Machine Learning Research Lead
IMC Trading is seeking a Machine Learning Research Lead with proven experience applying state-of-the-art machine learning to solve challenging trading problems. This role will drive the development of a centralized ML environment to be used across all areas of trading at IMC. The ideal candidate will have experience working with other researchers, traders, and engineers to build and continuously improve a research platform to drive innovation via ML. We firmly believe that success for research-driven efforts lies in bringing together skills in ML, statistics and trading intuition as well as a problem-solving mindset and pragmatism. This is an opportunity to dive deep into feature engineering and focus on applying a wide range of ML models as well as to perform research on building custom models.
Your Core Responsibilities:
- Lead the design, development, and deployment of machine learning models to enhance trading performance across various asset classes
- Research, test and prototype new algorithmic ideas; deploy advanced ML techniques applicable to market prediction, signal generation, and portfolio optimization
- Collaborate with quantitative traders, researchers and developers to translate market insights into data-driven models and features
- Oversee data acquisition, preprocessing, and feature engineering for structured and unstructured data sources
- Ensure robust backtesting, validation, and model interpretability practices
- Mentor junior researchers and contribute to a culture of research excellence and experimentation
- Drive strategic decisions on model architecture, experimentation pipelines, and infrastructure for scalable research
Your Skills and Experience:
- PhD or Master’s in Engineering, Math, Statistics, Computer Science, or related quantitative field
- 4+ years of experience building applied ML models; previous experience in trading environment preferred
- Proven expertise in developing and deploying predictive models in high-frequency or low-latency environments
- Strong programming skills in Python; proficiency in ML libraries such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, and/or high-performance libraries like Jax
- Experience working with financial data, alpha generation, market microstructure, and/or alternative datasets.
- Strong understanding of theoretical foundations of ML algorithms
- Deep understanding of time series modeling, signal processing, and model evaluation
- Prior people management experience preferred
- Ability and desire to work in a collaborative team environment
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
The Base Salary range for the role is included below. Base salary is only one component of total compensation; all full-time, permanent positions are eligible for a discretionary bonus and benefits, including paid leave and insurance. Please visit Benefits - US | IMC Trading for more comprehensive information.
Salary Range
$200,000 - $275,000 USD
About Us
IMC is a global trading firm powered by a cutting-edge research environment and a world-class technology backbone. Since 1989, we’ve been a stabilizing force in financial markets, providing essential liquidity upon which market participants depend. Across our offices in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, and India, our talented quant researchers, engineers, traders, and business operations professionals are united by our uniquely collaborative, high-performance culture, and our commitment to giving back. From entering dynamic new markets to embracing disruptive technologies, and from developing an innovative research environment to diversifying our trading strategies, we dare to continuously innovate and collaborate to succeed.
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