Jump Trading offers 4-day-a-week tech jobs with a salary of $175,000, but there’s a catch

That’s the compromise that Jump Trading Group, a fintech trading firm, expects from applicants. In the job posting for a production engineer – who could be based in the Chicago, New York, Sydney or Singapore offices – they added the phrase “Weekend Warrior.”

The company operates as “a global team,” the job description said. In practice, this means particularly long working hours to coordinate with “many global financial markets”. So far, so good. The production engineer will learn “new cutting-edge technologies” and “get his hands dirty solving challenging engineering problems.”

Then comes the warrior part. The engineer will work a “modified 4 or 5 day week” including Saturdays and Sundays “to contribute to supporting our infrastructure on a full-time basis.”

Every third weekend

Despite the title, this is not a gig that takes place every weekend. According to Jump’s calculations, the employee will work “the equivalent of one-third of the weekends per year,” based on an agreed upon schedule with the other two weekend shift colleagues in a given region.

On “on” weekends, the engineer works 12-hour shifts to overlap with colleagues in distant time zones. However, these hours are “flexible.” (A Glassdoor review of the company claims otherwise, saying there is “no flexibility in work hours” and that it is “difficult to even leave your desk.”)

Jump also emphasized the collaborative aspect of the role – due to the fact that 12-hour shifts on weekends could be lonely. “Notably, other teams have a similar setup, so you will join a virtual “Weekend Warrior” team online in your time zone throughout the weekend,” the description reads. “Plus, Jump’s systems are highly automated, so you’ll spend most of your time focused on project work – but will be available for immediate troubleshooting and support when needed.”

Annual base salary ranges from $150,000 to $175,000, with the possibility of a voluntary bonus.

Perhaps this salary is not quite enough to compensate for the work on Saturday and Sunday. The job posting for the Weekend Warrior position in Singapore was reposted on LinkedIn over three weeks ago and has only received 21 applicants so far. (The New York listing, 20 only.)

The four-day week remains a hit

Four-day workweeks at Jump can mean 12-hour days, which, when held constant throughout the week, mean 48-hour weeks throughout the year – the equivalent of an extra day of work. But many companies that continue to advocate for a four-day week are eliminating the extra day entirely and not consolidating its hours into the other four. And employees are excited about their new 32-hour week – and are often even more productive.

Exos, a performance coaching company, has had a four-day week for nearly a year and a half that has claimed to have cut burnout, fatigue, and disconnections in half—and significantly improved results.

Within six months of the new agreement, Exos says its sales pipeline grew by 211% and within a year, 91% of employees rated themselves as productive, compared to 67% before the transition. Sales even fell from 47% annually to 29%.

“This sense of trust has really strengthened a culture of connection and loyalty,” said Greg Hill, Chief People Officer at Exos Fortune’s Emma Burleigh earlier this year. “We feel like in our surveys we feel like we see it in our offsites in our sales.”

It remains to be seen whether the same impact will be felt if only one company’s warriors participate in the new agreement.