Quant hedge fund Two Sigma in London: stagnant hiring, rising pay
Last year was a period of massive change at hedge fund Two Sigma, after its feuding co-founders both stepped down as CEOs, but the change may not have been as pronounced in its London office. Companies House accounts for 2024 reveal that headcount in Two Sigma's London entity was largely unchanged.
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In both 2024 and 2023, 'Two Sigma International Limited' had an average of 93 employees. Over the year, all that changed was that the entity's corporate team lost a person, while its modelling team gained one. Engineering headcount, steady at 56 people, makes up the bulk of the London office. Two Sigma laid off 200 people towards the end of last year, but the accounts seem to suggest London was safe from those cuts.
Two Sigma's biggest hire in London last year appears to be David Sugarman, who joined as a senior vice president in global convertibles trading last August. He spent the last 13 years at Polar Capital, a London hedge fund with over 160 employees.
As headcount at Two Sigma plateaued, pay rose. 'Wages and salaries' were up ~£3m ($4.1m), meaning pay per head increased from £345k to £377k. Compensation for the entity's highest paid director also rose massively; the top director in 2023 was paid £1.8m, but the top last year earned £3.9m.
More changes have been occurring at Two Sigma in 2025. John Overdeck, the co-founder that ran the fund's modelling teams, returned to the fund's management committee in April, which might cause disquiet in the London office given its focus on engineering talent. Two Sigma has historically been known as the 'chill' hedge fund, but that appears to be changing too; one engineer on jobs forum Blind said earlier this year that, since the layoffs, "everyone's been having to work harder with no corresponding increase in TC." That engineer presumably isn't part of the London office.
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