Equity Quant Researcher Job Description Template

The equity quant researcher develops systematic strategies in equity markets, working with cross sectional signals, factor models and the large data sets equities generate. The work covers fundamental, price based and alternative data signals, and it has to account for the practical realities of borrow, liquidity and turnover that separate a good backtest from a fundable strategy.

Typical Duties and Responsibilities

• Research cross sectional equity signals across fundamental, technical and alternative data
• Build and maintain equity factor models and risk decompositions
• Backtest strategies with realistic borrow, liquidity and cost assumptions
• Analyze signal decay, turnover and capacity constraints
• Investigate crowding and correlation with known factors
• Work with portfolio construction on optimization and constraints
• Monitor live signal performance and diagnose degradation
• Onboard and evaluate new equity data sets
• Document methodology and results for internal review
• Present research to portfolio managers and risk

Education

• Master’s or PhD in a quantitative discipline

Required Skills and Experience

• 3+ years of quantitative equity research experience
• Strong statistics with emphasis on cross sectional methods
• Proficiency with Python and SQL for large data sets
• Understanding of equity factor models and risk attribution
• Awareness of borrow, short availability and liquidity constraints
• Realistic treatment of transaction costs and turnover
• Ability to distinguish a genuine signal from a factor exposure
• Reproducible research practice

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with alternative data in an equity context
• Familiarity with a commercial risk model such as Barra or Axioma