How we validate

Every listing passes the same five checks, or it is not published

Validation is not a claim about quality - it is a fixed sequence of tests applied identically to every vacancy, with an explicit outcome when a test fails.

How does KnowQuant validate a job listing?

A vacancy is published only when it is read on an employer-operated careers system we track, survives deduplication against everything already held, resolves to a real city and country, and carries an annual pay range that is either employer-stated or a labelled benchmark band. Across 22 tracked boards, 1,457 vacancies from 21 employers currently meet all four; 248 of those quote the employer's own figure. Boards are re-read every six hours and vacancies that disappear are marked closed with a date rather than deleted.

Tracked boards

21 returned cleanly on the last run

Live vacancies

1,457

All five checks passed

Employer-stated pay

248

The rest carry a labelled band

Last collection run

today

Boards re-read every six hours

The validation checklist

1 · Verifiable source

The vacancy was read on an employer-operated careers system we track, and the source link is stored with the record.

Passes: Stored source, employer, board type and the timestamp of the run that saw it.
Fails: Held back. Nothing reaches the index from an aggregator, a recruiter repost or a second-hand feed.

2 · Deduplication

A key of employer + normalised title + resolved city decides whether this is a new vacancy or a re-sighting of one already held.

Passes: The existing record's last-seen date is updated; the count does not move.
Fails: Duplicates never inflate a market, role or firm figure.

3 · Resolvable location

The free-text location must resolve to a real city and country pair, not a region, a placeholder or 'flexible'.

Passes: Locality plus country are published on the advert and in its structured data.
Fails: Counted in totals but excluded from every city figure, and never published as a listing.

4 · Labelled pay range

Either the employer stated an annual range in the advert, or our benchmark model produces a band for that role, seniority and market.

Passes: Published with an explicit label so you always know which of the two you are reading.
Fails: Implausible or non-annual figures are discarded rather than converted by guesswork.

5 · Re-checked and retired

Every tracked board is re-read on a six-hourly cycle and each vacancy is confirmed still live.

Passes: Last-seen date advances; the advert stays in the index.
Fails: The vacancy is marked closed with a date. It is never silently deleted, which is what makes time-to-close measurable.

Source traceability, worked through

Each listing keeps a reference, the run that first saw it, the run that last confirmed it and the stored source link. Employers are described rather than named in public, but the link is held against the record: quote a reference and we can re-read the board and publish a correction. These are real records, as last read from the index.

KQ-E90F0D

Recruiting Operations & Enablement Specialist

Employer: An established electronic market maker
Location resolved: Chicago, United States
Pay (benchmark band): $100,000–$160,000 USD
First seen: 31/10/2026
Last confirmed: today

Open the record →

KQ-D545B9

Engineering Manager - Full-Stack Web

Employer: A fast-growing electronic market maker
Location resolved: Chicago, United States
Pay: Not published
First seen: 31/10/2026
Last confirmed: today

Open the record →

KQ-75A64F

Quantitative Researcher

Employer: A fast-growing high-frequency trading firm
Location resolved: Chicago, United States
Pay (employer-stated): $150,000–$250,000 USD
First seen: 30/10/2026
Last confirmed: today

Open the record →

What validation does not prove

It measures advertised demand, not total hiring. Senior quant seats - portfolio managers above all - are frequently filled without ever reaching a public board.
A benchmark band is a model output, not an offer. It is labelled as such everywhere it appears, and it never overrides an employer-stated figure.
Coverage is uneven by employer. Comparing two firms' vacancy counts is only meaningful where both have boards we read live.

The underlying rules - deduplication keys, skill terms, confidence bands - are set out in the data and methodology note, and quant relevance is derived in the Quant Signal Score.

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.

KnowQuantIndex 2026.1 · Updated September 2026

Modelled bands describe the market, not an individual offer. Where an employer states pay, the stated figure is used and labelled as such.