Salaries and Bonuses in Quant Finance: broken down by role, seniority & region
If you're looking for a job in quant finance, chances are you're after one of the coveted and high-paying quantitative researcher roles. Not everyone can get those, however, so what is compensation like in the broader quant finance ecosystem?
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The Certificate in Quantitative Finance program (CQF) recently released a 2026 careers guide to quantitative finance, containing average salary and total compensation (TC) ranges for multiple roles. We compared this year's figures to those in 2024 and found that pay has risen for every role and every seniority on a global scale. It's a good time to be a quant but, as always, it's particularly good to be a quant in America; the most senior quant researchers make an average total compensation of ~$700k, up from $650k in 2024. Even junior quants can expect total compensation over $300k.
Pay has risen for researchers at a faster rate than for quant developers. As AI causes roles to converge, those developers are under threat from both sides; AI-assisted researchers could assume their more quant-y responsibilities while AI-assisted software engineers can take on their more technical tasks. It's particularly bad to be a quant developer in Asia and Europe; there, researchers earn almost double the total compensation at each level of seniority. In Europe, quant development directors make $270k while quant research directors make $643k.
Pay in Asia is generally much lower for all quant roles but there are some bright spots. Quant risk pay has risen massively, with mid-level risk people now able to expect almost 50% more compensation. At director level, risk staff in Asia earn slightly more than those in Europe.
Data science, which also includes machine learning and AI engineering roles, is more of a mixed bag. In Europe, data science directors make more than quant developers while, in America, they earn almost $100k less.
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