As the financial landscape becomes more sophisticated and competitive, firms across Europe are navigating a complex talent market, driven by emerging technologies, regulatory changes, and evolving workforce expectations. This year, several trends are reshaping how organisations attract, manage, and retain top talent within quants.
From the rising prevalence of long non-compete clauses to portfolio diversification and the growing impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Alex Morris, Vice President – Quantitative Analytics, Research & Trading Selby Jennings Europe, explores the key trends within quants in Europe, offering insights into how they’re shaping the job market and what they mean for employers and candidates alike.
Increasing non-compete clauses
Hedge funds and proprietary trading firms are using lengthy non-compete agreements as a retention strategy, especially in EMEA. In some cases, we are seeing 24 month sit outs, and the market average is around the 12-month mark.
Most buy side hiring managers have team objectives that need to make an impact in a much smaller period, and thus have been struggling to attract desired talent from competitors within a six month window. It’s a difficult prospect when a potential new employee cannot impact the PnL until the following financial year.
The impact of this has been a greater increase in hedge funds and proprietary trading firms hiring from the sell side, where they are likely to have to wait a maximum of three months. Secondly, candidates are more likely to resign from roles before finding a new opportunity and interviewing closer to the end of their non-compete clause.
Attempts to get around non-compete clauses have been mostly unsuccessful, especially when candidates are paid a salary throughout the period. A large amount tends to fall on the individual’s relationship with their ex-firm, and the similarities between their previous and new role.
Diversification
Diversification has been a huge trend for the past few years and will continue to be a focus area in 2025. Some markets are becoming increasingly difficult to find alpha or scale in AUM and thus we have seen several new business ventures. These include discretionary trading firms trying to systematise their investment offering, equity stat-arb hedge funds building out macro strategies, and HFT firms branching out into daily-weekly rebalance horizons. The appeal here to candidates is to take ownership of a new area with the potential for faster career progression.
Retention strategies
In a market in which talent is incredibly sparce, firms are paying even bigger attention to their retention strategies. Both sell side and buy side firms are looking at offering better flexibility, guarantees on bonus payments (sometimes formulaic) or verbal assurances (“handshake agreements”) around promotions.
Machine learning & artificial intelligence
Until now, the biggest impact of AI / ML within buy side and sell side firms has been in saving time, increasing efficiency, or reducing costs, whether that be automating BAU tasks or detecting anomalies.
There is still ample demand for individuals who can utilise these techniques for direct revenue generation. ML algorithms can use reinforcement learning to make better decisions under uncertainty or better predict prices.
LLMs will also also be a particularly interesting area for clients this year, with many internal chatbots or recommender tools already being built.
Geographical trends
From a geographical point of view, London and the Middle East are the most prominent locations for hiring activity. A large driver of the hiring volume in the Middle East has been the ability for candidates based there to balance APAC and EMEA time zones, in a year where APAC markets have been incredibly hot.
Interested in additional insights?
 | The Quantitative EdgeThis comprehensive report provides organisations and professionals with a better understanding of the talent challenges, opportunities, and hiring strategies in the world of quants globally., covering:
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