Balyasny's new AI fellowship program could get you a job on a trading desk

Hedge funds and trading firms are building out their 'AI labs' and applied AI teams. Balyasny has one of the more robust AI teams, but has launched a new program for junior-to-mid level AI professionals which could land them a seat on a top trading desk.

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Balyasny has created an 'AI Fellowship Program,' based in New York. It's recruiting multiple candidates on a full-time basis to participate in three-month rotations across individual trading teams at the hedge fund; the AI fellow will become "the dedicated AI partner to a portfolio manager," and build new tools for them and their team to use. Before embarking on these rotations, the AI fellows spend a few months with Balyasny's central AI team, which had 20 researchers as of March and is led by Google alum Charlie Flanagan. The role is targeted at masters graduates or above with 3-5 years of experience, and pays a salary of up to $225k. 

In principle, the fellowship seems similar to the 'AI accelerators' seen in banks. JPMorgan established a team earlier this year that would be deployed into different divisions to see how they could benefit from AI. The difference between that and Balyasny's AI fellowship is that the trading desks that the fellows rotate into have "signalled demand for these seats, and the goal is a permanent home on the desk."

Balyasny isn't the only firm hiring applied AI professionals. At Hudson River Trading, where traders have been known to spend $1k per day on AI tokens, there are four openings for HAIL, its AI lab. Each role is based in either London or New York and offers salaries of up to $300k. In Miami, Citadel Securities is hiring graduates for its centralized applied AI team; the market maker has taken a page out of the books of the major AI labs and has begun referring to people in that team as 'members of technical staff.'

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