Trading Desk

The Firm

XTX Markets is a leading algorithmic trading firm. We build models that forecast prices for more than 53,000 financial instruments across equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities and crypto. Those forecasts are used to trade on exchanges and other venues and provide liquidity to clients worldwide. The firm trades over $250bn a day across 35 countries and has over 300 employees in London, Singapore, New York, Paris, Bristol, Mumbai, Yerevan and Kajaani.

XTX is a technology business. Trading is driven by research, large-scale computation and careful engineering. Over the last decade, our trading models have evolved from the econometric methods that gave the firm its name, through trees and neural networks, to modern deep learning architectures. We expect that evolution to continue.

XTX has an unusually large research platform for a trading firm, with well over 25,000 GPUs and more than 1 exabyte of usable storage, alongside further compute being built in Finland. The aim is simple: good ideas and decisions should not be bottlenecked by data, infrastructure or compute.

At XTX Markets, technology is our business. We are a diverse organisation that attracts outstanding talent from across all industry backgrounds. Our people collaborate across the business, working openly and respectfully with each other, our clients and the market. Our culture is non-hierarchical, everyone is valued, and we strive for excellence in everything we do.

The Role

The Trading Desk is the real-time control layer for XTX’s automated trading businesses, working with quantitative research, trading technology, risk, operations, exchanges and clients to keep the engine operating reliably 24/7.

As a Trading Desk Analyst, you will take operational ownership of this layer. The role requires deep systems thinking rather than software engineering, and a strong grasp of the principles, inputs, outputs and failure modes of our automated trading infrastructure.

In this role, you will use internal tools, dashboards and automated workflows to monitor, diagnose and optimize real-time engine performance. When anomalies arise, you will interrogate the data quickly and execute or coordinate interventions to safeguard firm, client and counterparty capital. You will translate complex operational signals into high-impact decisions that prevent losses and drive measurable value.

This role is for a highly curious, analytical thinker who thrives under pressure and wants direct responsibility for a multi-billion dollar trading engine. We are looking for someone with an ownership mindset on every shift, who proactively prevents losses and improves system outcomes.

Responsibilities

As a member of the desk, your responsibilities include:

• Real-Time Supervision: Own real-time supervision of automated trading strategies and related operations, focused on the markets most relevant to XTX.
• System Intuition & Vigilance: Develop a strong understanding of expected engine behaviour. Maintain a healthy, proactive scepticism of automated outputs, hunting for irregularities and taking timely action before issues escalate.
• Metrics & Analytics: Use trading metrics, dashboards, alerts and data workflows to understand performance, liquidity, execution quality, risk, positions and operational health.
• Incident Response: Respond calmly and decisively to market events, venue issues, client flow, risk-limit changes and internal anomalies, escalating when required.
• Incident Ownership: Own system alerts, anomalies and operational breaks from detection through resolution, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
• Feedback Loop: Provide precise, evidence-based feedback to quantitative research and trading technology teams, turning live-market observations into useful questions and improvements.
• Tool Development Partnership: Partner with researchers, developers and systems engineers to enhance monitoring and control tools; define what tools should show and how they should be used, rather than writing code for its own sake.
• Knowledge Transfer: Maintain clear handovers and post-event notes so judgement, context and lessons learned compound over time, helping the global desk improve and avoid repeat incidents.
• Shift Flexibility: Cover relevant APAC market hours, including scheduled shift work and occasional weekend coverage.

About You

Someone who is a good fit will resonate with most, if not all the following:

• A genuine interest in automated trading, price forecasting, market structure, suboptimal signals and noisy data, with a passion for interrogating complex systems to find operational irregularities and failure modes.
• Strong quantitative reasoning and practical trading intuition; able to form hypotheses, read ambiguous evidence, change your mind quickly and distinguish signal from noise.
• The ability to operate a complex system without knowing every line of code or modelling detail, while learning enough of the principles to make sound decisions.
• Strong judgement in uncertain conditions where the right action may not be obvious and the cost of delay or inaction can be meaningful.
• Absolute ownership, accountability and commitment. We want someone who treats the engine’s behaviour as their responsibility, not someone seeking a passive monitoring role.
• Very comfortable using data, dashboards and internal tools to diagnose problems and improve outcomes. Basic technical literacy is expected for navigating our data structures.
• Precise written and verbal communication skills, especially when explaining messy live issues to researchers, engineers, risk managers, operations teams and senior stakeholders.
• Integrity, intellectual honesty and high standards. XTX is a flat environment where ideas are challenged directly, and evidence matters more than hierarchy.

Essential Attributes

• At least 5 years’ experience on a highly automated trading desk, in electronic market making, trading operations, risk, market structure or another high-accountability operational environment. Knowledge of FX, equities, futures, commodities or crypto markets is most beneficial.
• A strong academic background in a quantitative discipline such as Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Physics, Engineering or a related field.
• Functional proficiency with Python, Pandas and SQL. We value candidates who use these tools to parse data, audit anomalies and optimize desk workflows. Note: This is an infrastructure mastery role, not an incubator for algorithmic strategy design.
• Experience making decisions from incomplete or noisy data in a fast-moving environment.
• A track record of being exceptionally conscientious and reliable, with a desire to optimize processes over time.

PLEASE NOTE THAT EMPLOYEES OF XTX MAY NOT ENGAGE IN DAY-TRADING. YOU MAY BUY AND HOLD SECURITIES, CRYPTO AND OTHER ASSETS BUT YOU MUST HOLD EACH POSITION FOR AT LEAST 30 DAYS AFTER PURCHASE, REGARDLESS OF PRICE FLUCTUATION.