[jjav]

Finance is not engineering.

Ignoring that for a moment (although we shouldn't, different fields are different), their jobs page lists an opening for a Web Programmer that pays 143k-159k range in NY (i.e. very little). I'm guessing this role doesn't require notable publications and they're not looking for a "bonafide, legitimate, super-genius" to fill this role.

(Or if they are, they will never ever fill the role with that salary. They'd be fools to try and I assume they are not fools.)

That was my point. Companies will hire top talent for the revenue-leading roles but quite rationally don't need to do that for every single engineering role (as OP claimed) because there are plenty of jobs where a trustworthy responsible adult who gets the job done is exactly what they need, even if they don't have a Turing Award.

[ryandrake]

Also, why does having many "notable publications" make someone "the best"? That seems pretty arbitrary and subjective. How many Academic Publications™ does John Carmack have?