Financial Quantitative Analysts

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$78,310 Median Wage (2023)
10,100 Projected job openings (2023-2033)
6.2% Projected growth (2023-2033)

Develop quantitative techniques to inform securities investing, equities investing, pricing, or valuation of financial instruments. Develop mathematical or statistical models for risk management, asset optimization, pricing, or relative value analysis.

Experience Requirements Overview

  • Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
  • Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
  • Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
  • Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Education, Training and Experience

Required Level of Education: Master's Degree

Related Work Experience: Over 2 years, up to and including 4 years

On-Site or In-Plant Training: N.A.

On-the-Job Training: Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year

Detailed Work Activities

  • Develop technical specifications for systems or equipment.
  • Advise others on analytical techniques.
  • Monitor business indicators.
  • Develop business or financial information systems.
  • Assess the cost effectiveness of products, projects, or services.

Work Values

Achievement

Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.

Working Conditions

Recognition

Relationships

Support

Independence

Tasks

  • Apply mathematical or statistical techniques to address practical issues in finance, such as derivative valuation, securities trading, risk management, or financial market regulation.
  • Research or develop analytical tools to address issues such as portfolio construction or optimization, performance measurement, attribution, profit and loss measurement, or pricing models.
  • Interpret results of financial analysis procedures.
  • Develop core analytical capabilities or model libraries, using advanced statistical, quantitative, or econometric techniques.
  • Define or recommend model specifications or data collection methods.
  • Produce written summary reports of financial research results.
  • Maintain or modify all financial analytic models in use.
  • Provide application or analytical support to researchers or traders on issues such as valuations or data.
  • Devise or apply independent models or tools to help verify results of analytical systems.
  • Collaborate in the development or testing of new analytical software to ensure compliance with user requirements, specifications, or scope.
  • Confer with other financial engineers or analysts on trading strategies, market dynamics, or trading system performance to inform development of quantitative techniques.
  • Consult traders or other financial industry personnel to determine the need for new or improved analytical applications.
  • Research new financial products or analytics to determine their usefulness.
  • Identify, track, or maintain metrics for trading system operations.
  • Develop methods of assessing or measuring corporate performance in terms of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.
  • Collaborate with product development teams to research, model, validate, or implement quantitative structured solutions for new or expanded markets.
  • Prepare requirements documentation for use by software developers.
  • Develop solutions to help clients hedge carbon exposure or risk.
  • Develop tools to assess green technologies or green financial products, such as green hedge funds or social responsibility investment funds.
  • Assess the potential impact of climate change on business financial issues, such as damage repairs, insurance costs, or potential disruptions of daily activities.
  • Analyze pricing or risks of carbon trading products.

Work Styles

Achievement/Effort

Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.

Persistence

Initiative

Leadership

Cooperation

Concern for Others

Social Orientation

Self-Control

Stress Tolerance

Adaptability/Flexibility

Dependability

Attention to Detail

Integrity

Independence

Innovation

Analytical Thinking

Data Source: This page includes information from the O*NET 28.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. This page includes Employment Projections program, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.