XTX founder Alex Gerko offers £26,000-a-month internship days after £682m payday

Alex Gerko, the founder of London-based XTX Markets, is offering an internship that pays £26,000 a month to students still completing advanced degrees, days after reports that he earned £682 million in the last year.

The role is open to applicants who are undertaking a PhD in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics or a related quantitative field and have at least a year remaining until graduation. The posting specifies "solid" programming skills and a proven publication record in leading machine-learning and artificial-intelligence venues as prerequisites. At £26,000 per month, the internship would put the successful candidate on a compensation level higher than the annual salary of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and among the highest-paid intern positions in the United Kingdom.

XTX Markets, which has been described as a cutting-edge trading firm that deploys artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques, has delivered strong financial results in recent years. Gerko, a Russian-born mathematics graduate who grew up near a tractor factory outside Moscow, has maintained a low public profile despite his company’s expansion and reported personal earnings.

The internship announcement highlights the premium that quantitative trading firms place on specialised academic credentials and research experience in AI and machine learning. The role's requirements and compensation level indicate a focus on recruiting candidates with documented, peer-reviewed contributions to the field, rather than only practical programming experience.

Industry observers say the recruitment push follows an intensified competition among trading firms and technology companies for talent with both theoretical and practical expertise in advanced machine-learning methods. XTX’s posting underscores that dynamic, although the company has not publicly disclosed the size or duration of the internship programme or the number of positions available.

The timing of the offer — coming shortly after reports of Gerko’s record personal earnings — drew attention for the contrast between a single, short-term placement’s pay and broader compensation norms for early-career researchers. XTX Markets has previously been characterised by its use of automated, algorithm-driven trading strategies and by tightly held operational practices; the new internship seeks to attract candidates who have demonstrable academic achievements in relevant technical fields.

Applications are limited to students who meet the stated academic and research criteria. The company did not provide additional details about day-to-day responsibilities, start dates or how the internship would be structured within XTX’s broader research and trading operations.