Top American hedge fund hiring tech talent in Warsaw

Billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management is opening the $16.2 billion firm’s latest satellite location in Warsaw and moving some back office operations to lower-cost Poland.

Point72, based in Stamford, Connecticut with 1,500 employees around the world, expects to hire 150 people in Warsaw by the end of 2021.

Some jobs will be moved to Poland from the United States, but the move would impact less than 5% of the workforce, a Point72 spokeswoman said.

Point72 plans to build technology, finance and operations teams in Poland, capitalizing on the country’s highly educated workforce and geographic location. The firm, which employs teams of traders to invest in stocks, bonds and other instruments, does not expect to move investment professionals to Poland.

“The Warsaw office will be instrumental in supporting the firm’s continued strategic growth and strengthening our investment services functions,” the spokeswoman said.

Point72 has 10 offices, including New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Palo Alto, San Francisco and its Stamford headquarters.

Many financial services firms, including hedge funds, have scaled back on real estate recently to cut costs as investors are especially sensitive to high fees.

Rafa Lopez Espinosa, Point72’s U.S.-based global head of strategy, will move to Poland where he will continue in his current role and lead the local office.

Point72 says it plans to run a local graduate recruitment program focused on campus hiring and entry level employees in Warsaw, and that it wants its new recruiter to create a strategy that will, "attract and retain the best local talent."

Point72 didn't respond to a request to comment on its Warsaw hiring intentions, but the fund's growth in Poland could be bad news for technologists hoping to join in London or Connecticut, who have historically been extremely well paid. Last year, for example, interns joining Point72’s market intelligence group – those typically with educational backgrounds in data science and analytics – were offered a prorated salary of $80k plus a $5k signing bonus.

Speaking in 2017, Goldman Sachs said the reason it built a technology hub in Warsaw was the broad range of excellent technology students in the Polish capital. At that time, GS was targeting at least six Polish universities (AGH (Krakow), Tadeusz Kościuszko University of Technology (Politechnika Krakow), Warsaw University of Technology (Politechnika), Kozminski University (Warsaw), SGH (Warsaw), and Warsaw University) and pulling in students from Italian universities like Bocconi too.