Key Takeaways
- • Zethus Suen, head of design at Citadel X, has joined Jane Street in a design-focused role after 3.5 years leading the hedge fund's UX division, which operates as a specialized "SWAT team" for front and back office engineering problems.
- • Jane Street is expanding its UX capability with three recent hires: Suen from Citadel X, Colin Keaney from Vantage (cloud infrastructure), and Larissa Horn from Deloitte (formerly on UBS Wealthway app), growing the team to approximately four people from a single designer baseline.
- • Citadel X operates a substantially larger UX organization of ~20 people led by Google alum Kristofer Baxter, currently focused on building Citadel One, a centralized application framework across the firm.
- • Streaming and media experience (Netflix, HBO, NASA) has become a common credential among senior UX leaders in quantitative finance, signaling the industry's shift toward recruiting design talent from consumer technology sectors.
- • Banks and trading firms are actively recruiting UX professionals at VP and staff levels in 2025, reflecting broader institutional recognition of design as a competitive advantage in technology infrastructure and user-facing platforms.
Summary
Zethus Suen's departure from Citadel X to Jane Street marks a notable talent migration within the quantitative finance ecosystem. Suen, who served as head of design at Citadel X—Ken Griffin's specialized UX division—has joined Jane Street in an ambiguously titled design role focused on "tinkering," according to the primary reporting. At Citadel, Suen led what the firm describes as a "SWAT team" of UX professionals deployed across front and back office engineering initiatives. His tenure at Citadel X spanned 3.5 years, following three years at Two Sigma, where he led design for the firm's quantified commercial insurance business, and an earlier founding role in Netflix's studio engineering group.
Suen's move to Jane Street reflects the algorithmic trading firm's deliberate expansion of design and UX capabilities. Jane Street has recruited three significant design hires in recent months: Suen from Citadel X, Colin Keaney from Vantage (a cloud optimization infrastructure firm) as a staff UX designer, and Larissa Horn from Deloitte, who contributed to UX design for UBS' Wealthway wealth management platform. These additions have grown Jane Street's UX team to approximately four members. This expansion follows comments from NASA alum Erin Murphy, Jane Street's lead UX designer, who stated in a podcast last year that the firm was "actively looking to add more people" to what was then a single-person design function.
The talent acquisition patterns suggest that consumer technology experience—particularly from streaming and media platforms—has become a sought-after credential in quantitative finance. Both Suen and Citadel X's current leader Kristofer Baxter (formerly Google) have Netflix backgrounds, while Jane Street's Murphy previously held a UX role at HBO for its Go and Now platforms. This trend reflects firms' growing recognition that design talent trained in high-scale consumer applications can effectively translate to financial technology infrastructure.
Citadel X itself operates a substantially larger design organization of approximately 20 people, significantly exceeding Jane Street's expanded team. Under Baxter's leadership, the group is actively developing Citadel One, a centralized application framework intended to standardize engineering across the broader firm. The broader institutional landscape shows sustained recruitment momentum: banks and trading firms are actively hiring UX professionals at VP and staff levels during 2025, underscoring the industry's strategic pivot toward design-driven product development and competitive differentiation.
Suen's move to Jane Street reflects the algorithmic trading firm's deliberate expansion of design and UX capabilities. Jane Street has recruited three significant design hires in recent months: Suen from Citadel X, Colin Keaney from Vantage (a cloud optimization infrastructure firm) as a staff UX designer, and Larissa Horn from Deloitte, who contributed to UX design for UBS' Wealthway wealth management platform. These additions have grown Jane Street's UX team to approximately four members. This expansion follows comments from NASA alum Erin Murphy, Jane Street's lead UX designer, who stated in a podcast last year that the firm was "actively looking to add more people" to what was then a single-person design function.
The talent acquisition patterns suggest that consumer technology experience—particularly from streaming and media platforms—has become a sought-after credential in quantitative finance. Both Suen and Citadel X's current leader Kristofer Baxter (formerly Google) have Netflix backgrounds, while Jane Street's Murphy previously held a UX role at HBO for its Go and Now platforms. This trend reflects firms' growing recognition that design talent trained in high-scale consumer applications can effectively translate to financial technology infrastructure.
Citadel X itself operates a substantially larger design organization of approximately 20 people, significantly exceeding Jane Street's expanded team. Under Baxter's leadership, the group is actively developing Citadel One, a centralized application framework intended to standardize engineering across the broader firm. The broader institutional landscape shows sustained recruitment momentum: banks and trading firms are actively hiring UX professionals at VP and staff levels during 2025, underscoring the industry's strategic pivot toward design-driven product development and competitive differentiation.
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