Asia-Pacific quant hubs: Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, India, Shanghai and Tokyo

If you only follow quant hiring in New York, Chicago and London, you are missing where many new desks are being built. Over the last two years, the biggest market makers have signed record office leases in Hong Kong, doubled seats in Singapore, opened from scratch in Mumbai, and kept growing long-established teams in Sydney. This guide maps the six Asia-Pacific hubs city by city: who is there, what they hire for, what changed recently, and what the public pay data can actually support.

Last reviewed 2026-10-04. Every specific fact below is labeled: official (from a firm, landlord or regulator), reported (press), or self-reported (Levels.fyi and similar), with the year. Office footprints change quickly, so treat this as a dated map.

The short version

The table lists sourced examples and is far from exhaustive for any city.

Hong Kong: the biggest bet in the region

Hong Kong is where the largest single commitments have landed.

• Jane Street. In April 2025, Reuters reported (via The Standard) that the firm employed 400 people in Hong Kong, was hiring for more than 40 roles there, and was negotiating to occupy six floors at Chater House, over 110,000 sq ft, compared with 2.5 floors a year earlier. (Reported, 2025.) In June 2025, landlord Henderson Land announced Jane Street as anchor tenant at its New Central Harbourfront project: over 223,000 sq ft across six floors, which Henderson called the largest single office leasing transaction in Hong Kong's Central district in decades, with Phase 1 handover expected in early 2027. (Official, landlord press release, 2025.) eFinancialCareers estimated in November 2025 that Jane Street's Hong Kong office "could expand to 1,200 people as a result." (Reported estimate, 2025.)
• Citadel Securities. In May 2026, eFinancialCareers reported that the firm had hired 30 people in Hong Kong so far that year, with 13 open vacancies there, and described Hong Kong as its main APAC office. Its head of APAC, Vikesh Kotecha, was quoted saying the firm is "focused on hiring the best researchers, engineers and traders." (Reported, 2026.)
• Others. Optiver says its Hong Kong office opened in 2007. (Official.) IMC announced an expansion of its Central, Hong Kong office in October 2025 and said it plans to grow its local workforce. (Official, IMC news, 2025-10-28.) Jump Trading has a Hong Kong team trading low and mid-frequency statistical arbitrage that was hiring in 2025. (Reported, 2025.) Reuters also named Tower Research Capital among firms expanding in the city in 2025, and both Tower and HRT list Hong Kong offices on their own sites. (Reported, 2025; official.)

Roles. The common thread is traders, quant researchers and engineers. eFinancialCareers noted that Jane Street's 2025 graduate traders in Hong Kong had studied at schools including Oxford, the National University of Singapore and HKUST. (Reported, 2025.) If Jane Street is on your list, our Jane Street firm guide collects the sourced interview process.

Singapore: FICC, engineering and steady building

Singapore's story is less about a single giant lease and more about firms putting specific businesses there.

• Optiver says Singapore has been "central to Optiver's FICC trading in APAC" since 2021. (Official.)
• Jane Street moved into a new Singapore office in May 2026, according to Bloomberg: 24,000 sq ft at IOI Central Boulevard Towers, doubling seating capacity to 250, with an option to lease more. It was hiring for software engineering, cybersecurity and data-centre engineering, including students and recent graduates as software and Linux engineers. The same report said the firm employs almost 600 people across Asia-Pacific, with the bulk in Hong Kong. (Reported, 2026.)
• Hudson River Trading said at the end of 2024 that it had expanded its Singapore office, though eFinancialCareers reported it hired sparingly there in 2025. (Reported, 2025.) HRT lists its Singapore office at Ocean Financial Centre. (Official.)
• Citadel Securities had hired more than 10 people in Singapore in 2026 by May. (Reported, 2026.) Tower Research Capital lists a Singapore office. (Official.)

Pay context. Public, firm-specific pay data for Singapore is thin. Levels.fyi did not publish a median for Optiver software engineers in Singapore as of 2026-10-04, because it needed more submissions. (Self-reported, viewed 2026-10-04.) Recruiter Morgan McKinley's 2026 guide gives annual Singapore "Quant" medians of S$180,000 for 5 to 10 years of experience, S$275,000 for 10 to 15 years and S$385,000 for 15+ years. These are midpoints from the recruiter's proprietary Total Pay Estimate model, which draws partly on user-submitted salaries. (Third-party recruiter data, 2026.) The category blends banks, funds and trading firms, so treat it as rough context only: it neither benchmarks trading firms nor matches Levels.fyi totals like for like.

Sydney: the market-making training ground

For Optiver, Sydney is the oldest hub on this list. Optiver says it was established in Sydney in 1996 and built its APAC business there. (Official.) By late 2025, eFinancialCareers reported that Optiver had over 400 staff in Sydney and was mostly hiring interns and graduates that year. (Reported, 2025.)

Other names in Sydney or Australia:

• IMC lists Sydney among its Asia-Pacific offices. (Official.)
• Qube Research & Technologies opened a Sydney office at the end of 2024, hiring people from IMC and Optiver. (Reported, 2025.)
• Citadel Securities had made more than 10 hires in Australia in 2026 by May. (Reported, 2026.)

Pay context. Sydney has the best self-reported data in the region, at least for engineers. On Levels.fyi, Optiver software engineers in Greater Sydney showed a median total compensation of A$245K, with entry level (L3) at about A$223K (roughly A$148K base plus A$75K bonus) and L4 at about A$328K. (Self-reported, Levels.fyi, viewed 2026-10-04; these figures cover software engineers only and exclude traders.) Note how much of the package is bonus, which is why year-to-year figures move.

If Optiver Sydney is your target, start with the Optiver firm guide and our write-up of the Optiver online assessment.

India: Gurugram, Mumbai and GIFT City

India is the fastest-changing hub on the list, and the one with the most regulatory news.

Gurugram (Gurgaon) hosts long-standing trading-firm offices such as Tower Research Capital, which lists Gurugram among its offices, and Graviton Research Capital's self-reported Levels.fyi data comes from there. (Official; self-reported.) eFinancialCareers reported in November 2025 that Citadel Securities was growing an office in Gurugram and had hired a head of trading for India, and the firm had four vacancies in Gurgaon in May 2026. (Reported, 2025 and 2026.)

Mumbai is where the newest foreign entrants have gone. Optiver says its Mumbai office opened in 2024 and is "central to Optiver's expansion into India." (Official.) By November 2025 it had hired just under 50 people in the city, and a partner had relocated from Shanghai to run high-frequency trading there. (Reported, 2025.) HRT and IMC both list Mumbai offices. (Official.)

GIFT City, the international financial services centre in Gujarat, is the newest location. Tower lists a GIFT City office (official), and eFinancialCareers reported that firms including Jump Trading and Tower were opening offices there. (Reported, 2025.)

The regulatory backdrop. India's securities regulator SEBI has accused Jane Street of manipulating index options in an interim order, the firm deposited Rs 4,843.5 crore, and Jane Street is challenging SEBI before the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT). In April 2026, its counsel told SAT the firm had "stopped trading completely" pending the tribunal's decision, although it was otherwise free to trade. (Reported, Moneycontrol, 2026-04-22.) In September 2026, Jane Street argued before SAT that earlier NSE and SEBI surveillance reports had found no evidence of manipulation, and the next hearing was listed for October 5, 2026. (Reported, BusinessLine, 2026-09-04.) As of 2026-10-04, no final ruling had been reported, so treat the matter as ongoing.

Pay context. Indian pay data mixes campus headlines with self-reported medians:

• In December 2024, Careers360 reported first-day IIT placement offers including a Jane Street pre-placement offer of over Rs 4.3 crore to an IIT Madras student, IMC at Rs 1.3 crore plus, and APT Portfolio at Rs 1 crore plus. The report did not state posting locations, and IIT Bombay said it discloses only medians and does not publish individual CTCs. (Reported, 2024.)
• On Levels.fyi, Graviton quantitative researchers in Gurgaon showed a median total compensation of about Rs 10.01 million (about Rs 1 crore), and Tower Research software engineers in India about Rs 7.28 million. (Self-reported, viewed 2026-10-04.)

Since the campus report did not state locations, the self-reported medians are the better guide to a typical domestic package. Our Tower Research firm guide covers that firm's sourced process.

Shanghai: careful foreign firms, tightening rules

• Optiver says it has been in Shanghai since 2012. (Official.) HRT and Tower both list Shanghai offices. (Official.)
• Citadel Securities filed an application with China's securities regulator to set up a wholly foreign-owned brokerage in Shanghai, received on January 17, 2025. (Reported, Caixin, 2025.) By November 2025 it was "in the process of setting up a brokerage business there," hiring junior talent first. (Reported, 2025.) As of 2026-10-04, no public approval had been reported.
• Jane Street has been pushing deeper into trading ETFs listed in mainland China, according to Bloomberg. (Reported, 2026.)

The regulatory direction matters for anyone considering a Shanghai seat. In July 2026, Hedgeweek reported that the CSRC held an unusually large number of consultations on quant trading and AI, after sharp July losses at Chinese quant funds, with official messaging shifting from regulating the "development" of these activities to regulating their "behaviour." (Reported, 2026.)

Tokyo: older roots, quieter growth

Tokyo was an early door into Asia for some firms. Bloomberg reported that Jane Street "first set up in Asia with a Tokyo office in 2010," with the bulk of its regional staff now in Hong Kong. (Reported, 2026.) Jane Street's current official office list does not include Tokyo. (Official, viewed 2026-10-04.) Citadel Securities opened a Tokyo office in August 2022 after registering as a Type 1 Financial Instruments Business Operator, to provide US Treasuries and USD interest rate swaps to Japanese institutional investors. (Reported, The TRADE, 2022.)

The newer Japan activity is mostly on the fund side. Hedgeweek, summarizing a Bloomberg report in June 2025, cited Ed Rogers of Rogers Investment Advisors as saying 17 new Japan hedge fund firms had launched in the previous 18 months, and reported that a London-based manager hit its US$250m cap within weeks of launching a Japan-focused quant fund. (Reported, 2025.)

The official office lists of HRT, Tower and Optiver do not include Tokyo either. HRT and IMC list Seoul instead, and Optiver lists Taipei, where it says it is the largest market maker on TAIFEX. (Official, viewed 2026-10-04.)

How to use this as a candidate

1. Follow the specific business. Optiver's Singapore hiring is tied to FICC; Jane Street's Singapore push leans on engineering. The same firm can hire very different profiles in different hubs.
2. Compare packages in local currency and by component. Bonus is a large share of the Sydney figures above, and taxes and living costs differ widely, so compare after-tax numbers.
3. Treat thin data as thin. Some firm-and-city combinations have too few data points for a median, and a single viral campus offer is an anecdote.
4. Check status before you move. Licences, cases and office plans here are dated; confirm them first.

Notes

Bloomberg is cited via its Yahoo Finance syndication. Pay figures change by year, role and level. Nothing here is legal or tax advice. QuantReady is an independent prep platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any firm named here; all trademarks belong to their owners. If something here is out of date, tell us via /contact.

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