Global Stock Selection Researcher – Alternative Data

About AQR Capital Management

Founded in 1998, AQR is a global systematic investment management firm. As quantitative investors, research is the foundation of everything we do. We manage a range of alternative and long-only strategies designed to meet the needs of institutional and wealth investors around the world.

AQR’s culture reflects the firm’s academic roots and entrepreneurial spirit. Our collaborative environment fuels innovation and encourages employees to ask thoughtful questions, think creatively and bring new ideas forward. Continuous learning is an important part of the employee experience, helping our people build skills and grow throughout their careers. Employees at every level have opportunities to contribute, regardless of title or tenure.

The firm has 800 employees with headquarters in Greenwich, Connecticut and offices in London, Frankfurt, Dubai, Hong Kong, Sydney and Bengaluru.

About The Team

The Global Stock Selection (GSS) group is responsible for the portfolio management and research of AQR's strategies relating to individual equities and equity related securities across all global liquid markets. GSS models are applied to market-neutral long/short portfolios in AQR hedge funds as well as to long-only, relaxed-constraint and low volatility portfolios for institutional equity mandates and mutual funds.

Your Role

AQR Capital Management is seeking a talented Researcher to join our team of professionals and focus on our proprietary strategies related to global stock selection. Candidates should be motivated and enthusiastic about implementing new ideas and are expected to be hands-on and self-sufficient in conducting all aspects of research projects. Researchers manage all aspects of the research process including data ingestion and processing, analysis, methodology selection, implementation, testing and performance evaluation. The role will involve collaboration with other researchers, portfolio managers, risk managers and traders to develop new and improve current investment strategies. Your responsibilities may include, but are not limited to:

• Engage in alpha research and other quantitative analysis to improve current investment strategies in collaboration with existing research team
• Perform statistical and economic research using traditional financial and alternative data to develop new alpha signals. Successful researchers manage, in collaboration with supervising portfolio manager, all aspects of the research process including data ingestion and processing, data analysis, methodology selection, implementation and testing, prototyping, and performance evaluation.
• Engage in building, training and fine-tuning machine learning architectures for cross-sectional or time-series Learn how to use the appropriate model for the problem at hand. Construct economically nuanced features from raw data and adjust or develop new frameworks to evaluate their effectiveness. Engage with most recent academic and practitioner literature in the field.
• Occasionally, conduct research on various aspects of the implementation of investment strategies such as trading cost models, risk models, optimization, and portfolio construction
• Add features to proprietary research system to implement new research ideas

What You’ll Bring

• B.S. degree from a top institution in computer science, engineering, mathematics, statistics, operations research, physics or another quantitative discipline. Advanced degrees, especially Ph.D, preferred
• Academic or practitioner experience in applying generative AI to quantitative research preferred
• 1-3 years of experience working in quantitative research, especially alternative data research, at a top asset manager or hedge fund preferred
• Strong programming skills in Python required
• Experience with translating mathematical models and algorithms into code
• Ability to manipulate large financial data sets for empirical research and handle complex
• Experience with machine learning software libraries such as scikit-learn, TensorFlow or PyTorch
• Strong quantitative skills with demonstrated understanding of mathematics, probability, statistics and linear algebra
• Nuanced understanding of economic and financial concepts and demonstrated intuition around applying these concepts in a quantitative environment
• Ability to work independently as well as part of a team
• Demonstrated ability to express and articulate ideas and thought processes in both verbal and written form

AQR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. EEO/VET/DISABILITY

The salary range for this role is expected to be $225,000 to $245,000.  This is the range that we in good faith believe is accurate for this role at the time of this posting.  We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, depending upon factors such as skills, experience, location, or other business and organizational needs.  This wage range may also be modified in the future.

This job is also eligible for an annual discretionary bonus.

We offer comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance, 401(k), and any other benefits to eligible employees.

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole discretion, consistent with the law.