Quantitative Researcher

Job Description Summary

For over forty years, HarbourVest has been home to a committed team of professionals with an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to deliver impactful solutions to our clients and investing partners. As our global firm grows, we continue to add individuals who seek a collaborative, open-door culture that values diversity and innovative thinking.

In our collegial environment that’s marked by low turnover and high energy, you’ll be inspired to grow and thrive. Here, you will be encouraged to build on your strengths and acquire new skills and experiences.

We are committed to fostering an environment of inclusion that promotes mutual respect among all employees. Understanding and valuing these differences optimizes the potential of both the individual and the firm.

HarbourVest is an equal opportunity employer.

This position will be a hybrid work arrangement, which translates to 3 days minimum per week in the office.

As a member of the Quantitative Investment Sciences (QIS) team, this quantitative researcher will work with a team of experienced researchers to develop and conduct quantitative modeling and analysis of private equity co-investment opportunities. This motivated individual will be dedicated to supporting HarbourVest’s Global Direct Co-Investment strategy team on active investment diligence, pipeline monitoring, portfolio construction, and generating quantitative insights for client engagements and fundraising. Our projects harness large proprietary private market datasets and statistical models to produce insights that enhance a historically fundamental research-based investment process.

This is an opportunity to join a highly diverse and growing team passionate about pioneering the application of quantitative research, ML/AI and data science to private markets investing and risk management.

The ideal candidate is someone with:

• Passion for financial markets and investing, quantitative research with complex datasets, and demonstrated intellectual curiosity.
• Innovative and entrepreneurial attitude. Comfortable taking initiative.
• Excels at clearly and effectively communicating quantitative insights.
• Strives in a collegial and collaborative team-oriented environment.
• Results and detail oriented.
• Willing to work in a position with uneven and high priority project work.

What you will do:

Conducting quantitative/statistical analysis of private markets and investment opportunities (80%)

• You will play a lead role in analyzing proprietary private markets datasets and models to characterize market risk/return relationships, evaluate investment opportunities in the private equity co-investment market to inform investment selection and due diligence.
• Diligently perform data exploration and visualization to test investment team hypotheses.
• Accountable for communicating analysis results and actionable insights to the investment team.
• Support and drive adoption and integration of QIS models with fundamental analysis conducted by deal teams.
• Seek to apply new models and techniques (AI/ML) to advance the use of quantitative methods in the investment process.

Responding to ad-hoc quantitative analysis requests (20%)

• Supporting client facing teams in conducting ad-hoc analysis and responding to client requests.

What you bring:

• Experience in quantitative equity is required; prior experience with bottoms-up financial modeling is preferred.
• Prior private markets experience is not required.
• Demonstrate rigorous statistical analysis and experience analyzing large datasets.
• Strong programming skills, preferably in Python (including numerical, statistical modeling and visualization libraries) and SQL.
• Prefer prior independent research experience (academic thesis or industry research)

Education:

• Bachelor of Arts (B.A) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.) required
• Prefer master's degree or Ph.D. in a technical field

Experience:

• 3+ years of experience in a quantitative finance role

#LI-Hybrid