Top trading engineers are pursuing “generational wealth” at AI firms

Making the sort of wealth that will enable your grandchildren to take up crochet is harder than it used to be. But it might still be possible if you join an AI firm soon. With this in mind, recruiters say the procession of engineers leaving trading firms for AI start-ups is really picking up the pace. 

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“It’s gone crazy,” says Joe Long at Edge Executive Search in San Francisco. “Engineers on $2m-$4m at trading firms are joining AI start-ups for equity that could be worth $100m. They know this is their opportunity to make generational wealth.”

The enthusiasm is apparently mutual. While trading firm engineers love AI start-ups, AI start-ups also love trading engineers. “AI start-ups don’t want people from Google or Meta, they want people from Jump or HRT,” proclaims Long. It’s because these people really really know how to code, he says. “High frequency trading people have strong tech and research chops. You can be a software engineer doing C++ low latency trading systems or machine learning for algo trading and it’s transferable.” 

Long was the talent acquisition lead for DRW a few years ago, and so is well-placed to lead traders to AI nirvana. By working for AI start-ups, they can make a “strong cash piece” of $300k, says Long. But it’s the “heavy” equity component that’s really the thing.

This isn’t all though. Most trading firms impose punitive non-competes when people leave, and by joining AI start-ups instead rival trading firms, departing engineers and quant researchers can benefit from “double dipping.” During the non-compete they continue to draw a salary from their previous employer, while also getting paid by the start-up. 

While the AI bubble is inflating, it sounds like a great idea. And even if the bubble bursts, Long says the engineers and quants can always go back to trading firms.

The concept of sitting out your non-compete at a firm where it doesn’t have teeth is nothing new. In the past, quants and technologists joined Meta and Microsoft to double dip. Now it’s Open AI, Anthropic and AI start-ups. Per Karlström, a top FPGA engineer at Hudson River Trading is among those thought to have made the move of late.

There’s a sense of urgency to the process. Wall Street Journal reported in January that Silicon Valley professionals are fretting that this is the last opportunity to make generational wealth before AI turns everyone into manual gig workers. Last year, Long says he placed 25 trading firm technologists into AI firms. This year, he’s targeting 50 of them.

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