Data Science Associate

Job Description

About this role

At BlackRock, we are all connected by one mission: to help more and more people experience financial well-being. Our clients, and the people they serve, are saving for retirement, paying for their children’s educations, buying homes and starting businesses. Their investments also help to strengthen the global economy: support businesses small and large; finance infrastructure projects that connect and power cities; and facilitate innovations that drive progress.

This mission would not be possible without our smartest investment – the one we make in our employees. It’s why we’re dedicated to creating an environment where our colleagues feel encouraged, valued and supported with networks, benefits and development opportunities to help them thrive.

AI Labs mandate is to leverage AI and data science techniques to tackle commercial problems across BLK’s asset management platform. This includes partnering with business units across the firm including portfolio management, trading, capital markets, risk management, and operations to construct alpha signals for investment, improve portfolio construction, enhance pricing models and risk analytics, and automation of trading, underwriting, and anomaly detection.

AI Labs team works collaboratively; and is a multi-disciplinary team with the following skills and capabilities: optimization, machine learning, statistical modeling, exploratory data analysis, natural language processing, data visualization, network/graph modeling, ETL, data pipelines, data architecture, communication, project / product management and strategy. We work with data from a wide variety of sources including text, news feeds, financial reports, time series transactions, user behavior logs, imagery, and real-time data.

AI Labs has offices in New York, Palo Alto, and Edinburgh. The team has several Stanford professors as senior advisors with world-class expertise in machine learning, statistics, optimization and stochastic control. These advisors include Emanuel Candes, Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani, and Mykel Kochenderfer who dedicate time in our Palo Alto office and provide advice and mentorship for all members of the distributed team.

Responsibilities:

As a quantitative modeler in AI Labs, you will be working at the intersection of asset management, economics, and data science. The primary responsibilities of a researcher will be to research and develop new analytic solutions and methods to directly improve Blackrock’s suite of products and services through creation of new models, features, or experimental design.

In addition to model development and calibration, responsibilities include:

• Data gathering, requirements specification, processing, analysis, algorithms, builds, and code reviews
• Backtesting, documenting, and guiding new models and methodologies through validation.
• Convincing key partners to adopt new models and process improvements and partnering with the business to implement these improvements.
• Collaborate on papers for publication, presenting original research at industry conferences, and speaking with institutional clients about relevant research.

Skills & Qualifications

• PhD in Finance, Statistics/Econometrics, Economics or other relevant quantitative subject areas.
• Hands-on experience with data science and machine learning techniques.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct high quality empirical research or theoretical research relevant for empirical analysis.
• Able to communicate quantitative information and collaborate effectively in a team environment.
• Solid programming skills in Python or Julia.

Our benefits
To help you stay energized, engaged and inspired, we offer a wide range of benefits including a strong retirement plan, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive healthcare, support for working parents and Flexible Time Off (FTO) so you can relax, recharge and be there for the people you care about.

About BlackRock

At BlackRock, we are all connected by one mission: to help more and more people experience financial well-being. Our clients, and the people they serve, are saving for retirement, paying for their children’s educations, buying homes and starting businesses. Their investments also help to strengthen the global economy: support businesses small and large; finance infrastructure projects that connect and power cities; and facilitate innovations that drive progress.

This mission would not be possible without our smartest investment – the one we make in our employees. It’s why we’re dedicated to creating an environment where our colleagues feel welcomed, valued and supported with networks, benefits and development opportunities to help them thrive.

For additional information on BlackRock, please visit careers.blackrock.com | www.blackrock.com/corporate | Instagram: @blackrock | Twitter: @blackrock | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/blackrock

BlackRock is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status, and other statuses protected by law.