:
| Firm | Year 1 total (London, est.) |
|---|---|
| Citadel (quant researcher) | £230,000 - £360,000 |
| G-Research (researcher, PhD) | £150,000 - £300,000+ |
| Qube (QRT) | £140,000 - £250,000 |
| Squarepoint | £130,000 - £200,000 |
Two caveats on this table. First, the ranges overlap heavily and individual offers move within them based on background and competing offers; a strong QRT offer can beat a weak Citadel one. Second, first-year pay is a poor guide to five-year pay: QRT's senior researcher economics, tied to strategy P&L at a fund that has been performing, are reportedly the stronger part of its pitch. The full Citadel breakdown is in our Citadel salary guide.
Who QRT Hires
The intake skews heavily quantitative: mathematics, physics, computer science and engineering graduates from strong European universities, with a notable French pipeline (École Polytechnique, ENS and the grandes écoles feature prominently, consistent with the firm's Credit Suisse lineage and Paris office). PhDs are common on the research side but not required. Experienced hires come from peer funds, banks' systematic desks and technology companies.
Interviews follow the systematic-fund pattern: coding assessments, probability and statistics screens, and research or system-design discussions at the final stage, closer to Squarepoint's practical style than to prop-firm brainteasers.
Where These Numbers Could Be Wrong
QRT discloses nothing about pay, and this guide is built from levels.fyi entries, recruiter conversations and candidate reports, all of which oversample successful candidates and strong years. The firm's recent growth means bands are moving quickly and any snapshot dates fast. AUM figures are reported, not audited public numbers, and bonus expectations built on recent performance embed an assumption that the performance continues. Treat every number here as an estimate with wide error bars, and treat a written offer as the only figure that counts.
Compensation & recruiting notes
Pay ranges in this guide are illustrative estimates from publicly discussed bands and anecdotal reports - not official figures from the employer. Packages vary widely by role, office, performance and year. Hiring processes change; nothing here guarantees an interview, assessment format or offer.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Qube (QRT) pay graduates in London?
Estimates from public and anecdotal sources put graduate quantitative researchers at roughly £140,000 to £250,000 total in year 1, quant developers at £105,000 to £180,000 and data engineers at £85,000 to £150,000. Sign-on payments are reported for candidates with competing offers.
What is Qube Research & Technologies?
QRT is a systematic, quantitative investment firm spun out of Credit Suisse in 2018 and headquartered in London, with offices reported in Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, Zurich and New York among others. It manages a reported $20 billion+ and runs quantitative strategies across liquid markets.
How does QRT's bonus work?
Pay is base plus an annual discretionary bonus funded by firm performance and allocated on team and individual contribution. Senior researcher compensation is tied closely to strategy P&L, and larger bonuses are paid partly deferred.
Does QRT pay more than Squarepoint or G-Research?
At the graduate level the reported ranges overlap: recruiters note that G-Research's PhD researcher offers reach higher, QRT and Squarepoint sit close together, and individual offers vary more than firm averages. At the senior level QRT's strategy-linked economics have reportedly been strong through its recent performance run.
Does QRT hire quant developers without finance experience?
Yes. Like most systematic funds it hires strong software engineers from technology backgrounds into developer and platform roles, with finance knowledge learned on the job. Coding depth and systems fundamentals matter most at interview.
Is Qube a hedge fund?
Functionally yes: it manages external capital in systematic strategies. The firm presents itself as a quantitative and systematic investment manager, and its structure and pay model follow the hedge fund pattern of base plus performance-driven discretionary bonus.
Can I negotiate a QRT offer?
At the graduate level, bands are fairly standardised, with the sign-on payment the most movable element, particularly against a competing offer from a peer fund. Experienced hires have more room, especially on guarantees for the first year and on buyouts of deferred compensation left behind at a previous employer.
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