Quantitative Analyst Salary in the US: Base Pay, Bonus & Offers

A quant analyst salary is the same search as quantitative analyst salary; shortening the title does not identify a different pay scale. For a concrete US benchmark, Bank of America’s quantitative finance analyst posting advertises $89,800–$155,000 annualized salary for New Jersey, with a separate discretionary incentive plan. Its senior market-risk quantitative finance analyst in Chicago advertises $125,000–$210,000, while Citi’s experienced equities algorithmic-trading quant in New York advertises $175,000–$250,000 salary, with incentives described separately.

Those figures answer different versions of the question. The first concerns risk-model development; the second requires substantial market-risk or pricing-model experience; the third supports execution algorithms on a front-office trading team. They are examples of disclosed pay, rather than three stages of a universal salary ladder.

Investment research has its own hiring routes and compensation evidence. If that is the work you mean, use the researcher salary guide. The brief comparison below helps distinguish those roles from bank modelling and validation without treating specialist research pay as a bank analyst benchmark.

This guide uses annual US dollars before tax. It separates advertised salary from bonus, one-time payments and other benefits, so you can compare an actual job or offer with the closest evidence. Salary disclosures were checked on 3 October 2026; the dates and status limitations for each role are recorded below.

Choose your comparison: bank analyst salary, entry-level and senior analyst evidence, or the separate quantitative finance salary guide for research, trading and engineering. For the underlying responsibilities, read what a quant is.

The title “quantitative analyst” is an imperfect filter. A loan-loss model developer, an independent model validator and an execution-algorithm researcher may all appear in a salary search. Their employers buy different work, and a comparison becomes useful only after identifying that work.

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These categories can overlap within a team. Use the job’s responsibilities to decide which comparison belongs in your shortlist. A role that primarily implements models can have more in common with a research engineer than with a general reporting analyst, even when both include “analyst” in the title.

Also distinguish analyst as a job description from Analyst as an employer’s organizational grade. A graduate research analyst at an investment manager and a bank’s Vice President model validator cannot be ordered by title alone. Ask what level the employer is hiring, what independent decisions the employee will make, and how that level is calibrated internally.

These six examples retain the employer’s title and location-specific salary basis. None includes a quantified bonus. Bank of America calls its amounts annualized salary; Citi lists a full-time salary range and discusses possible incentives separately; Barclays labels its graduate figure base salary only. We preserve those distinctions rather than imply that every employer uses identical payroll terminology.

Every row was checked on 3 October 2026. “Page available” means the description could be read; it does not establish that applications remain open or that the employer will offer the maximum.

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The Barclays graduate row is historical/indexed pay evidence. Its main careers URL returned an error during the latest direct check and its Workday page yielded no extractable text. The employer’s indexed descriptions supplied the amount and qualifications; this row is not an invitation to apply to a confirmed current vacancy.

The two Citi front-office postings disclose the same salary range in different cities and disciplines. The validation posting has a lower range despite recommending more years of experience. That demonstrates why “senior quant salary” and “New York quant salary” require more detail than an experience count or state name.

For a bank offer, find your nearest row by function first, grade second, office third. Then seek more postings in that same group. Bank of America’s New Jersey disclosure should not be silently applied to Charlotte, and Getzville should not be treated as New York City. An advertised lower and upper bound is an employer hiring range, rather than the observed minimum and maximum pay of current employees.

Research salary depends on the research mandate and entry route. Citadel’s US university-graduate research analyst advertises $235,000–$300,000 base, while Jane Street’s NYC researcher advertises $300,000. Both describe additional discretionary incentives without amounts. These specialist examples should remain separate from the bank analyst table.

For a full comparison of campus and experienced roles, use the dedicated quant researcher salary guide. It brings together five official research descriptions, role-specific education requirements and research offer calculations. The separate quantitative finance salary guide helps choose the right occupation before comparing compensation.

A trading researcher or software engineer is a different benchmark from a bank modeling analyst. These five comparator disclosures are condensed into three role groups; they remain separate from the six bank descriptions above.

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Checked 3 October 2026. These are advertised base figures, with no disclosed bonus amount or visible publication date. Citadel's PhD engineering description invites interest when vacancies arise; it does not confirm a particular open seat. Its multi-office salary scope must not be relabeled as a city-specific rate.

Keep the official titles: neither engineering job should automatically be renamed “quant developer.” The specialized guides explain responsibilities, degree requirements and compensation terms. For choosing between occupations, start with the quantitative finance salary comparison; for a placement, use Jane Street intern pay.

A national average can be useful for orientation, but only with its definition attached. A website may aggregate advertised salaries, employee reports or a model that combines multiple inputs. Some labels refer to base; others refer to total pay. A pool of bank risk analysts, trading researchers and non-finance analysts can answer a broader question than yours.

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Both were read on 3 October 2026. These are the platforms’ reported figures, not QuantSteps estimates and not official employer pay statements. Their disagreement does not establish that either is false: the populations, input dates and methods differ. Their numbers should not be averaged together to create a new market benchmark.

Employee-report platforms can add evidence about compensation components absent from a job ad. Their limitations include small samples, voluntary reporting, imperfect title mapping and uncertainty about whether a report includes a one-time signing award. A handful of unusually successful employees can also tell you little about the distribution available to applicants.

Before using an aggregate in a negotiation, check five things: role match, geography, experience, pay definition and sample date. Ask whether observations represent hires, current employees or advertised vacancies. A percentile is a position in that source’s distribution; the 10th percentile does not automatically describe a first-year employee. If the population cannot be narrowed to your role, use the figure to motivate further research rather than to set a rigid target.

For an entry-level bank example, the Barclays graduate description provides $125,000 annual base for its New York 2027 risk-quantitative-analytics route. It is an indexed/historical disclosure with unconfirmed live status. This is one programme’s rate, not a US graduate average. Compare it separately from Citadel’s explicitly university-graduate investment-research role.

An entry-level quantitative analyst salary should come from an explicitly graduate or junior role, or from a job whose requirements genuinely fit a new hire. An “Analyst” title alone is insufficient. The lower Bank of America analyst range belongs to a posting that still asks for some model experience, so it cannot be relabeled a zero-experience starting range.

If you have only a bachelor’s degree, check each programme’s eligibility before treating its salary as an attainable benchmark. Graduate routes can target different qualifications; also confirm intake year and office. A postgraduate programme’s rate does not establish the starting pay of every undergraduate analyst.

For experienced candidates, distinguish time employed from relevant experience. Five years building reports may not satisfy a posting asking for five years developing pricing models. A PhD can demonstrate research depth, but the number of years in education is not automatically the employer’s measure of commercial seniority.

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This framework is a way to evaluate scope, not a promised promotion timetable. The disclosed salary tables are cross-sectional snapshots of different jobs. They do not follow one person through a career and cannot support a formula such as “add a fixed amount for each extra year.”

If you want to change job families, evaluate that change as a new comparison. Moving from validation into investment research changes the work and the hiring bar; a salary difference between the two does not measure the return to one additional skill. Build a shortlist of jobs you could plausibly perform, then identify which missing evidence prevents you from qualifying.

A useful offer comparison has at least three totals: the stated recurring salary rate, first-year compensation under explicit assumptions, and recurring compensation after one-time payments end. Keep payment timing visible alongside the totals.

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These are questions to ask about your own offer. The employer disclosures above do not establish that every component is offered by every firm. In particular, a job posting that mentions a discretionary program without a figure gives no sound basis for assuming a universal bonus percentage. Citi’s wording says eligible employees may receive discretionary or formulaic incentive and retention awards; that conditional wording does not establish an award for a particular candidate.

For a full twelve-month scenario, first-year cash can be written as base paid + sign-on paid + cash incentive paid. If an incentive has a guaranteed minimum, use the greater of that minimum and the incentive under the scenario, when the agreement defines it that way. Do not add both unless the employer explicitly says the guarantee is a separate additional payment.

Finally, separate earned awards from cash received. A bonus associated with year one may be paid in year two; an award may vest over several years. For relocation or household budgeting, the payment schedule can matter as much as the total.

The following offers are hypothetical teaching examples, invented to demonstrate arithmetic. They are not salary estimates, actual offers or a recommended bonus assumption for any employer. Assume each candidate works a full twelve months in each year, all qualifying conditions are met, and all stated payments occur within the illustrated year.

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Under those assumptions, A’s first-year cash floor is $150,000 + $20,000 + $40,000 = $210,000. B’s is $170,000. If B happens to pay a $40,000 discretionary incentive, its first-year cash also reaches $210,000, but the source of that total is different.

For year two, set unguaranteed incentive payments to zero to examine downside. A’s cash becomes $150,000 and B’s becomes $170,000, assuming continued employment at the stated salary rates. A has the higher illustrated first-year floor; B has the higher recurring salary. Across both years with no discretionary payments, the totals are $360,000 for A and $340,000 for B. With a hypothetical $40,000 incentive in both years for B, its two-year total would instead be $420,000.

That last scenario is an assumption, not an expected value. To calculate a defensible expected value, you would need evidence about probabilities and outcomes that the example does not supply. For comparing real offers, write low, middle and high scenarios only after clearly labeling the discretionary amounts you choose.

Do not count A’s $40,000 minimum and another $40,000 incentive as two payments when the guarantee is inclusive. Also do not carry the $20,000 sign-on into year two. If a real offer includes deferral, a prorated assessment period or conditional repayment, revise both the arithmetic and the timing before making a decision.

Geography affects the set of employers and jobs available to you, as well as your household costs. The evidence here cannot isolate a city salary premium. Comparing a New York researcher with a Chicago bank risk analyst changes city, employer and job family simultaneously.

Even within one employer, a location-specific legal disclosure may cover only one office in a multi-location posting. Use the office named beside the range and ask the recruiter which range applies to your hiring location. The bank table preserves those labels rather than assuming a company-wide US number.

For two actual offers, build a personal annual budget using the recurring cash you can reasonably rely on. Record housing, transport, healthcare contributions, childcare if applicable, and costs of visiting family. Keep a separate first-year column for moving expenses and one-time payments. Comparing your own costs is more useful than applying a universal city adjustment to every candidate.

Hybrid and remote arrangements also need clarification. Ask where the employer considers you employed, how often you must attend the office, and whether changing that location changes compensation. The postings collected here do not establish a standard remote discount or a guaranteed percentage difference between New York and Chicago.

For a UK or other international offer, first find an official salary disclosure for the same job family in that market. Keep currencies separate until you select and date an exchange-rate assumption. Then compare recurring compensation, retirement contributions, healthcare, paid leave and payment timing. A currency conversion alone cannot establish that one market pays better for equivalent work. This article’s salary evidence covers US roles; it does not supply a UK compensation distribution.

Start with a small comparison set that is close to the actual job. For a credit-risk modeling offer, collect credit-risk modeling positions at similar levels and offices. For a research-engineering offer, collect research-engineering descriptions. A few close observations can be more informative than a long list of unrelated salaries.

1. Define the role. Write a sentence describing the output you will own, the team’s purpose and the employer’s proposed level. Resolve an ambiguous title with the hiring manager.
2. Collect official evidence. Save the role URL, requisition ID, office, salary basis, requirements, visible posting date and date checked. Remove duplicate copies of the same requisition.
3. Separate compensation components. Request base, one-time payments, guaranteed amounts, discretionary terms, deferral and payment dates in writing. Keep unavailable information marked unknown.
4. Check your match. Compare required experience with the work you can demonstrate. Explain the relevant model, research or engineering ownership you bring; avoid treating unrelated years as interchangeable.
5. Choose the discussion. Ask whether the base, level, signing terms, start date or guarantee can be reconsidered. Use actual comparable evidence and genuine alternatives when you have them.
6. Recalculate the revised package. Compare a full-year scenario, the partial first calendar year if relevant, and a later year without the one-time payments.

A focused request could say: “The role is a senior market-risk modeling position in Chicago. I have the required model-development experience, and I would like to discuss where the offer sits within the published hiring range. Could we review the level and base, and clarify the separate discretionary incentive terms?”

That request connects the evidence to the job. It does not imply entitlement to the upper bound or claim that a different employer’s researcher salary is the correct price for every analyst. If a recruiter cannot change base, ask what other terms are available and decide whether they address your real priorities.

For career preparation, use the employer directory to return to official hiring sources. QuantSteps provides deeper material for the quantitative research path. The trader and developer pages introduce those role directions; assess training scope against each job’s requirements. Completing a course is not compensation evidence.

This is an editorial guide based on a purposive sample of eleven official employer role disclosures, checked on 3 October 2026, plus two clearly identified salary-platform summaries for context. Ten descriptions were directly readable; the Barclays graduate example comes from indexed employer descriptions and is explicitly flagged as historical/indexed evidence. The sample covers graduate entry, bank modeling, model validation, front-office quantitative analysis, investment research, trading and engineering. It was selected to make role differences visible, rather than to estimate the whole occupation.

We record amounts only where the employer discloses them and retain the published salary scope. We do not infer a bonus from a base range, a firm’s revenue or an anonymous high-pay report. The table distinguishes a posting date from our check date, and flags a past anticipated closing date and a talent-interest description. A visible application link alone does not verify a vacancy.

The sample has clear limits. It concentrates on employers with accessible disclosures, contains overlapping job families, and has several examples from the same employers. A midpoint average across it would give misleading precision. Advertised ranges describe hiring intentions, rather than accepted offers or employees’ realized compensation. They also reveal little about the distribution of discretionary awards.

Use these examples to narrow and audit your own research. Before relying on a number, reopen the official page and confirm the office, level and current wording. If a page disappears, preserve its role ID and date as historical evidence, then find a current comparable disclosure. The article’s update date is a check date, rather than a promise that the linked jobs or salary ranges remain unchanged.