Top 10 Highest Paying Internships in 2023

We’re covering the top 10 highest-paying internships in 2023 - and no, the highest-paying internship is not a Roblox software engineering internship (it’s not even in our top 10).

Quantitative Finance: The Secret Harvard of Wall Street

It has to be software engineering, right - not really. Then it must be in finance or banking - not quite.

It turns out that the highest-paying internships fall in the intersection between STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and finance in this little know sub-industry called quantitative finance.

Quantitative finance professionals, or “Quants”, use advanced mathematical models and algorithms to trade financial securities and execute investment strategies. This includes things like regression analysis, stochastic time-series forecasting, feature engineering, and other statistical analysis methods.

So how hard it is to land a quantitative finance internship? In short, extremely hard. 

Many quantitative hedge funds and investment firms have hired former mathematics olympiad winners, rocket scientists, and Ph.D. graduates. Undergraduate students recruited to these firms usually come from the best technical universities in the world, which include Caltech, MIT, and Harvard.

There isn’t much publicly available data on the acceptance rates for many of these quantitative investment funds, but many speculate that your odds are well below Harvard’s 4% acceptance rate and even likely to fall below the 1% mark.

Internship Opportunities Ranked by Pay

Here is a summary of the top 10 internship opportunities in 2023:

• Radix Trading
• Arrowstreet Capital
• Citadel
• Five Rings
• Vatic Investments
• Susquehanna International Group (SIG)
• Jane Street
• Optiver
• Jump Trading
• Hudson River Trading (HRT)

Interns at these quantitative finance and investment firms are typically paid a monthly salary and sometimes an initial signing bonus. The following sections will break down the compensation for quantitative interns at the top 10 highest-paying quantitative trading firms.

Note: Individual compensation may vary as some contracts (especially the signing bonus) can be team dependent and/or subject to negotiation.

#10 Hudson River Trading (HRT) - $54,383

Quantitative trading and research interns at Hudson River Trading are paid approximately $54,383 for a typical 10-week internship program. And no, that’s not an annualized figure, interns are really paid that much for their summer work (and we’re not even in the top 5 yet).

Hudson River Trading is a math-focused tech trading firm headquartered in New York with multiple office locations around the world.

• Signing Bonus: $10,000
• Monthly Salary: $17,753
• Total Compensation: $54,383
• Other Perks: Housing stipend, company provided transport, free food, onsite gym

#9 Jump Trading - $58,333

Jump Trading is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois with major offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, and other major cities across the globe. The firm trades in a variety of markets, but those particularly interested in crypto trading should consider looking into their Crypto trading teams.

• Signing Bonus: $15,000
• Monthly Salary: $17,333
• Total Compensation: $58,333
• Other Perks: Corporate housing, company provided transport, relocation stipend, free food

#8 Optiver - $58,750

Optiver is a proprietary trading and market making company headquartered in Amsterdam with major offices in Chicago, London, Singapore, and more. The company takes pride in being one of the oldest market makers in the world.

• Signing Bonus: $10,000
• Monthly Salary: $19,500
• Total Compensation: $58,750
• Other Perks: Corporate housing, company provided transport, free food

#7 Jane Street - $62,083

Jane Street is a quantitative trading firm with major offices in New York, London, and Hong Kong. The company first built its name trading domestic and international ETFs and have since expanded to a wide range of other securities like equities, bonds, options, etc.

• Signing Bonus: $10,000
• Monthly Salary: $20,833
• Total Compensation: $62,083
• Other Perks: Housing stipend, relocation stipend, free food

#6 Susquehanna International Group (SIG) - $63,333

Susquehanna International Group, also known as SIG, is headquartered in Philadelphia. In addition to traditional proprietary trading, the company has also built its name in other businesses which include institutional brokerage, private equity, venture capital, sports betting, and more.

• Signing Bonus: $20,000
• Monthly Salary: $17,333
• Total Compensation: $63,333
• Other Perks: Corporate housing, transportation stipend, relocation stipend, onsite gym, free food

#5 Vatic Investments - $65,000

Vatic Investments, or Vatic Labs, is a New York based trading firm that strives to use AI and machine learning to develop autonomous trading agents. If you believe in the firm’s approach to autonomous trading, consider checking out Vatic Investments.

• Signing Bonus: N/A
• Monthly Salary: $26,000
• Total Compensation: $65,000
• Other Perks: Free food

#4 Five Rings - $67,000

Five Rings is a quantitative trading firm with offices in New York and London. The firm emphasizes its focus on speed as its company objective aims to: “Find [opportunities] first and profit from them quickly.”

• Signing Bonus: $15,000
• Monthly Salary: $20,800
• Total Compensation: $67,000
• Other Perks: N/A

#3 Citadel - $72,000

Citadel is a quantitative trading firm formerly headquartered in Chicago with its new headquarters in Miami, Florida. The hedge fund is run by famous billionaire investor Ken Griffin and proudly carries its recently acquired title of being the most profitable hedge fund of all time.

• Signing Bonus: $20,000
• Monthly Salary: $20,800
• Total Compensation: $72,000
• Other Perks: Corporate housing, relocation stipend, transportation stipend, free food

#2 Arrowstreet Capital - $72,500

Arrowstreet Capital takes the second spot for being the second highest-paying company when it comes to internships in quantitative finance. The firm is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and invests with a strong focus on global equity assets. 

• Signing Bonus: $10,000
• Monthly Salary: $25,000
• Total Compensation: $72,500
• Other Perks: Transportation stipend, free food

#1 Radix Trading $90,000

No, this is not a typo. Radix summer interns are quoted to make up to $90,000 over a 10-week summer internship. The firm is privately funded and runs its major operations in Chicago, New York, and Amsterdam.

• Signing Bonus: $25,000
• Monthly Salary: $26,000
• Total Compensation: $90,000
• Other Perks: N/A

Additional Resources

If you’re interested in developing your technical knowledge to apply for competitive finance and investment roles, consider checking out our Complete Finance & Valuation Course and our Excel for Business & Finance Course to join our students who have landed jobs at Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg, Amazon, and other top-tier companies.

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