Head of Quantitative Research Job Description Template

The head of quantitative research leads the team that produces the firm’s systematic edge. The role covers the research agenda, standards for validation, the data and compute platform and the hiring of researchers, and it carries responsibility for the pipeline of strategies reaching production. The hardest part of the job is maintaining rigour at scale, since research standards erode quietly and expensively.

Typical Duties and Responsibilities

• Set the research agenda and allocate researchers against it
• Establish and enforce standards for backtesting and validation
• Review research before it is proposed for production
• Own the research data and compute platform strategy
• Hire, develop and retain quantitative researchers
• Track the live performance of strategies against their research case
• Decide which lines of research to continue and which to stop
• Work with trading and risk on production readiness
• Represent the research process in investor due diligence
• Build the internal tooling and libraries that compound research productivity

Education

• PhD or Master’s in a quantitative discipline

Required Skills and Experience

• 8+ years of quantitative research experience including team leadership
• Track record of research that produced profitable live strategies
• Deep statistical knowledge and strong instincts about overfitting
• Experience setting validation standards that survive commercial pressure
• Ability to hire and develop quantitative researchers
• Understanding of the data and compute platform research requires
• Clear judgment on when to stop a promising but unproductive line
• Credibility with traders, risk and investors

Preferred Qualifications

• Publication record in a relevant field
• Experience building a research function rather than inheriting one