Job vacancy: Equity quant, hedge fund

The editorial team of eFinancialCareers.com analyses a current job vacancy that looks significant, intriguing or otherwise of interest: Senior European equities quantitative analyst, hedge fund. Salary to 100,000 plus bonus.

Hedge funds are one of the more volatile sectors of the recruitment market. Though hundreds closed down last year, even more opened up and there are now about 8,000 worldwide. Their assets have doubled in the last five years to more than $650bn.

Headhunters say recruitment has fallen from the levels of two years ago, but job advertisments show there is still plenty of activity. Among the few companies that advertise by name, Fortis Investment Management in Paris is looking for an experienced hedge fund manager to take care of arbitrage funds, while Deutsche Bank wants an operations controller in London with two years experience.

Jobs advertised through recruitment companies include a marketer across different asset classes to a global client base, a senior analyst to cover financial stocks and a database developer.

Few give any indication of pay, beyond the usual 'competititve' or 'excellent'. One that does is an ad for a 'head of European equity - quantitative analyst' in London, which offers 'to 100,000 + bonus' .

Matthew Lamb of the recruitment agency JMMS, which placed the ad, said it is unusual for a hedge fund to offer a salary above 80,000 even to a senior manager. The big financial rewards are based on performance.

But in this case the fund wants an unusual mix of skills and is willing to pay up front to find them. Experience of multi-factor financial models (involving the price of assets and economic fundamentals) is required alongside specific IT knowledge (involving C++, Java or statistical languages).

On top of that, strong communications skills are needed as a key part of the job is making a good impression on clients and investors.

"This is where some applicants fall down," said Lamb. "A hedge fund isn't like an investment bank, where someone with technical skills might just stay in a corner. In this job they will be meeting people too."

The hedge fund has already rejected some well qualified candidates purely because of their personality, he said.

"A typical hedge fund has between 20 and 50 staff," said Lamb. "In a company of that size, applicants need to show they are entrepreneurial."

The successful candidate will develop trading strategies and build stock selection models for a European equity fund of more than $350m, the ad says.

Job Vacancy looks at advertisements from both eFinancialCareers.com and other sources