The Voleon Group Interview Guide

Voleon's headquarters is near the UC Berkeley campus. The early-career postings also name New York for the operations and legal roles, and London for research interns and trading staff.

Voleon treats financial prediction as a machine learning problem, fitting flexible statistical models instead of relying on human intuition about how the market works. As of June 2026, Voleon runs statistical arbitrage, searching data for trading signals in securities. It had $23.4 billion under management on 31 January 2026.

Two scientists co-founded Voleon in 2007. One of them, Jon McAuliffe, is co-CIO and an adjunct professor of statistics at UC Berkeley. He was a Vice President at D. E. Shaw, where he ran statistical arbitrage strategies. Many of Voleon's leaders and employees hold doctorates in statistics, computer science, mathematics or another quantitative field.

Voleon Securities is a newer business in the group that provides liquidity in the credit, rates and ETF markets with AI and machine learning strategies. Its quantitative trader posting asks for 2+ years of institutional trading experience, so it is not a graduate route.

Software Engineer Intern

The internship is for students expected to graduate in 2028, and you have to be free for a full-time internship in summer, fall or winter 2027.

The posting asks for mastery of computer science fundamentals and comfort with Linux, git and mainstream databases. You should already have built something significant, write modular, maintainable code, and be very good at one thing at least.

Software Engineer University Hire 2027

This role is for the graduating class of 2027 with a bachelor's in computer science or a related technical field, and you need US work authorisation. The posting asks for Linux development with a focus on performance, concurrency and correctness, in languages such as Python, R, Java, Go and C/C++.

Research Intern

The internship is for current graduate students in a quantitative discipline who expect to finish a PhD in December 2027 or during 2028. The Berkeley posting needs US work authorisation and the London posting needs the right to work in the UK. Neither posting names a season or start date for the internship.

The Berkeley posting asks for key contributions to several top-tier publications and a background in modern statistical methods and machine learning. Interns build predictive models and other parts of Voleon's automated trading systems. Interest in financial applications is essential, but finance experience is not a primary factor in hiring.

Associate Member of Trading Staff

This is Voleon's early-career trading role, hired in Berkeley and London. The Berkeley posting has you rotate across the credit, equity, forex and derivatives desks to learn each asset class and region, and eventually take ownership of systematic trading programmes. The London posting has you build analytics and automation for the firm-wide trading programme under senior traders.

You need a bachelor's in a scientific or quantitative discipline. The postings ask for academic or practical familiarity with statistics, proficiency in a language such as Python or R, and a demonstrated passion for markets.

For part of every year you work global market hours on a rotation, and the Berkeley role requires US and Asian market hours from the office.

Operations Associate Program

Voleon's early-career rotational programme is three six-month rotations across the firm's business functions, then a permanent place on a team. Rotations can include Client Service, HR, Fund Finance, Business Strategy, Legal, Compliance, and R&D teams such as Data Strategy and PMO. Voleon hires a small number of graduates each year, and this round starts in summer 2027.

Current bachelor's and master's students and recent graduates can apply. Any major is fine and no finance experience is required, but you need an outstanding academic record and US work authorisation, since the programme does not sponsor visas. It is hybrid, in the Berkeley or New York office at least three days a week.

Legal Associate

This early-career role starts in summer 2027 and is hybrid in Berkeley or New York at least three days a week. Current bachelor's students and recent graduates from any major with a strong academic record can apply, and you need no legal coursework or pre-law background. There is no visa sponsorship, so you need US work authorisation.

Member of Research Staff (full time)

The full-time researcher postings in Berkeley and London need PhD-level coursework, and a PhD in a relevant field is preferred. A publication record, graduate coursework or a competition placement counts as evidence of strong maths. These postings offer relocation and work visa eligibility for qualified candidates. The operations and legal roles do not sponsor visas.

Summer 2025 Trading Intern

As of August 2024, Voleon had posted a Summer 2025 Trading Intern role, hybrid in Berkeley, for students expected to graduate in 2026 who already had a financial internship. The posting listed shadowing trading desks across regions and asset classes.

Each form asks for something different:

• Software Engineer Intern: your transcripts as a PDF. Unofficial copies are accepted.
• Software Engineer University Hire 2027: transcripts as a PDF (unofficial copies accepted) and your expected graduation date.
• Research Intern, Berkeley and London: your PhD status, from four options: completed PhD, currently enrolled, ABD (all but dissertation), or no PhD and not enrolled.
• Associate Member of Trading Staff, Berkeley and London: a required question on which asset class you know best, and a required confirmation that you accept a rotation covering US and Asia market hours from the local office. The London form also asks whether you can work in the UK.
• Operations Associate: your GPA and the scale it is on, your expected graduation date and your transcripts.

No official online assessment is documented.

Prepare from your posting:

• Software internship: pick the most significant thing you have built and be ready to walk through how you split it into modules.
• New-grad software: bring a Linux project where performance, concurrency or correctness mattered, and know why you made each trade-off.
• Research: be ready to say exactly what you contributed to each publication, and revise modern statistical methods and machine learning.
• Trading staff: statistics you can work through in Python or R, and a clear reason you care about markets.
• Operations: one thing you built, led or fixed, and what changed because of it.

New-grad software engineers work closely with senior engineers, who mentor and coach them. Associate trading staff learn under senior traders. Operations associates have programme leads who own their development, plus a mentor from the class above.