Desk·2026-09-09
Jump still leads the Chicago SWE floor
Same software-engineer title. Jump Trading prints the higher typical. Citadel is the multi-strat seat under it.
Jump Trading typical $460,000 against $425,000 at Citadel.
Chicago SWE typical
Jump typical sits ~1.08× Citadel
Same title. Chicago HFT clears the top cash year. Multi-strat clears the deeper book. Thin samples on both.
How to plan it
Name the Chicago HFT seat before the multi-strat loop
A mid IC who can ship systems in C++ or low-latency should clear Jump and Hudson River before treating Citadel as the default Chicago high-band seat. Jump prints $460k typical on a pure HFT book. Citadel prints $425k with more seats and a multi-strat structure. Both compound the year you keep. The multi-strat mark compounds optionality across pods, not the floor. If you need a cash year for a house or a family in Chicago, the HFT desk is the plan. If you can carry a wider book and want the multi-strat name, take that loop — but name the tradeoff. Do not treat a $460k HFT year and a $425k multi-strat mark as the same career move. The title is shared; the books are not.
Also: Chicago SWE · Jump vs Citadel