Head to head
Jane Street vs Optiver
Jane Street or Optiver?
Jane Street is a proprietary trading headquartered in New York; Optiver is a market maker headquartered in Amsterdam. On indicative total compensation Jane Street sits roughly 15 percentage points higher against the market median. The larger difference for most candidates is the work itself: etf market making and options at Jane Street, versus options market making and volatility at Optiver.
| Jane Street | Optiver | |
|---|---|---|
| Business model | Proprietary trading | Market maker |
| Headquarters | New York | Amsterdam |
| Founded | 2000 | 1986 |
| Comp vs market median | +25% | +10% |
| Offices | New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Amsterdam | Amsterdam, Chicago, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris |
| Strategies | ETF market making, Options, Statistical arbitrage, Fixed income | Options market making, Volatility, Delta one |
| Hires for | Quant Trader, Quant Researcher, Quant Developer | Quant Trader, Quant Developer, HFT / Low-Latency Engineer, Quant Researcher |
| Interview stages | 4 | 3 |
| Typical backgrounds | Olympiad mathematics, Competitive programming, Physics and mathematics undergraduates, Poker and games backgrounds | Quantitative undergraduates, Econometrics, Engineering graduates |
Compensation by role
Indicative mid-level total compensation, US dollars, New York reference market.
| Role | Jane Street | Optiver |
|---|---|---|
| Quant Researcher | $575k | — |
| Quant Trader | $600k | $420k |
| Quant Developer | $450k | $320k |
| HFT / Low-Latency Engineer | — | $380k |
A dash means we hold no indicative figure for that role at that firm. It is recorded as unknown rather than estimated.
Jane Street
Known for ETF and options market making at scale, an unusually strong graduate pipeline, and a distinctive engineering culture built around OCaml. Entry-level packages are among the highest in the industry, and the firm hires heavily for probabilistic reasoning rather than finance knowledge.
Interview process
- 1. Screening callRecruiter conversation and background discussion.
- 2. Probability and mental mathsFast-paced expected-value and market-making games.
- 3. Technical roundsAlgorithms, problem solving, and for engineers a strong functional-programming component.
- 4. Final / on-siteMultiple interviewers, trading games, and estimation under time pressure.
Optiver
One of the largest options market makers globally, with a strong graduate programme and a trading culture built around speed of reasoning. Amsterdam base salaries look modest until the bonus multiple is accounted for.
Interview process
- 1. Numerical testTimed mental arithmetic and sequences — a genuine filter.
- 2. Technical / probabilityOptions intuition, expected value and market-making scenarios.
- 3. On-siteTrading games, case discussion and culture assessment.
Markets where both compete for talent
Other comparisons
Methodology
Figures are expressed as annual total compensation (base salary plus expected performance bonus) in the reference market's local currency, converted from a US dollar base. They describe typical market ranges rather than any individual offer, and exclude sign-on payments, deferred equity and carried interest. Portfolio-manager figures reflect formulaic profit-share arrangements and are therefore far more dispersed than any other role.
KnowQaunt 2026.1 · Updated September 2026
These are indicative ranges pending first-party verification. They will be replaced by verified submissions as the Quant Salary Index dataset builds.