At Franklin Templeton, we’re advancing our industry forward by developing new and innovative ways to help our clients achieve their investment goals. Our dynamic and diversified firm spans asset management, wealth management, and fintech, offering many ways to help investors make progress toward their goals. Our talented teams working around the globe bring expertise that’s both broad and unique. From our welcoming, inclusive, and flexible culture to our global and diverse business, we provide opportunities to help you reach your potential while helping our clients reach theirs.

Come join us in delivering better outcomes for our clients around the world!

About the Department

We are seeking a Junior Quantitative Trader based in Edinburgh, to support trading activities across equities, FX, and cash instruments for UK markets. This is a hybrid role that is execution and workflow oriented, while also having a mandate on streamlining execution and trading operations with quantitative and analytics approaches.

This role is ideal for someone with strong quantitative and technical skills who is interested in markets, execution, and real-world trading outcomes, rather than academic model development.

The successful candidate will work closely with traders to:

• Support day-to-day trading and execution

• Analyse and monitor algorithmic trading performance

• Improve execution and trading workflows by developing a systematic approach integrating internal systems, vendors and various data sources

How You Will Add Value

Trading & Execution Support

• Assist traders in executing cash equity and FX trades, with a focus on best execution

• Build a deep understanding of market structure and trading venues across markets

• Monitor market conditions, liquidity, and execution quality across asset classes

• Support daily cash and FX management activities as needed

Algorithm & Performance Analysis

• Analyse performance of execution algorithms and trading strategies

• Help identify drivers of slippage, costs, and performance variance

• Produce regular execution and performance reporting for traders and management

Workflow & Data Engineering

• Work closely with global quantitative execution team to improve trading workflows by utilizing internal systems, vendor data, and market data

• Automate recurring analyses and reporting to improve desk efficiency

• Work with large trade-oriented datasets to visualize and extract actionable insights to systematically improve executions

• Partner with technology, data, and trading teams to streamline processes

Risk & Controls

• Support trade monitoring, reconciliations, and exception handling

• Assist with adherence to internal risk, compliance, and control frameworks

What Will Help You Be Successful in This Role

Experience, Education & Certifications

• Degree in finance, economics, mathematics, engineering, computer science, or related quantitative or technical fields with relevant quant experience.

• Strong interest in financial markets and trading

• Proficiency in Python (or similar language) for data analysis and automation

• Comfort working with large datasets and multiple data sources

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

• High attention to detail and ability to work in a fast-paced trading environment

Preferred Qualifications:

• Exposure to Asset Management, with Trading knowledge preferred but not essential

• Familiarity with:

  • Market microstructure concepts

  • Transaction cost analysis (TCA)

• Experience working with SQL, APIs, or market data vendors

• Experience in Machine Learning and AI models; Power Automate and Cloud database

• Internship or prior experience in Asset Management and/or Trading preferred