We're a student-led quantitative finance research group at UNSW, bringing together students interested in financial markets, statistics and software development to build, backtest and evaluate systematic trading strategies using real market data.

Members work in small project teams, developing research ideas, testing strategies, building technical infrastructure and reviewing each other's work.

The initiative is supervised by a UNSW finance lecturer with 15 years of industry experience as a Head of Trading.

Available Streams

1. Markets & Quantitative Research (3 positions)

Research financial markets and identify systematic trading opportunities.
Develop hypotheses and turn research ideas into testable strategies.
Analyse backtesting results, market behaviour and risk.
Present findings and participate in peer reviews.

2. Statistics & Validation (2 positions)

Evaluate the statistical reliability of trading strategies.
Conduct out-of-sample testing and robustness analysis.
Investigate overfitting, market regimes and risk-adjusted performance.
Work with researchers to improve models and testing methodology.

3. Software & Data Analytics (4 positions)

Develop Python-based backtesting and research tools.
Build and maintain financial market data pipelines.
Develop analytics, visualisations and research infrastructure.
Collaborate on debugging, testing and improving software reliability.

Who We're Looking For

Applications are open to current University students from any degree or year.

Backgrounds in finance, actuarial studies, mathematics, statistics, computer science, engineering, information systems and data science are particularly relevant, but not required.

Prior experience in quantitative trading is not necessary. We value analytical thinking, technical curiosity, initiative and the ability to work collaboratively.

Commitment & Eligibility

9 positions available across three streams
Exclusively for current University Students
Weekly in-person research meetings at UNSW
Approximately 8 to 10 hours per week, including collaborative project work
Unpaid extracurricular opportunity. This is not employment or a paid internship.
Research and simulated paper trading only. SSI Labs is a non-profit student initiative and does not manage investment capital.

As part of the founding cohort, you'll have the opportunity to contribute to real research projects while helping establish the research practices and infrastructure that future SSI Labs cohorts will build upon.

Pay: $1.00 per year

Application Question(s):

Degree and University
Year of study (in T3 2026)
Tools/languages you're comfortable with (e.g., Python, R, SQL, Excel, MATLAB, Java, or similar)
What area in quantitative finance interests you the most (you will be considered for all streams).
Tell us about a past project or problem you worked on. What did you try, and what went wrong?
Share one idea, project, or technical problem you'd like to explore at SSI Labs.
GitHub link (optional)
LinkedIn profile URL

Work Location: Hybrid remote in University of New South Wales NSW 2052