2026 edition · publishing Q1 2027

Quant Compensation Report 2026

Senior portfolio manager, quant researcher, and head-of-trading compensation benchmarks across hedge funds, market makers, and multi-strategy platforms, built from placement data and structured senior-candidate conversations.

Why a narrower report

Most compensation surveys in finance read everything and signal nothing. They mix junior and senior, generalist and specialist, region and strategy, and the resulting ranges are so wide that no one negotiating a real offer can use them.

The Bayes Group report will cover a deliberately narrow population: senior portfolio managers, heads of quantitative research, and heads of trading at hedge funds, market makers, and multi-strategy platforms. Every benchmark will be anchored to placement data, structured conversations with senior candidates, and public filings, banded so that no firm or person is identifiable.

It publishes in the first quarter of 2027, after the year-end bonus round, so that 2026 bonuses enter the bands as paid rather than as projected. For a senior seat the bonus is most of the number, and a report that went to press before it was paid would be quoting a forecast.

It is meant to be useful to people who already know the market: principals calibrating an offer, CIOs sizing a pod build, COOs validating an external advisor's numbers, and senior candidates evaluating a counter. It is not a survey of survey participants.

What it covers

Senior Portfolio Managers

Base, sign-on, guaranteed minimums, performance-fee splits, deferral schedules, sit-out clauses: across multi-strategy pods, standalone quant funds, and systematic macro shops.

Quant Researchers & ML Scientists

Compensation curves from senior researcher to head of research. Stratified by strategy (stat arb, systematic equity, macro, ML alpha) and by platform tier.

Heads of Trading & Execution

Execution leadership, market-making heads, and trading infrastructure leads. Pay differentials between standalone funds and platform pods, plus carry / P&L participation structures.

Geographic Differentials

New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Gulf. Tax-adjusted net-take comparisons, relocation packages, and the live arbitrage between regions in 2026.

Methodology

Placement and conversation data

Benchmarks are drawn from placement data, structured conversations with senior candidates, and public filings, banded by seat and region. Any cell with fewer than three observations is suppressed rather than estimated.

Senior-only roster

Mid-level and graduate compensation is widely surveyed elsewhere. The Bayes report covers the population that survey data systematically misses: senior PMs, heads of research, heads of trading, and their direct reports.

Strategy- and platform-aware

A multi-strategy pod PM and a standalone systematic fund PM running comparable books earn structurally different packages. The report disaggregates by strategy, platform tier, and seat economics.

Confidential by design

No firm or candidate is identifiable. Bands and ranges only. The report is distributed under a confidentiality framework that allocators, GCs, and HR leads can read.

Ahead of the report

The Bayes Insights archive carries the running thread of compensation, sit-out, and mobility analysis that the report will synthesise. A few of the most relevant:

Related Practices

The 2026 edition publishes in the first quarter of 2027

It goes first to the principals, allocators and senior candidates we work with, with a public summary to follow. Ask for it now and it reaches you on release. If an offer is in front of you before then, the seat-level read that bears on it is available now.

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