Quantitative / Systematic Research, Associate

BlackRock•San Francisco, CA

1d•$132,500 - $162,000•Hybrid

About The Position

BlackRock is one of the world’s preeminent asset management firms and a premier provider of global investment management, risk management and advisory services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors around the world. BlackRock’s mission is to create a better financial future for our clients. We have a responsibility to be the voice of the investor, and we represent each client fairly and equally. Constant communication with a diverse team of partners strengthens us and delivers better results for our clients. Continuous innovation helps us bring the best of BlackRock to our clients. BlackRock offers a range of solutions — from rigorous fundamental and quantitative active management approaches aimed at maximizing outperformance to highly efficient indexing strategies designed to gain broad exposure to the world’s capital markets. Our clients can access our investment solutions through a variety of product structures, including individual and institutional separate accounts, mutual funds and other pooled investment vehicles, and the industry-leading iShares® ETFs.

Requirements

Degree in a quantitative field preferred (e.g. quantitative finance/economics, computer science, engineering, mathematics and physics, etc.)
Strong understanding of statistical and machine learning concepts
Experience with Unix OS and large-scale distributed computing platforms (e.g. AWS, GCP, Azure), databases (e.g. SQL, Redshift, Big Query), and data science programming languages (e.g. Python)
Strong sense of teamwork, contribute to and foster a culture of teamwork and knowledge sharing
Willingness to produce high quality work in a demanding, fast-paced environment
Detail-oriented, team-oriented and self-motivated
Candidates should have 2+ years of relevant experience in a similar role, demonstrating a consistent track record of delivering high-quality results

Nice To Haves

Experience working with large data sets and machine learning models preferable, with ability to handle multi-language data preferred

Responsibilities

Develop systematic signals and strategies for hedge fund and liquid alternative products.
Develop systematic, market-neutral (or directional) trading strategies for single-name equities, CDS, corporate bonds, convertible bonds and equity options across developed and emerging markets.
Look into new datasets, techniques and insights, and use these to create new alpha sources, cooperating with expert researchers and quantitative portfolio managers.
Conduct long term projects in independent research of a quality publishable in practitioner journals.
Create innovative, systematic investment signals and strategies based on a rigorous, peer-reviewed research process.
Interact and collaborate with researchers and portfolio managers across the rest of the BlackRock Systematic team.
Actively discuss and debate theories and empirical methods with other researchers of similar training.
Work closely with portfolio managers to help manage these strategies; ensure their successful implementation; and proactively identify and mitigate out-of-model risks.
Contribute to broader research initiatives across BlackRock.
Evaluate and improve model design, portfolio construction and implementation.
Work with large data to develop investment ideas and strategies in a systematic and effective way.
Progress proprietary analytics packages, developing innovative methods to visualize portfolio risk while automating away repetitive tasks.
Participate in a full investment lifecycle including signal research, signal implementation, portfolio construction, trading and risk / return attribution.
Identify and monitor factor exposures and event risks and evolve our process to systematically manage emerging factors.