Jobs › Akuna Capital

Quantitative Research Intern, Summer 2027

Akuna Capital · Chicago, IL · Quant

Posted Jul 14, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Sep 20, 2026

Apply at Akuna Capital

Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

Behavioral

Walk me through a time you built a statistical or machine learning model to solve a real problem. What did you choose, and why?

whether the candidate can explain modeling choices and tradeoffs rather than just naming a tool

Tell me about a project where your first approach didn't work. What did you do next?

resilience and whether they iterate methodically instead of guessing randomly

Tell me about a time you had to make a decision quickly with incomplete information. What did you do?

comfort with fast, imperfect decision-making, which mirrors trading conditions

How do you usually decide a research idea isn't worth pursuing further?

judgment about resource allocation and willingness to cut losses on a dead end

Technical

Say you flip a biased coin where you don't know the bias, but you get to see 100 flips. How would you estimate the probability of heads, and how confident would you be in that estimate?

grasp of estimation, confidence intervals, and Bayesian versus frequentist thinking

You have two random variables and you're told they're uncorrelated. Are they independent? Explain your reasoning with an example.

depth of probability foundations, not just memorized rules

I'm going to give you a quick math or coding problem and I want you to talk through it out loud as you work. Ready?

speed and accuracy under time pressure, and whether they can think aloud clearly

Explain the bias-variance tradeoff to me like I'm someone outside your field.

communication skill and true understanding versus rote recall

How would you construct a portfolio of strategies to maximize return for a given level of risk, and what would you do differently under constraints like limited capital?

understanding of optimization and portfolio construction basics

Describe a piece of code you wrote in Python that you were proud of. What made it good, beyond the fact that it worked?

coding maturity: readability, efficiency, and whether they think about more than just correctness

Situational

How would you design a trading strategy using machine learning, starting from a dataset you've never seen before?

whether they understand the full research pipeline: feature selection, backtesting, overfitting risk

Suppose your model shows great backtested performance but keeps losing money live. What would you check first?

awareness of overfitting, look-ahead bias, and regime change as practical failure modes

If you had a market that was moving fast and your model's inputs were suddenly stale or missing, what would you do?

practical judgment about risk management when data quality breaks down

Why options market-making instead of another type of quant work, and what do you think makes markets efficient or inefficient?

genuine interest in the business versus a generic quant interest, and basic market intuition

Practice this interview out loud.

Offer builds a real interview for this exact role at Akuna Capital from your resume and this job description, asks the questions one at a time, and tells you what landed. The first one is free.

Practice this out loud

The full job description

As published by Akuna Capital.

About Akuna: Akuna Capital is an innovative trading firm with a strong focus on collaboration, cutting-edge technology, data driven solutions, and automation. We specialize in providing liquidity as an options market-maker – meaning we are committed to providing competitive quotes that we are willing to both buy and sell. To do this successfully, we design and implement our own low latency technologies, trading strategies and mathematical models.  Our Founding Partners first conceptualized Akuna in their hometown of Sydney. They opened the firm’s first office in 2011 in the heart of the derivatives industry and the options capital of the world – Chicago. Today, Akuna is proud to operate from additional offices in Sydney, Shanghai, London, and Singapore.  What you’ll do as a Quantitative Research Intern at Akuna: Akuna’s Quant team is looking to add Quant Research Interns to a team of mathematicians, statisticians and technologists for our 10-week Akunacademy internship program in our Chicago office. This team creates trading strategies scientifically by combining its quantitative expertise with sophisticated understanding of derivatives and financial markets. We are looking for talented researchers who can apply and develop machine learning algorithms to contribute to Akuna’s strategy portfolio. In this role you will: <ul> <li>Develop trading strategies using statistical and machine learning algorithms.</li> <li>Design and implement optimization algorithms for portfolio construction.</li> <li>Develop quantitative models describing market behavior.</li> <li>Advance existing initiatives and explore opportunities for new research topics.</li> </ul> Qualities that make great candidates: <ul> <li>Pursuing a bachelor’s, masters or PhD in Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics (or a related subject)</li> <li>Expertise in statistics and machine learning</li> <li>Experience building mathematical models for complex real-world problems</li> <li>Intermediate programming skills in Python </li> <li>The ability to react quickly and accurately to rapidly changing market conditions, including the ability to quickly and accurately respond and/or solve math and coding problems are essential functions of the role</li> <li>Financial experience is not a requirement</li> <li>Must graduate by August 2028</li> <li>GPA of 3.5 or above</li> <li>Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required on the first day of employment including F-1 students using CPT, OPT or STEM</li> </ul> **Resumes must be submitted in PDF format.  In addition to technical skillsets, Akuna values the unique perspectives people can bring to the table to collaboratively solve complex problems and drive Akuna forward. We want everyone to feel empowered to apply. We welcome your application and encourage you to take the first steps toward your future with us! Please note: By submitting an application for this role, you are indicating this is your top preference and acknowledge you will not be considered for other Quant and/or Tech roles at Akuna this recruiting season. This acknowledgement does not limit applications to Trading roles - in addition to this role, you may apply to any Trader roles of interest.  In accordance with Illinois Equal Pay Act, the minimum annualized base salary starts at $145,000. Exact compensation offered may vary based on many factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and skill set. The minimum base salary herein was determined in good faith by Akuna Capital LLC.

Apply at Akuna Capital

Quantitative Research Intern, Summer 2027

Likely interview questions for this role

Practice this interview out loud.

The full job description

Related jobs

Junior Quantitative Researcher

Accounting Intern (Term-Time, Part-Time)

Junior Trader

Fundamental Equity Analyst

Experienced Options Trader - SOFR

Expression of Interest: 2027 Trading Sneak Peek Weeks