Citadel makes another AI engineering hire from an unusual industry

We've noted in the past that experience in the automotive field can be a valuable segue into an engineering role at a hedge fund, but it might be even better if you've worked on self-driving cars. Citadel only recently hired Daniel Babin who worked on self-driving cars in London, and it's just hired another senior engineer from the industry in New York.

Click here to sign up to our technology newsletter 🔧

Zheng Wang joins the hedge fund from Cruise, where he was a second level senior software engineer. While there, he said he "designed and implemented proprietary computing solutions for in-house machine learning training infrastructure." Prior to that, he worked on cloud tech at Google, and simulated laser radiation while studying for a PhD in mathematics.

Cruise alums aren't abundant in finance, but they're popular elsewhere. NVIDIA likes to hire them. Deena Donia, a senior director of engineering at Cruise, joined NVIDIA in January, while Cruise engineering director Vu Pham joined NVIDIA this month.

Cruise tends to pay pretty well too. At Wang's seniority, Levels.fyi says the average compensation there is $418k. One engineer at Cruise recently reported earning $580k in total compensation.

Citadel declined an opportunity to comment.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com in the first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available (Telegram: @SarahButcher)

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)

Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash