Quantitative Risk Analyst — Derivatives & Clearing

About the role

Polymarket is hiring a Quantitative Risk Analyst to design and implement enterprise-scale risk models at the heart of our clearing operation. This is a hands-on role where you'll build models in production code, not just specify them.

What You'll Do

• Design, implement, and maintain enterprise-scale risk models covering market risk, margin, and counterparty exposure for a clearing organization
• Build volatility and correlation models for derivatives, including calibration, backtesting, and ongoing model validation
• Develop and run stress-testing frameworks: historical scenarios, hypothetical shocks, and reverse stress tests
• Design and tune auto-liquidation logic — trigger thresholds, liquidation waterfalls, and safeguards against cascading liquidations
• Use AI tools extensively to accelerate model development, coding, and research — and rigorously validate AI outputs against established risk models before deployment
• Monitor model performance in production, investigate breaks, and iterate quickly
• Partner with engineering, trading, and product teams to embed risk controls into platform architecture
• Document model assumptions, limitations, and validation results to an audit-ready standard

What We're Looking For

• 5–7 years of quantitative risk experience at a clearinghouse, exchange, prime broker, trading firm, or similar
• Proven expertise designing and implementing risk models at enterprise scale — production systems, not just research prototypes
• Deep experience modeling volatility, correlation, option skews, and option pricing at scale for trad-fi derivatives, perpetuals, and fully collateralized event contracts
• Strong fluency with AI-assisted development and coding, paired with the judgment to pressure-test AI outputs against well-established risk models and catch what looks plausible but is wrong
• Expert-level Python (NumPy, pandas, SciPy; solid software engineering practices)
• Advanced degree in a quantitative field (math, statistics, physics, financial engineering, CS) or equivalent experience
• Strong mathematical foundation in stochastic calculus and linear algebra
• (Plus) C# and/or C++ for performance-critical or production systems
• (Plus) Familiarity with crypto market structure, perpetuals, or prediction markets
• (Plus) Experience with CCP risk frameworks (CPMI-IOSCO PFMI, default management, margin methodology)
• (Plus) Experience building real-time risk systems

Benefits

• Competitive salary & equity
• Unlimited PTO
• Full Health, Vision, & Dental coverage
• 401k match
• Hardware setup: new MacBook Pro, big display, & accessories