Trading Desk Operations (TDO)
Agile, adaptive problem solvers from diverse academic backgrounds.
Trading Desk Operations Specialists wear many hats, helping to manage the operational side of the trading desk’s activities and interfacing with various groups within the firm to ensure our work is accurate and efficient. This hardworking TDO team is integral to the firm’s success, building and maintaining desk infrastructure that supports the trading of thousands of financial products across 200 venues in over 45 countries.
There is no single ideal candidate for this role. Over the years, we’ve hired math teachers, systems engineers, as well as individuals from a range of economics or computer science backgrounds. Candidates eager to use their technical, organizational, and communication skills in a fast-paced environment do best in this position.
It’s important to emphasize the hands-on nature of this role; TDOs help build the tools that allow our firm to operate smoothly and execute trades efficiently. They utilize technical coding, skilled organization, and collaborative problem-solving to deliver smart, innovative solutions that make our trading better.
We don’t expect applicants to have a background in finance. We’re more concerned with finding individuals who are passionate about optimization and finding solutions to complex problems.
Interviewing
We want to understand how you learn and what it’s like to work with you.
The TDO interview process includes a take-home exercise, a phone interview, and a final round of interviews.
The take-home exercise is a relatively short activity that assesses your attention to detail and how you adapt to an unfamiliar concept. This is our first opportunity to see how you learn and how you respond to complex problems.
Following the take-home exercise, you’ll have a brief phone interview focused on problem solving and critical thinking. You may need to try a few methods to get to the solution, and we’ll encourage you to think of ways to sanity-check your answers.
If that goes well, you’ll be invited to a final-round interview, which may take place virtually or in person. During this visit, you’ll meet with Trading Desk Operations Specialists who sit on a variety of desks. At this stage, we’ll dive into questions that are a little more involved and also more representative of the actual work we do. We don’t expect you to immediately understand all parts of the questions you’re asked. You’ll be encouraged to ask clarifying questions along the way so you have all the information needed to answer and so we understand how you’re approaching the problem.
These interviews test a range of skills, but they are especially focused on your aptitude and learning style. While no interview can be a perfect simulation of what a role entails, we hope they will give you a good sense of what it’s like to work here and the types of problems you’ll solve every day.
