Graduate base salary
$300,000
Traders, researchers and engineers, New York
First-year total pay
ReportedAbout $386,000
Average that entry-level engineers report
Intern pay
About $5,770 a week
A $300,000 yearly base, paid for the weeks you work
Filed base, every level
$300,000
Every trader, researcher and engineer in its US salary filings
Jane Street is a global trading firm and liquidity provider, founded in New York in 2000 by a small group of traders and technologists. Today it has more than 3,000 employees across five offices and trades on more than 200 venues in 45 countries. It builds almost all of its software in-house, in a functional language called OCaml.
It is also one of the best-paying employers in finance, and one of the easiest to read. Where most firms advertise a range, Jane Street states one base salary: $300,000 for a graduate trader, researcher or software engineer in New York. The bonus on top is where its pay pulls away from the rest of the market.
How much does Jane Street pay graduates?
A graduate at Jane Street in New York starts on a base salary of $300,000, whether the role is trader, researcher or software engineer. The figure is in each of the firm’s new-grad job ads, which add that base pay is only one part of total pay, alongside an annual discretionary bonus.
Its US salary filings say the same thing. Jane Street files one base for every position of a title, and in the year to June 2026 that base was $300,000 for every Software Engineer, Trader and Researcher it filed.
Filed US base salaries, July 2025 to June 2026
| Job title as filed | Base |
|---|---|
| Software Engineer | $300,000 |
| Trader | $300,000 |
| Researcher | $300,000 |
Jane Street files one base for every position of each title.
What does the first year pay in total?
Jane Street does not publish its bonus, so the first-year total comes from what its employees report. Across every firm in New York, our estimate for a first-year quant trader is $295,000 to $450,000. Jane Street’s $300,000 base alone reaches the low end of that range, so with a bonus its first year sits in the upper half, and its most recent reports are above the top.
Reported by employeesReported
Nine entry-level software engineers in New York have reported their pay, most of them since late 2025. Their total pay averages about $386,000, made up of about $284,000 in base and $99,000 in bonus, with the rest in other pay. The reports range from $250,000 to $512,500, and the three 2026 reports with a $300,000 base show totals between $461,250 and $512,500.
How does pay grow after the first year?
Mostly through the bonus. The base hardly moves: Jane Street’s ad for an experienced software engineer states the same $300,000 as its graduate ads. What changes with the years is the bonus, which is set each year and can be several times the base for a senior trader.
What Jane Street employees in the US report, by years of experienceReported
| Experience | Base | Total pay |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $275,000 | $386,000 to $425,000 |
| 4 to 6 years | $256,000 | $400,000 to $483,000 |
| 7 years or more | $300,000 | $750,000 to $900,000 |
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 the whole firm the numbers are far higher, because they include senior traders. Jane Street paid $9.38 billion in total compensation in 2025, about $2.68 million per employee on average.
How much do Jane Street interns earn?
Interns are paid at the same yearly rate as graduates. Jane Street’s New York quantitative research internship states a $300,000 base, paid for the weeks you work. That comes to about $5,770 a week, or roughly $58,000 for a ten-week summer.
Reported by employeesReported
Interns who have shared their offers report a sign-on bonus and corporate housing. One Summer 2026 intern in New York reported $25,000 a month and a $25,000 sign-on bonus.
How does Jane Street compare with other firms?
On graduate base pay, Jane Street shares the top of the market with Hudson River Trading and SIG: all three advertise a flat $300,000 in the US. Citadel, Citadel Securities and DRW advertise ranges that reach the same figure, and IMC advertises $250,000.
Jane Street states $300,000, the highest graduate base in any US ad, level with 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.
- Jane Street$300,000
- Hudson River Trading$300,000
- Jump Tradingintern rate$300,000
- SIG$300,000
- DRW$250,000 to $300,000
- Citadel$235,000 to $300,000
- Citadel Securities$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.
What does Jane Street pay in London?
Jane Street does not publish London salaries, but its UK partnership files public accounts. In 2025 it paid $1.48 billion in salaries, allowances and benefits to 790 staff on average, about $1.88 million each. That is not what a new hire earns: it averages every role and level, bonuses included, and it rose sharply from 2024.
Jane Street UK Partnership LLP, filed accounts
| Year | Average staff | Salaries and benefits | Per employee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 790 | $1,484.4m | $1.88m |
| 2024 | 688 | $753.1m | $1.09m |
Of the 790, 335 worked in technology, 268 in trading and 187 in infrastructure. The accounts report in US dollars.
Which roles does Jane Street hire for?
Jane Street’s trading is built by three groups working in a tight loop: traders, researchers and software engineers. Around them, specialists in distributed systems, security, networking and compilers build the tools they use.
Traders, researchers and engineers start on the same $300,000 base in New York, so the choice between roles is not a choice between starting salaries. The interview process differs by role: the interview guide covers the trading track in detail.
How do you get a Jane Street offer?
Jane Street hires for how you think under uncertainty more than for what you already know about markets. Its interviews lean on probability, expected value and quick, careful arithmetic, and the trading track adds betting and market-making games where you have to price and size a decision on the spot.
The interview guide walks through each round. The practice page has timed questions in the same style, so the first time you meet a market-making game is not in the interview itself.
What does Jane Street not publish?
Some parts of the package stay private. Jane Street does not publish the sign-on bonus for graduates, whether the first-year bonus is guaranteed, when the bonus is paid, or a level structure.