Global Banking & Markets, Quantitative Researcher – Systematic Option Strategies – FICC Global Currencies & Emerging Markets Strats, VP, London

Responsibilities

• As a quantitative researcher within GCEM Strats, you will drive and contribute to applied research for Systematic Option Strategies, translating market intuition and observations into robust, scalable systematic risk management and market making strategies.
• This includes, but is not limited to, a mandate to:
• Originate and test systematic option market making approaches, incorporating a diverse array of techniques and signals.
• Develop forecasting models for volatility markets, capturing skew, smile, term structure, carry effects, cross-asset relationships and market regimes.
• Design and implement systematic hedging strategies for vega and related risks subject to real market constraints, balancing expected P&L, transaction costs, liquidity, basis and tail risks
• Own the end-to-end research process: idea generation, data processing, hypothesis design, feature engineering, backtesting/validation, portfolio construction and performance attribution
• Apply robust research standards, including bias controls, regime and stress analysis, sensitivity testing, realistic implementation assumptions and clear documentation
• Assess production performance of successfully deployed research and refine models as markets evolve.
• Partner with Traders to gain insights into and leverage institutional knowledge of market structure and function that can inform research.
• Build reusable analytical tools and contribute to shared research infrastructure, data standards and best practices
• Communicate methods, assumptions, risks and results clearly to Trading and senior stakeholders
• Who We Look For
• We are looking for an experienced, intellectually curious quantitative researcher to join the GCEM Strats team, with strong research judgment, options intuition and a trading orientation. The ideal candidate can independently turn a market observation into a practical implementation supported by detailed quantitative analysis, while collaborating closely with Traders, fellow Strats and Engineers.
• Basic Qualifications and Preferred Qualifications
• MS or PhD in statistics, mathematics, physics, computer science, engineering, operations research, econometrics, quantitative finance or a related quantitative discipline
• Typically 4–8 years of applied quantitative research experience in systematic options or volatility trading, systematic macro, derivatives, cross-asset relative value, statistical arbitrage or a closely related area
• Demonstrated experience developing and validating predictive models, signals, strategies or systematic hedging approaches
• Strong understanding of options, volatility and risk, including Greeks, volatility surfaces, carry and roll-down, P&L attribution, transaction costs and tail behavior
• Experience with options in FX, equities, rates, commodities or another liquid macro asset class; cross-asset experience is valued
• Excellent foundation in statistics, probability, time-series analysis, econometrics, machine learning, optimization and experimental design
• Strong programming skills and experience working with large market datasets, research pipelines and backtesting frameworks; proficiency in Python, Java, or similar languages is beneficial
• Track record of independent research ownership, sound judgment and a rigorous and diligent analytical approach.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, intellectual honesty, high standards and the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced collaborative environment
• AND QUALIFICATIONS

WHO WE ARE

ABOUT GOLDMAN SACHS

Qualifications

• Experience with options in FX, equities, rates, commodities or another liquid macro asset class; cross-asset experience is valued