A licensed fund in Dubai with systematic quantitative as its largest allocation across both funds is seeking an experienced Quant Desk Lead and Portfolio Manager to own the book, the research platform, execution, risk monitoring, and P&L across both funds. This is not a pure research role — the successful candidate brings live strategies, validates them rigorously, and moves from research to production in weeks, not quarters — with full ownership of the quant desk from data ingestion through live trading, and compensation structured as competitive fixed + 20% of P&L above an 11% annual hurdle with high-water mark protection.
About This Quant Desk Lead Opportunity — Dubai Licensed Fund
Fund Structure: Licensed fund with independent monthly NAV and independent Risk Manager — a credible, well-governed institutional structure
Systematic Weight: Systematic quantitative is the largest allocation across both funds — this role has the highest strategic importance in the entire fund complex
Existing Infrastructure: Multi-exchange data pipelines, historical data, signal library, backtesting engine, execution and monitoring on Google Cloud — ready to deploy
Self-Custody: MPC wallet self-custody structure — aligned with best practice for crypto asset security and institutional credibility
Why This Quant Desk Lead Role Stands Out
Full Desk Ownership — Not a Research Role: Own the book, P&L, position sizing, execution, hedging, leverage, and exposure within the risk policy — real capital, real responsibility, real performance attribution
20% P&L Incentive: Receive 20% of P&L above an 11% annual hurdle, after desk costs — with high-water mark and loss carry-forward that aligns compensation with sustained performance
Weeks to Production: Short decision chain and a fast route from strategy research to live capital — no lengthy committee processes, no bureaucratic delays
Existing Infrastructure: Google Cloud execution, historical data, backtesting engine, and signal library already in place — start building on solid foundations, not from scratch
Position Overview
This Quant Desk Lead and Portfolio Manager in Dubai leads the quant desk and runs its book across both funds, owns P&L, position sizing, execution, hedging, leverage, and exposure within the risk policy, researches, builds, tests, and deploys systematic strategies into live trading, owns the research platform end to end including data ingestion, backtesting, execution, and live risk monitoring, sets the standard for realistic backtesting including fees, funding, slippage, fills, turnover, and capacity, decides what brings the existing statistical arbitrage sleeve live or what should replace it, and reports weekly on performance, risk, and attribution to the CIO and Risk Manager — operating as the sole owner of the desk from day one in a licensed fund with independent governance and institutional infrastructure already in place.
Why This Role Matters: As Quant Desk Lead and Portfolio Manager at a Dubai licensed fund, you are not managing a research pipeline — you are running a live book with real capital and a 20% P&L incentive that aligns your outcome with the fund’s performance. When your statistical arbitrage sleeve correctly identifies a persistent funding rate anomaly across exchanges, your market-neutral strategy navigates a volatility event without correlation breakdown, or your backtesting discipline prevents a strategy from going live with unrealistic assumptions about fees and slippage — you are demonstrating exactly the combination of rigorous research discipline and live trading execution that separates a quant desk that compounds from one that does not. In Dubai’s growing systematic fund landscape, this is the most consequential quant desk seat currently available.
Responsibilities
P&L Ownership, Book Management & Live Trading
- Lead the quant desk and run its book across both funds — owning P&L, position sizing, execution, hedging, leverage, and exposure within the defined risk policy at all times
- Research, build, test, and deploy systematic strategies into live trading — moving from validated research to production capital in weeks, not quarters, using the fund’s existing Google Cloud execution infrastructure
- Decide what brings the existing statistical arbitrage sleeve live or what should replace it — exercising genuine strategic authority over the desk’s strategy mix and capital allocation
- Report weekly on performance, risk, and attribution to the CIO and Risk Manager — providing clear, honest, and analytically rigorous performance attribution for all strategies running live
Research Platform Ownership & Backtesting Standards
- Own the research platform end to end — data ingestion, signal generation, backtesting, execution integration, and live risk monitoring — with full technical accountability for the platform’s accuracy and reliability
- Set and enforce the standard for realistic backtesting — including realistic fees, funding costs, slippage, fill modelling, turnover constraints, and capacity analysis — preventing strategies from going live with backtest assumptions that production will immediately violate
- Apply strong validation discipline — out-of-sample testing, walk-forward testing, and multiple-testing correction — to ensure no strategy enters the live book without credible evidence of genuine edge beyond data-fitted patterns
- Assess with rigour whether each edge survives realistic turnover, fees, spreads, slippage, and capacity constraints at the fund’s AUM and trading style
Crypto Derivatives, Cross-Exchange & Funding Arbitrage
- Apply deep understanding of crypto derivatives — perpetual futures, funding rates, liquidation dynamics, margin mechanics, and risk — to design and manage strategies that exploit structural inefficiencies in crypto market microstructure
- Evaluate and deploy cross-exchange arbitrage, funding arbitrage, and market-neutral strategies — using multi-exchange data pipelines and the fund’s existing historical data and signal library as the research foundation
- Manage cross-exchange collateral and the fund’s MPC wallet self-custody infrastructure — ensuring capital efficiency across exchanges while maintaining security and operational best practices
Requirements
Essential Requirements
- Live track record running market-neutral, long-short, statistical arbitrage, funding arbitrage, or cross-exchange arbitrage strategies with real capital — verifiable performance net of realistic trading costs is mandatory, not optional
- Experience with systematic/code-based trading — not only discretionary or long-only strategies; the desk is 100% systematic
- Strong understanding of crypto derivatives — perpetual futures, funding dynamics, liquidation mechanics, margin, and risk management across exchanges
- Full-stack Python ownership from data to execution — strong Python in production, not only research notebooks or prototypes
- Strong validation discipline — out-of-sample testing, walk-forward testing, multiple-testing correction — applied to all strategies before live deployment
- Comfortable being the sole owner of the desk at the outset, without a research team behind them — self-directed, independent, and fully accountable
Nice to Have
- MSc or PhD in Mathematics, Finance, Computer Science, or another STEM field
- Portfolio management experience across crypto, equities, and options
- Market-neutral or multi-manager pod experience
- Cross-exchange collateral management experience
- Familiarity with DeFi market structure, tokenised securities, AI and robotics equities
About This Quant Desk Opportunity — Dubai Licensed Fund
This Quant Desk Lead and Portfolio Manager role at a licensed Dubai fund offers the rare combination of genuine desk ownership, meaningful P&L incentive, ready-to-use infrastructure, and an institutional fund structure with independent governance — all in one of the world’s most attractive jurisdictions for systematic trading. Systematic quantitative strategies are the largest allocation across both funds, which makes this the most strategically important hire the fund complex is making. For a quant PM with a live track record, production Python expertise, and the discipline to backtest realistically and validate rigorously, Dubai’s growing systematic fund ecosystem and this fund’s infrastructure, governance, and incentive alignment make this a career-defining opportunity in 2026.
Career Excellence: Lead the quant desk, own the P&L, and earn 20% above an 11% hurdle — systematic trading, stat arb, crypto derivatives at a Dubai licensed fund.
Who Should Apply?
- Live Systematic PMs — Statistical & Funding Arbitrage: With a verifiable live track record running market-neutral, statistical arbitrage, or funding/cross-exchange arbitrage strategies with real capital — net performance documentation required
- Crypto Derivatives Quant Traders: With deep understanding of perpetual futures, funding rates, liquidation dynamics, and cross-exchange margin mechanics — applied to systematic live trading at fund scale
- Full-Stack Python Quant Engineers: Who own production Python from data ingestion through signal generation, backtesting, execution, and live risk monitoring — not just research notebook prototypers
- Backtesting Discipline Specialists: Who apply realistic fee, slippage, fill, turnover, and capacity modelling consistently — and have the intellectual honesty to kill strategies that cannot survive realistic assumptions
- Dubai-Based or UAE-Eligible Quant PMs: Seeking a P&L-incentivised quant desk leadership seat at a licensed Dubai fund with existing infrastructure, independent governance, and a short decision chain from research to live capital
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