Also called: Quant Dev
Writes ultra-fast software that runs trading strategies, where microseconds matter.
You shave 3 microseconds off how long your trading system takes to react to a price change, then debug a crash that happened at the market open.
BLS lumps traders into securities sales agents (median ~$78k), which badly understates trading pay. Typical figures shown are salary plus bonus; bonuses depend on profits and can swing from zero to many times salary.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's or master's in computer science; C++ expertise.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mathematics.
Growing faster than average. High demand at trading firms.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI coding assistants cut routine work; squeezing microseconds out of C++ and keeping live trading safe needs deep human engineers.
Classes: AP Computer Science A, AP Calculus, Physics.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-1252.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.