Quantitative Engineer - Exotic Derivatives (Contract)
Location: London, UK (Hybrid/On-site)
Engagement: Contract (Inside IR35)
Duration: 12 months
Rate: £750-£800 per day (via an umbrella company)
About the Role
We are seeking a Distinguished Quantitative Engineer for a high-impact, senior individual-contributor contract role based in London. This is a position for a seasoned professional with 15+ years of demonstrable experience independently designing, implementing, and delivering production-grade pricing and risk models for complex exotic derivatives across Equity, Rates, FX, and Commodities.
We require deep, hands-on ownership. You will be responsible for everything from mathematical formulation and numerical implementation to performance optimisation and direct contribution to live analytics and trading systems.
What You Will Do
- End-to-End Model Ownership: Independently design, implement, and validate pricing and risk models for complex and exotic OTC derivatives (from math formulation to production rollout).
- Core Library Evolution: Build and evolve core analytics libraries used for valuation, sensitivities, scenarios, and XVA.
- Advanced Numerical Implementation: Implement advanced numerical techniques including Monte Carlo methods (with variance reduction), Tree/lattice methods, PDE approaches, and curve construction (bootstrapping/interpolation).
- High-Performance Engineering: Deliver low-latency, high-performance implementations optimised for large books and intraday risk.
- Codebase Evolution: Review, debug, and optimise existing quantitative codebases for correctness, stability, and scalability, setting the technical standards for implementation rigor.
Required Experience & Technical Skills
- 15+ Years of Hands-On Experience: A proven track record as a quantitative developer/engineer (bridging pure modeling and pure software engineering).
- Production Delivery: Proven experience personally authoring and deploying production pricing libraries, risk engines, exotic payoff models, or calibration frameworks.
- Cross-Asset Exotic Domain Expertise: Deep understanding of exotic derivatives across Equity, Rates, FX, and/or Commodities, including front-to-back derivative lifecycles.
- Technical Stack: Strong production experience in Java is essential alongside C++ and/or Python writing numerically intensive code (not just scripting).
- Numerical Computing: Solid understanding of algorithm design, performance optimsation, memory management, and distributed systems.
- Domain Depth: Practical experience with cashflows, resets, curve frameworks (OIS, multi-curve), sensitivities, scenario risk, and regulatory measures.
What This Role Is NOT
To save your time and ours, please note that this role is:
- Not a people-management or team-lead position.
- Not a pure research or academic quant role.
- Not an architecture-only or "ivory-tower" position.
- Not suitable for candidates without direct, hands-on production code ownership.
Education
Advanced degree (Master's or PhD preferred) in Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent senior-level commercial experience.
To Apply
If you are a highly autonomous, accountable expert who can deliver tangible outcomes quickly in a complex environment, we want to hear from you. Please submit your CV highlighting the quantitative components and libraries you have personally authored and moved into production.
Randstad Technologies is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.
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