Quantitative Trader Intern, PhD

About Tower Research Capital

Tower Research Capital is a leading quantitative trading firm founded in 1998. Tower has built its business on a high-performance platform and independent trading teams, with a 25+ year track record of innovation and a reputation for discovering unique market opportunities.

Tower is home to some of the world’s best systematic trading and engineering talent. We empower portfolio managers to build their teams and strategies independently while providing the economies of scale that come from a large, global organization. Engineers thrive at Tower while developing electronic trading infrastructure at a world-class level. Our engineers solve challenging problems in low-latency programming, FPGA technology, hardware acceleration, and machine learning. Our ongoing investment in top engineering talent and technology ensures our platform remains unmatched in functionality, scalability, and performance.

At Tower, every employee plays a role in our success. Our Business Support teams are essential to building and maintaining the platform that powers everything we do—combining market access, data, compute, and research infrastructure with risk management, compliance, and a full suite of business services. Our Business Support teams enable our trading and engineering teams to perform at their best. At Tower, employees will find a stimulating, results-oriented environment where highly intelligent and motivated colleagues inspire each other to reach their greatest potential.

Role Overview

Responsibilities include designing, implementing, and deploying high-frequency trading algorithms; researching and enhancing existing trading strategies; exploring trading ideas by analyzing market data and market microstructure for patterns; creating tools to analyze data for patterns; contributing to libraries of analytical computations to support market data analysis and trading; and developing, augmenting, and calibrating exchange simulators.

Responsibilities

• Designing, implementing, and deploying high-frequency trading algorithms
• Working with a dedicated mentor to research and enhance existing trading strategies
• Exploring trading ideas by analyzing market data and market microstructure for patterns
• Creating tools to analyze data for patterns
• Contributing to libraries of analytical computations to support market data analysis and trading
• Developing, augmenting, and calibrating exchange simulators

Qualifications

• Availability for 4-6 months or a 10-week summer term
• PhD student focusing on mathematics, statistics, physics, electrical engineering, computer science, economics, or related fields
• A strong background in C++, R, Python, or an object-oriented programming language
• Strong problem-solving abilities
• A passion for new technologies and ideas
• The ability to manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment
• Strong communication skills
• Interest in financial markets

Preferred Qualifications (not required)

• Past industry experience
• Experience with machine learning

Compensation

Anticipated New York weekly base salary range: $3,500–$5,700.

Benefits

Tower’s headquarters are in the historic Equitable Building, in the heart of NYC’s Financial District, with a global footprint of offices. Our benefits include:

• Competitive compensation package
• Free breakfast, lunch, and snacks daily
• Exciting networking and social events (e.g., Broadway shows, escape rooms, cooking classes)
• Opportunities to learn from senior management across the firm
• Mentors from your alma mater and other top institutions

At Tower, you’ll find a collaborative and welcoming culture, a diverse team, and a workplace that values both performance and enjoyment. No unnecessary hierarchy. No ego. Just great people doing great work—together.

Tower Research Capital is an equal opportunity employer.