Data Science Vice President-Equity Index Quant Research Specialist

Your Team Responsibilities

The MSCI Index R&D platform & governance team is a global client-centric research group that has full research ownership of all MSCI equity indexes and related frameworks in production throughout their lifecycle, whether flagship MSCI index products or client customized index solutions. This responsibility spans all factor, thematic, cap-weighted and sustainability & climate Indexes.

The group performs index policy research, index methodology consultations as well as market research in the context of MSCI’s market classification and accessibility reviews. The group is responsible for overseeing index rebalancing and is accountable for the quality of the index product sent to clients. The group also works collaboratively with clients to help them meet their investment goals by building and enhancing customized index solutions. Foundational indexes based on the ever-expanding MSCI equity security universe, like the MSCI ACWI IMI, are also a core responsibility. Visible thought leadership and a strategic focus on ensuring all index methodologies remain relevant to investors globally is a key objective of the team.

The team is responsible for ensuring methodological rigor, transparency, reproducibility and scalability across all this R&D output. The team defines and maintains MSCI’s model standards, quality practices and lifecycle governance. This requires innovation at scale to support proactively the building of capabilities in modelling, calculation, security coverage and data.

The team is present in multiple locations across key regions. The group works closely with other groups within R&D as well as across the firm (data, technology, product, client coverage) to implement the research and product development agenda and to benefit from the substantial resources and expertise of the global MSCI organization.

Your Key Responsibilities

You will be part of a team within the Index R&D team that will play a pivotal role in a cross-functional group, looking to drive innovation in the creation and maintenance of sophisticated tools that will greatly enhance how our clients can access, customize and understand the use of our indexes as part of their investment process. This research role will work closely with MSCI colleagues in the index technology and engineering teams to drive and develop our systems using modern architectures that leverage AI for the benefit of our clients.

Aside from these modular platform-building objectives, you will also be part of a wider group in Index R&D that provides technical expertise to colleagues to help them enhance the algorithms currently used in the index creation process and workflows. The ideal candidate will draw on their background in financial modelling and software development principles to help architect technology solutions for a fast-paced client centric environment. A background in computer science, software development, software architecture and data science will help in working closely with index researchers, data scientists and technologists to develop and build new features in our index environment using Python. Additionally, the candidate will become a subject matter expert in our existing applications.

You will be expected to:

• Collaborate closely with various departments in research and our technology group to design and build systems and tools to enhance the index creation and rebalance process.
• Drive the development of the MSCI Index Development Platform by leveraging modern technologies, including Python, Machine learning and AI.

• Proactively identify opportunities to apply AI and machine learning techniques to improve efficiency, accuracy and scalability.
• Champion the practical adoption of AI (e.g., automation, model-assisted research, intelligent tooling) to improve internal processes and deliver client-centric solutions.

• Provide onboarding, training, and technical guidance to stakeholders across the organization to ensure effective adoption and usage.

• Drive decisions that influence the product design, application functionality, and technical operations and processes
• Influences peers and project decision-makers to consider the use of modern AI-driven and leading-edge technologies where appropriate.

• Provide software (primarily Python) expertise to your team members and others in research to ensure the quality of our index calculation tools.
• Develop secure and high-quality production code and review and debug code written by others.

Your skills and experience that will help you excel

• 7-10 years’ experience in a quantitative role, preferably in portfolio management or investment decision support companies
• Advanced degree in computer science, software development, financial engineering, statistics, mathematics, or related STEM field.
• Excellent programming skills in Python. Software architecture skills is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience using or integrating AI/ML tools, automation frameworks, or intelligent analytics in production or research environments.
• Knowledge and willingness to learn about Azure and other cloud infrastructure.

• Understanding of equity markets, portfolio construction, and the investment decision-making process.

• Ability to tackle design and functionality problems independently with little to no oversight.
• High attention to detail, intellectual curiosity, and motivation.
• Strong interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex concepts to diverse audiences