Staff Quantitative Researcher, Pricing

Alt Platform Inc•New York, NY

1d•$185,000 - $220,000•Remote

About The Position

Alt is hiring a Staff Quantitative Researcher to improve Alt Value, its pricing engine for alternative assets. This hands-on role finds and validates new predictive signals, develops pricing models, and determines how models are selected, blended, released, and routed. The work includes testing whether new data predicts price movements, investigating unusual sales, explaining price differences between marketplaces, and evaluating which model to trust when models disagree. This is an individual-contributor role, not a reporting role or management track. The researcher reports to the Head of Pricing Automation and works closely with Expert Pricers, data scientists, and machine learning engineers. The role involves setting research priorities and communicating the reasoning behind price movements. Alt is AI-native, and the researcher is expected to stay current with new models, tools, and techniques and apply those that improve pricing. Success includes measurably improved pricing accuracy; useful new data sources in production; potential manipulation reflected in valuations; evidence-backed model selection and blending; adoption of at least one new pricing tool or method; and Expert Pricers relying on the researcher's work.

Requirements

Track record of building pricing or forecasting models in production.
Familiarity with tree-based models and newer approaches such as large language models, time-series foundation models, and graph neural networks.
Depth in non-traditional or illiquid assets, such as collectibles, art, real estate, or alternative credit.
Experience combining multiple models or signals through portfolio construction, forecast combination, or ensemble methods.
Experience with market prediction using alternative data, including unstructured sources such as text and sentiment.
Statistical rigor in experimental design, backtesting, and working with noisy or sparse data.
Expert SQL and Python skills.
Hands-on experience building with AI, such as agents or internal tools others rely on.
Clear communication skills and a record of explaining complex work to non-technical audiences.

Nice To Haves

Relevant backgrounds may include quantitative research or portfolio construction at an investment firm; statistical or cross-market arbitrage; sports betting or prediction-market pricing; credit or insurance underwriting; or marketplace pricing or trust and safety.

Responsibilities

Identify new signals, including market sentiment and sports outcomes, and validate their predictive power through rigorous backtesting.
Identify potential market manipulation and unusual activity and prevent it from distorting valuations.
Design cross-market pricing models for an inefficient market where the same card may be mispriced across marketplaces.
Evaluate pricing models and decide which to use or how to blend them, weighing trade-offs.
Decide when new model versions go live and when to switch model routing.
Set research priorities and work with Expert Pricers, data scientists, and machine learning engineers.
Communicate the reasoning behind price movements.
Stay current with new AI models, tools, and techniques and bring in those that improve pricing.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision coverage: 85% for employees and up to 50% for dependents.
HSA/FSA available.
Generous paid time off.
Parental leave at full salary.
$200 per month wellness stipend.
$100 per month home office stipend.
Free DoorDash Pass membership.
Remote-first work for most positions, with WeWork access available.
401(k).
Equity for all full-time employees.