Practice Director, Quantitative Trading, AI & Capital Markets

Location and Type

London (Hybrid, 2 days WFH, 3 days in-office)

Full-time, Practice Director / Associate Director level

Company:
Salt

Salt is launching a new specialist practice covering Quantitative Trading, AI Research, and Capital Markets Technology, and we're looking for the person to build and lead it. This is not an MD hire. This is not a come and run a desk role. This is a genuine platform to build a specialist business inside a global recruitment group, backed by Salt's brand, infrastructure, CEO sponsorship, and dedicated research capability in Brazil and South Africa.

If you're currently billing big numbers in a boutique quant/trading recruitment firm and feel capped, this is the platform you've been waiting for.

Build Salt's Quantitative Trading, AI & Capital Markets practice into a recognised specialist business, with the ambition of becoming a £3m+ GP division within three to five years.

• Building the go-to-market strategy for this practice from the ground up
• Mapping and winning clients across hedge funds, prop trading firms, market makers, investment banks, and capital markets technology businesses
• Personally billing while building your team and pipeline
• Creating a repeatable delivery model using dedicated Brazil and South Africa research support
• Building candidate communities across quant research, quant development, low latency engineering, ML/AI, and trading systems
• Producing market maps, salary guides, and talent intelligence reports
• Hosting client events, breakfasts, and leadership dinners
• Hiring, training, and mentoring a future team of consultants
• Working across Salt's full offering: permanent, contract, executive search, and advisory

• Hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, market makers, investment banks, asset managers, crypto trading firms, exchanges, AI‑first investment firms, fintechs, and capital markets technology businesses. Think Citadel, Two Sigma, Jane Street, DE Shaw, Millennium, Point
  72, Hudson River Trading, Optiver, Man Group, and similar.

• Quant researchers, quant developers, C++/Python/Rust engineers, low latency and FPGA engineers, ML engineers, AI researchers, execution and market data engineers, systematic trading specialists, and trading/risk technology talent.

• Proven billing history in quant, trading, hedge fund, or capital markets technology recruitment (likely £350k-£750k+)
• Strong, established client development ability in this space
• Entrepreneurial drive, you want to build something bigger than your current desk
• Ability to lead, train, and mentor a future team
• Comfortable working with offshore/nearshore research support
• Currently operating as a Principal Consultant, Senior Principal Consultant, Associate Director, Practice Lead, Team Lead, or rising Director

• Global brand and infrastructure across 22 offices in 15 countries
• CEO sponsorship and marketing support
• Dedicated research team build‑out (Brazil and South Africa)
• Existing technology, data, and financial services client relationships
• Full CRM and technology stack
• Entrepreneurial freedom to build a practice, without startup risk

• Year 1: £750k-£1m GP, 5-10 strategic clients, 4 dedicated researchers, first retained/exclusive search wins
• Year 2: £1.5m-£2m GP, 2-3 fee earners, 6-8 researchers, recognised market presence, expansion into US and UAE
• Longer term: £3m-£5m GP specialist division, with a team of 5+ fee earners and 10+ researchers

Salt is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.