Quantitative Researcher

About Vanguard

More than 45 years ago, John C. Bogle had a vision to start an investment company that did things differently. A company with no external shareholders. Where all the profits were invested back into the business and used to lower costs. Evidently, it was as bold as it was brilliant. To this day, Vanguard Group still has no external shareholders. That means no share prices to protect, and no profits to generate for outside owners.

Today, Vanguard is one of the world's largest investment management companies, serving more than 50 million investors worldwide. For more than 25 years Vanguard Australia has been supporting individual investors, financial advisers, and superannuation members to achieve their long-term financial goals.

Team & Opportunity

The Investment Strategy Group (ISG) is a global team that serves as Vanguard's in-house research team, with subject matter experts based in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.

As an Investment Analyst in the Investment Strategy Group (ISG) at Vanguard you'll play an active role in creating and enhancing Vanguard's thought leadership and investment methodology. The position is part of a global team responsible for establishing and maintaining robust investment and modeling research effort. You will conduct empirical research focusing on financial markets and their implications for portfolio construction and asset allocation strategies. Also, you will implement and develop quantitative models for asset allocation, life cycle investing and financial planning.

Core Responsibilities

• Contribute to Vanguard's thought leadership on asset allocation and portfolio construction.
• Research, develop and implement quantitative models in areas such as asset allocation, life cycle investing, and financial planning. Analyze complex investment research issues, focusing on financial markets and their implications for portfolio construction and investment advice.
• Analyze investment research issues and participate in the ongoing review and enhancement of Vanguard's investment methodology. The topics would primarily focus on asset allocation and portfolio optimization.
• Perform quantitative and qualitative analysis and offer opinions and recommendations. Present analysis and results internally to other business units and senior management, and externally to Vanguard clients, prospects or the media.
• Support internal client requests on ad hoc research projects, especially for Australia and the broader Asia-Pacific markets.
• Participate in group discussions designed to identify and debate investment issues and potential research projects.
• Participate in special projects and perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• PhD or Master's degree in a quantitative discipline either related directly to finance such as Financial Engineering, Econometrics and Statistics or in fields such as Mathematics, Physics or Engineering coupled with an interest or direct work experience in finance.
• Strong technical, analytical and empirical research skills.
• Strong foundation in mathematical areas related to quantitative investing such as probability and statistics, linear algebra, and optimization.
• Proficiency in programming environments like Matlab or Python is essential. Solid understanding of software engineering principles, including object-oriented design patterns, testing, and version control, would be viewed favorably but not essential.
• Ability to write clean, understandable code that follows leading industry standards and practices and is well-documented, and to build easily reproducible models.
• Experience in machine learning techniques, especially their application to portfolio optimization, is desirable but not essential.
• 3 yrs+ of experience in a research role within the financial or technical domain or academia (eg. PhD studies or postdoctoral experience).
• Ability to write effectively and explain complex concepts to non-technical audiences.

Inclusion Statement

Vanguard's continued commitment to diversity and inclusion is firmly rooted in our culture. Every decision we make to best serve our clients, crew (internally employees are referred to as crew), and communities is guided by one simple statement: "Do the right thing."

We believe that a critical aspect of doing the right thing requires building diverse, inclusive, and highly effective teams of individuals who are as unique as the clients they serve. We empower our crew to contribute their distinct strengths to achieving Vanguard's core purpose through our values.

When all crew members feel valued and included, our ability to collaborate and innovate is amplified, and we are united in delivering on Vanguard's core purpose.

Our core purpose: To take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success.