The skills quant employers are actually asking for

Counted, not guessed

Every claim here comes from counting named requirements in the live vacancies we track. Our skills index publishes the current numbers with sample sizes and a confidence band, and it updates as the market does. Where a count is too small to support a conclusion, we say so.

The consistent leaders

Python leads the overall count. Statistics and probability appear as topics rather than tools and are close to universal in research seats. C++ dominates trading systems and execution. SQL is named far more often than candidates expect. Linux and version control tend to be assumed rather than advertised, which means their true frequency is understated by any count including ours.

Machine learning: real but overstated

Machine learning appears in a substantial share of adverts, but reading the requirement in context matters. In most seats it is one tool among several, not the job. Adverts where it is genuinely central are a much smaller group.

The mix moves by seat

Research adverts skew towards statistics and Python. Development adverts skew towards C++, systems and concurrency. Trading adverts sit between the two and add execution and market-structure language.

How to use this

Pick the seat, then read the skill counts for that seat rather than the market average. The average describes nobody's job.