Senior Quantitative Analyst, Financial Planning Methodology
The Group: The Products group is the home of manufacturing and innovation at Morningstar. The individuals in this group transform our high-quality data, independent research, and technological expertise into well-designed products that delight our clients. The group’s product management, product development, and service teams collaborate with our Client Solutions group to help provide clients with relevant products and bundled solutions.
The Role: Morningstar’s Advice Engines team helps investors reach their goals by incorporating Morningstar research and methodology into sophisticated analytical engines that power internal and external applications. The team is looking for a senior quantitative analyst to work across our Wealth Forecasting Engine (WFE) and Automated Portfolio Construction (APC) services, with a particular focus on financial planning methodologies. As a senior quantitative analyst, you act as a subject-matter expert on complex investment methodology and financial planning concepts, both internally and externally. You will collaborate with research, development, and QA teams to ensure successful product support, development, and growth. If you are looking to apply your knowledge of financial planning with your analytics skills toward the development of differentiated automated investing solutions, this may be the position for you! This position is based in Chicago.
Responsibilities
- Integrate proprietary research and financial planning concepts into a global set of advice engines by working closely with Morningstar research, product managers, and developers to bring intellectual property and new methodology to market.
- Develop an in-depth understanding of the WFE and APC methodologies and implementations.
- Lead the development of prototypes that demonstrate proposed and existing functionalities of the engines.
- Support internal and external clients through product demonstrations, troubleshooting, methodological proofs, and timely communication.
- Translate product or functional requests from internal and external clients into detailed written specifications and user stories.
- Lead the prototype development for demonstration and visualization of complex methodologies.
- Use data driven decisions to develop and test hypotheses to guide next steps in product development and client support.
Requirements
- At least two years’ experience modeling, applying, or practicing investment planning and forecasting methodologies (tax modelling, capital markets assumptions, strategic asset allocation, tax-optimized asset location, goal planning, etc.).
- Demonstrated skill in at least one statistical package, fluency with quantitative techniques, and familiarity with SQL, and a demonstrated ability to extract data from any relational database.
- Demonstrated ability to visualize data using MATLAB/ R/ Tableau.
- Firm grasp of statistics models. Some knowledge and willingness to learn more advanced models (e.g. optimization, Monte Carlo simulations, etc.). Ability to implement basic hypothesis testing.
- Understanding of both business and technical requirements, and the ability to serve as a conduit between product, research, technology, and external clients.
- Excellent English-language oral and written communication.
- Interest in and focus on building innovative products that users love.
- Bachelor’s degree in finance, economics, mathematics, engineering, computer science or related field is required. A Master’s degree, CFA, or CFP are all highly desired.
Morningstar is an equal opportunity employer.