Fixed Income Division - Associate, Municipal Markets (New York)

Morgan Stanley • New York, NY

17h

About The Position

Join Morgan Stanley’s quantitative team supporting a large municipal bond market-making desk. The team works with traders across electronic and voice trading, bond origination, specialized lending, and bespoke derivative products. It applies mathematics, statistics, machine learning, and software to practical trading problems, including strategy analysis, electronic trading algorithms, inventory-risk modeling, and profit-and-loss analysis.

As a Quantitative Strategist, you will work directly with traders, quantitative researchers, and engineers. You will use data and statistical analysis to identify potential trading strategies, assist with complex trades and hedging decisions, and improve models and systems for pricing securities and monitoring risk. You will also help organize and maintain the quantitative research environment, including modeling software, research archives, Python packages, Linux environments, containers, and testing. The role combines immediate desk-facing analysis with longer-term research into trading strategies and market behavior.

Municipal markets present quantitative challenges because many securities trade infrequently, bonds vary across numerous structural features, and market data may be incomplete. The team develops models connecting observable market variables to bond prices to help traders estimate value, identify relative-value opportunities, manage risk, and make trading decisions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in mathematics.
• Strong knowledge of probability, statistics, numerical methods, and mathematical modeling.
• Good programming skills, preferably in Python.
• Strong interest in trading and financial markets.
• Ability to take ownership of software, models, and research processes.
• Excellent analytical, organizational, and communication skills.
• Collaborative personality and interest in working closely with people on a trading desk.
• Ability to stay calm under pressure.
• Positive, can-do, extroverted personality.
• Recent graduates and candidates with up to three years of relevant experience are encouraged to apply; prior municipal bond experience is not required.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in a STEM field, preferably Applied Math, MFE, Operations Research, Statistics, Physics, or Engineering.
• Familiarity with, or interest in learning, Linux, Git, package management, containers, pandas, and NumPy.
• Experience with fixed income, derivatives, bond mathematics, JavaScript, kdb+/q, machine learning, or production model deployment.

Responsibilities

• Research and test quantitative trading strategies.
• Help traders evaluate complex transactions, hedge selection, position sizing, and execution timing.
• Develop pricing and risk models for municipal bonds, bond derivatives, and related products.
• Analyze inventory risk, trading activity, and profit-and-loss performance.
• Apply statistics and machine learning to trading, pricing, and risk-management problems.
• Help move machine-learning and AI models into production.
• Organize and maintain quantitative models, research code, and development environments.
• Communicate analytical findings clearly to traders and other stakeholders.

Benefits

• Morgan Stanley offers comprehensive employee benefits and perks, though specific benefits are not listed.
• Compensation may include commission earnings, incentive compensation, discretionary bonuses, other short- and long-term incentive packages, and sponsored benefit programs.
• Opportunities to move across the business for employees who show passion and grit.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level