Graduate base salary
$235,000 to $300,000
Software engineers and PhD researchers, US
Experienced trader base
$175,000 to $350,000
Quantitative trader ad, US
Intern pay
$4,500 to $5,800 a week
Software engineering and PhD research interns, US
Typical base, US
$191,000 to $291,000
Middle half of filed pay, all quant roles and levels
Europe pay per employee
$727,000
2025, all roles and levels
New York quant trader, first year
EstimateAbout $295,000 to $450,000
Base plus bonus at every firm, for comparison
Citadel Securities is a global market maker: a team of traders, researchers and engineers who provide liquidity to clients across global markets, using quantitative research, machine learning and a great deal of computing power. It is a separate firm from Citadel, the hedge fund, and hires and pays separately.
In the US it publishes a base salary range in every job ad: $235,000 to $300,000 for a graduate engineer or PhD researcher. In Europe it publishes nothing, but its UK service company files accounts that show what it pays on average.
How much does Citadel Securities pay graduates?
Graduates start on a base of $235,000 to $300,000 in the US, whether they join as software engineers or as PhD quantitative researchers. Every ad adds a discretionary incentive payment, without an amount, and none says where in the range a new hire lands.
Engineers and researchers therefore start on the same terms. What separates them later is the incentive payment, which the firm sets each year and does not publish.
What does Citadel Securities typically pay across its quant roles?
Across its US quant roles and every level, the middle half of the base Citadel Securities files is $191,000 to $291,000. Researchers have the highest median of the three roles, at $283,000.
Typical base pay at Citadel Securities in the US, July 2025 to June 2026
| Role | Typical base | Median |
|---|---|---|
| Quant trader | $194,000 to $249,000 | $200,000 |
| Quant researcher | $194,000 to $313,000 | $283,000 |
| Quant developer | $178,000 to $258,000 | $213,000 |
The middle half of the base Citadel Securities files for each role, across every level it hires at. The bonus is paid on top.
The firm files its US work visas as ranges, including positions in New York and Miami. Each range counts at its middle, because the lower end is often the legal minimum for the role, so the upper end in the table below is the better guide to what a hire is offered.
Filed US base salaries, July 2025 to June 2026
| Job title as filed | Lower end (median) | Upper end (median) |
|---|---|---|
| Quantitative Researcher | $250,000 | $325,000 |
| Software Engineer | $175,000 | $255,000 |
| Quantitative Research Analyst | $250,000 | $325,000 |
| Quantitative Trader | $68,869 | $325,000 |
Citadel Securities files a range for most positions. The lower end is often the legal minimum for the role, not a typical salary, so read the two ends together.
What does the first year pay in total?
Our estimate for a first-year quant trader, across every firm in New York, is $295,000 to $450,000 in base and bonus together, and $325,000 to $450,000 for a first-year quant researcher. Citadel Securities does not publish its incentive payments, so its own first-year total stays private. The market estimate is the best guide to what the first bonus adds.
What do Citadel Securities traders earn?
An experienced quantitative trader is advertised at a base of $175,000 to $350,000, the widest range the firm publishes, plus a discretionary incentive payment. The top of it is $50,000 above the graduate range.
Reported by employeesReported
Individual reports show bonuses as large as base, or larger. One researcher with one to three years in Miami reported $154,000 in base and $280,000 in additional pay. A software engineer with two years in New York reported $260,000 in base and $260,000 in bonus in 2026.
How does pay grow after the first year?
Through the incentive payment first, and the base only later. In what its traders, researchers and engineers report, the base holds steady through the first six years and rises in the senior band, while total pay grows at every step.
What Citadel Securities employees in the US report, by years of experienceReported
| Experience | Base | Total pay |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 years | $260,000 | $434,000 to $505,000 |
| 4 to 6 years | $260,000 | $460,000 to $560,000 |
| 7 years or more | $300,000 | $600,000 to $750,000 |
Base and bonus that traders, researchers and developers report on public pay sites. Total pay is the middle half of what they report, or both figures where two people report. A single year’s bonus can fall well outside it.
Across every firm in New York, our estimate for a quant trader with 4 to 6 years of experience is $395,000 to $930,000. The spread is wide because it runs from a modest year to a strong year at the best-paying firms.
How much do Citadel Securities interns earn?
Interns earn a base of $4,500 to $5,800 a week, both in software engineering and in PhD quantitative research. The ads add that interns may be eligible for a sign-on bonus, a housing stipend or covered accommodation, and company-sponsored travel, without amounts.
What does Citadel Securities pay in Europe?
About $727,000 per employee in 2025, averaged over every role and level. Citadel Securities Europe Services Ltd employs its staff in London, Zurich and Paris: 277 people on average in 2025, 247 of them in the UK. It paid $201.4 million in wages, salaries and bonus. Cash-settled share-based payments of $93.1 million are a separate line and are not in that figure.
Citadel Securities Europe Services Ltd, filed accounts
| Year | Average staff | Wages, salaries and bonus | Per employee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 277 | $201.4m | $727,000 |
| 2024 | 244 | $182.9m | $750,000 |
That average is not an offer. It covers every role: in 2025, 60 staff worked in the front office and 217 in technology and support.
How does Citadel Securities compare with other firms?
Its graduate range tops out at the same $300,000 that Jane Street, HRT and SIG advertise as a flat base, but starts lower, at $235,000. Citadel, the hedge fund, advertises the same $235,000 to $300,000 to its graduate quant research analysts. DRW advertises $250,000 to $300,000, and IMC $250,000.
Citadel Securities states $235,000 to $300,000, the highest graduate base in any US ad, level with Jane Street, Hudson River Trading and SIG. This is base pay only: the bonus comes on top, and within a few years it grows to match or pass the base.
- Hudson River Trading$300,000
- Jane Street$300,000
- Jump Tradingintern rate$300,000
- SIG$300,000
- DRW$250,000 to $300,000
- Citadel Securities$235,000 to $300,000
- Citadel$235,000 to $300,000
- IMC$250,000
- Optiver$200,000
- Two Sigma$165,000 to $190,000
- Flow Traders$175,000
The base salary each firm states in its US graduate job ads, September 2026. The bonus comes on top.
How do you get a Citadel Securities offer?
For traders and researchers, the filter is probability, statistics and expected value, worked quickly and accurately under time pressure. Engineers are tested on low-latency systems and C++, and on a project they built, discussed in depth until the interviewer finds the edge of what they know.
The practice page has a timed practice run of the trading assessment, with probability, statistics and expected-value questions. For the engineering track, the quant developer interview guide covers the systems and project rounds.