XTY Labs - AI Residency

XTX Markets is an algorithmic trading firm that actively trades tens of thousands of instruments on over eighty venues with a daily volume of almost three hundred billion USD. We partner with counterparties, exchanges, and e-trading venues globally to provide consistent liquidity in the Equity, FX, Fixed Income, Commodity & Options markets, helping market participants throughout the world obtain the best prices in the various assets classes we cover.

We leverage the talent of the people who work here, modern computational techniques and state-of-the-art research infrastructure to analyse large data sets across markets quickly and efficiently, to maximise the effectiveness of our proprietary trading algorithms. We are actively seeking new methods and ideas. The models that drive our trading strategies have evolved considerably over the last 10 years, from econometric methods that gave our company its name, to trees, to neural networks, to modern deep learning architectures. Our dedicated research cluster contains a hundred thousand cores and twenty thousand A/V100 GPUs (and growing fast).

At XTX Markets technology is our business and we are a diverse organisation which attracts outstanding talent from across all industry backgrounds. We are focused on teamwork and our people collaborate on all aspects of the business, working openly and with respect for each other, our clients, and the market. Our culture is non-hierarchical and one where everyone is valued. We strive for excellence in everything we do.

XTY Labs, a new division established by XTX Markets in 2024, stands at the intersection of finance and modern deep learning. XTY Labs will pioneer the future of algorithmic trading, with a strategic focus on developing robust, scalable algorithms that extract useful predictions of future market activity from massive datasets.

Situated in Hudson Yards in New York City, XTY Labs offers a state-of-the-art workspace designed to inspire creativity and innovation. Here, researchers will have the opportunity to explore new ideas and transform their machine learning expertise -- backed by XTX Markets' expansive research cluster, rich datasets, and advanced technological infrastructure -- into algorithms that profitably trade hundreds of billions of dollars a day on exchanges around the world.

Emphasizing practical application, XTY Labs mission is to swiftly integrate successful models into the market, directly enhancing XTX's trading strategies and operations. This direct pipeline from research to implementation establishes XTY Labs as a premier destination for those looking to make a significant impact in the financial sector through original machine learning research.

XTY Labs is seeking AI Residents with a history of significant contributions to research in elite academic settings, such as PhDs, post-docs, or professorships. Exceptional machine learning researchers seeking to explore how their expertise can revolutionize the finance industry are particularly encouraged to apply. Additionally, we will also consider outstanding academics from other fields such as pure math, physics or similar. No prior experience in finance is needed.

This full-time, (up to) year-long residency program is created to provide elite researchers with the freedom, guidance, and resources to create cutting-edge machine learning solutions tailored for the complexities of finance. Top-performers from the program will have the opportunity to transition into the core quantitative team at XTX in London.

XTY Labs offers two pathways within its AI Resident Program, designed to accommodate professionals at varying stages of their research careers. The roles are bifurcated into Junior AI Residents and Senior AI Residents, each tailored to align with the applicants' research experience and expertise.

• Junior AI Resident Position:

This role is ideal for emerging researchers, including PhD candidates nearing the completion of their studies (less than one year from graduation) and those who have recently earned their PhD degrees. A Junior AI Resident role spans a minimum of 6 months with a preference for 12 months.

• Senior AI Resident Position:

The Senior AI Resident position is crafted for researchers with a substantial track record of experience beyond their PhD. This includes individuals who have held positions such as tenure-track or research faculty, or other senior research roles, and have a few years of demonstrable experience in leading research projects. A Senior AI Resident role spans a minimum of 12 months.

AI Residents will be organized into focused cohorts, working in close collaboration with the Research Director Dr. Atlas Wang [Link] and the existing XTX quantitative research team to pinpoint the most impactful research questions. They will benefit from thorough mentorship and hands-on assistance from experienced team members, guaranteeing that their objectives are aligned, and their pace of progress is on track.

Our environment is designed for innovation with a flat organizational structure, a friendly and collaborative culture, and an absence of red tape, allowing you to focus on what you do best — advancing the field of machine learning in finance.

For both AI Resident roles, key responsibilities will include:

• Engage in pioneering research to devise original machine learning algorithms, with the autonomy to investigate and apply novel methods.
• Utilize a broad knowledge base across deep learning, natural language processing, time series analysis, control and optimization, reinforcement learning, among others.
• Architect, build, and refine models, agents, and software prototypes with a focus on robustness and generality.
• Clearly communicate research progress and findings, ensuring efficient internal knowledge transfer both verbally and in writing.
• Foster teamwork and collaborate with XTX Markets’ quantitative research team, contributing to a collective effort of fewer than twenty experienced researchers.

The program offers an unparalleled opportunity to work within a rich computational environment, equipped with an impressive array of resources. Residents will immerse themselves in a culture that promotes collaboration, innovation, and a flat hierarchy, ideal for those ready to make significant impacts in the machine learning landscape of finance. Additionally, the program is designed to bring together a wide range of backgrounds and interests, not only those who self-select finance as a full-time career path. 

• PhD. degree (or soon expected) in computer science, electrical engineering, math, or another quantitative field.
• Strong evidence of ability to conduct original research.
• Demonstrated practical experience and deep understanding of modern deep learning architectures, in particular transformers and its variants.
• Good knowledge of other machine learning techniques and statistics.
• Solid programming skills (language does not matter; Python is fine).
• We will also consider candidates with an outstanding research background who have not yet had the chance to explore machine learning research.

• Proven expertise in developing and working with foundational models, including but not limited to large language models and multi-modal frameworks.
• Additional experience with multi-modal, multi-domain, and continual learning is desirable.
• A background in managing and analysing large, unstructured, and noisy datasets is desirable.
• Theoretical and hands-on knowledge of time series forecasting is a plus.

The base salary for the AI resident role will be $40,000 per month. The base salary for the senior AI resident role will be $50,000 per month. You will work from our NY office at least three (3) days per week and will enjoy similar benefits to those of our US permanent employees as appropriate.

Our interview process seeks to gain signal in the following topics:

• Your research experience.
• Modern machine learning techniques, especially deep learning.
• Classical machine learning techniques.
• General mathematics (linear algebra, analysis, probability etc.)
• Hands-on programming and data engineering.

We seek to get a broad signal in our process. Successful candidates are those who are strong in all areas and exceed expectations in at least one.

Your interview process will follow this format:

• Applicants are required to submit their Curriculum Vitae along with two select research papers that showcase their highest quality work or most pertinent to the field.
• The first interview round will be a discussion with the Research Director to delve into the applicant's research history, knowledge in deep learning/machine learning, compatibility with XTY's goals, and to gauge their innovative thought processes.
• The next stage will be a practical take-home exercise, where applicants are provided with a dataset to construct and develop an AI model comprehensively from start to finish.
• The final stage is a collaborative interview involving 2 to 3 researchers from the quant team to further assess the candidate's fit for the role and their collaborative synergy with the team.

To apply, please send an email to careers@xtxmarkets.com including your CV/Resume, the 2 papers you believe best showcase your research ability, and a short accompanying commentary on why you chose those papers.