Quant developers, you will earn more if you know VBA, C++ or Java

29 June 2011

2 minute read

Quant developers, you will earn more if you know VBA, C++ or Java

All quant developers are not created equal. Pay for these roles will obviously depend on a number of factors including experience, size and type of company they work for and asset class expertise.

Creating average pay scales based on programming skills alone can therefore never be 100% accurate. Having said that, taking all the above variables into account, quant developers with knowledge of VBA generally earn more than other programming language expertise in the City.

Quant recruiters P&D has taken in responses from around 250 quant developers working in London, and has surmised that those with VBA skills earn an average total comp of 149k. This breaks down as a 109k base, 35k bonus and 5k in benefits.

This is largely because it's the favoured skill-set in the front office, and quants in other parts of the business tend to use other programming languages, suggests Dominic Connor, partner at P&D.

As the chart below shows (reproduced in as a table for those blocked from Flickr), this is followed by C++ quant developers who earn a total comp of 143k, then Java expertise which pays 143k. The most lowly-paid quant developers are those with the relatively niche F# knowledge, which pays an average of 122k.

Pay for quant developers based on skill-set:

VBA

Base: 109k

Bonus: 35k

Benefits: 5k

Total: 149k

C++

Base: 102k

Bonus: 36k

Benefits: 5k

Total: 143k

Java

Base: 101k

Bonus: 35k

Benefits: 45k

Total: 140k

KDB

Base: 98k

Bonus: 28k

Benefits: 8k

Total: 134k

SQL

Base: 99k

Bonus: 26k

Benefits: 5k

Total: 130k

Base: 96k

Bonus: 24k

Benefits: 5k

Total: 125k

Base: 102k

Bonus: 14k

Benefits: 6k

Total: 122k

Source: P&D Quant Recruitment

P&D's research suggests that higher pay is based both skill-set and its proximity to the front office. Connor says that demand is high for quant developers with knowledge of KDB, but because it's used for back office or risk related projects, the pay (at 134k) isn't particularly high compared to other roles.

AUTHORPaul Clarke

C.
C. Charles
7 July 2011
Certainly won't be using that recruiter! They obviously haven't got their finger on the pulse when it comes to the real world of quants and quant developers (unless of course their finger is on the lifeless body of what was the quant world 15 or more years ago). Implementing/optimising pricing libraries is where technologists add value and these libraries are almost without fail implemented in C++, not Java and certainly not VBA. Don't get me wrong ad hoc models are implemented in Excel VBA for testing/validation purposes or to fill the gap to allow a new exotic trade to be priced until it is eventually included in the firm wide pricing library. Let he who as ever implemented a whole pricing library in either Java or VBA cast the first stone.
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Ri
Richard Burns
7 July 2011
Entirely disagree. Experienced C++ quant developers are more marketable and more in demand than somone with strong VBA. they are also paid more especially if working directly for the business as opposed to IT. Not sure which decade this survey was compiled in?
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Mo
Mom
30 June 2011
What a rubbish chart.
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Mi
Michael
30 June 2011
Why does VBA get paid more when it is a much simpler language?
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Qu
Quant recruiter
29 June 2011
100% disagree with this pay scale. If you have less C++ in comparison to VBA, you will not be as compatiable to the front office as someone who has a strong C++ background. Quant developers work alonside with the quants who mostly use C++ thus C++ quant devs get paid more then VBA devs.
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