Balyasny launches AI fellowship to place specialists on desks

Balyasny Asset Management has launched an AI Fellowship Program to embed AI specialists directly with portfolio managers and trading teams in New York. Fellows will receive initial training and rotate through trading groups with the aim of moving into permanent desk roles.

New hires will spend their first months with Balyasny’s central AI team, which had about 20 researchers in March and is led by Charlie Flanagan, a former Google engineer. After that period, fellows will complete a series of three-month rotations across different investment groups. During each rotation they will act as AI partners to portfolio managers, building tools and applications to support investment research, signal generation and trade execution.

The firm is recruiting multiple full-time fellows. Candidates should hold at least a master’s degree and have three to five years of professional experience in AI, machine learning or related fields. Reported pay for the roles can reach up to $225,000. The programme combines formal training with on-the-job development to help technical hires learn markets and trading workflows while contributing to team projects.

Balyasny presents the fellowship as a route from central research into hands-on desk positions. The firm has not published a hiring timetable and the programme is open to several participants.

Across the hedge fund industry, firms are testing different structures for AI and data-science teams. Some keep research in centralized units, while others embed specialists within trading groups to speed deployment of models and align technical work with the requirements of specific strategies.