Quantitative Researcher

MA Capital•New York, NY

About The Position

MA Capital US LLC is a proprietary trading firm focused on systematic and discretionary strategies across global markets. Our edge is driven by technology, research, and a disciplined approach to infrastructure and risk. We operate a high-performance trading environment spanning multiple regions, co-location data centers, and global offices, with continued investment across research, technology, and trading. We are seeking an experienced Quantitative Researcher to join our options trading team and develop systematic strategies across SPX, VIX, and related index derivatives. The core infrastructure is already largely in place, including market data, historical datasets, pricing models, risk systems, and execution capabilities. This role will use that infrastructure to identify, research, validate, and deploy strategies that generate real trading edge and P&L. You will work closely with traders and engineers in a highly collaborative environment with significant ownership and autonomy.

Requirements

Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Physics, Engineering, Financial Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline.
3–5 years of quantitative research experience at a proprietary trading firm, hedge fund, market maker, or other quantitative trading firm
Direct experience researching SPX and/or VIX options strongly preferred
Demonstrated experience developing systematic strategies that were deployed in production and generated positive live trading P&L
Strong understanding of options pricing, implied volatility, volatility surfaces, skew, term structure, Greeks, and hedging
Experience with systematic options strategies, relative value, statistical arbitrage, or volatility trading
Strong understanding of transaction costs, execution, liquidity, and market microstructure
Experience working with large options and futures datasets
Ability to take a research idea from hypothesis through backtesting, validation, and production

Nice To Haves

Experience with SPX options market making or systematic trading
Experience with VIX options and VIX futures
Experience developing index volatility or relative-value strategies
Experience with 0DTE or short-dated options
Experience with volatility surface modeling, skew, or term-structure strategies
Experience researching SPX/VIX cross-market relationships
Experience with intraday options strategies or options market microstructure
Experience applying machine learning to options or volatility markets
Experience within a high-performing options or volatility trading team

Responsibilities

Research and develop systematic trading strategies across SPX options, VIX options, and related index products
Develop signals using volatility surfaces, skew, term structure, relative value, cross-market relationships, market microstructure, and other statistical relationships
Build and improve fair-value, pricing, and predictive models for options and volatility products
Backtest strategies using realistic assumptions around transaction costs, liquidity, market impact, and execution
Take research from initial hypothesis through validation, production implementation, and live trading
Analyze live strategy performance, P&L drivers, drawdowns, and changing market conditions, and refine strategies accordingly
Work closely with traders and engineers to improve pricing, signals, execution, hedging, and risk management
Contribute to a repeatable research process for efficiently testing and deploying new strategies