Research - Product Specialist - Associate

Location: Bengaluru; Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Department: Research

About AQR Capital India

AQR is a global investment firm built at the intersection of financial theory and practical application. We strive to deliver concrete, long-term results by looking past market noise to identify and isolate the factors that matter most, and by developing ideas that stand up to rigorous testing. By putting theory into practice, we have become a leader in alternative strategies and an innovator in traditional portfolio management since 1998.

At AQR India, our employees share a common spirit of academic excellence, intellectual honesty and an unwavering commitment to seeking the truth. We’re determined to know what makes financial markets tick – and we’ll ask every question and challenge every assumption. We recognize and respect the power of collaboration, and believe transparency and openness to new ideas leads to innovation.

About The Team

The Global Stock Selection (GSS) group is responsible for the portfolio management and research of AQR's strategies relating to individual equities and equity related securities across all global liquid markets. GSS models are applied to market-neutral long/short portfolios in AQR hedge funds as well as to long-only and equity extension portfolios for institutional equity mandates, tax-aware mandates and mutual funds.

Within GSS, the Product Specialist team is central to communication with and support of our existing and prospective investors, and often serves as the external face of equity portfolio management. The team educates investors and prospects on our strategies through written answers to client questions, new business presentations, and review discussions of existing investments. Additionally, the team is involved in different stages of the investment process, including product development, performance monitoring and analysis. The team interacts closely with the rest of the firm including, most notably, business development, research, and portfolio implementation, as well as trading, legal, compliance, risk and marketing. Product specialists have in-depth knowledge of the strategies they cover and are expected to be in-house experts on those products. They are an integral part of initiatives to create, manage, and sell AQR products.

Your Role:

We are seeking an exceptionally talented individual to join GSS’s product specialist team. This role will give end-to-end exposure to the portfolio management process and continued evolution of AQR’s equity products and will include opportunities to work with senior investment professionals across the firm. Responsibilities include:

• Client communication:
  • Prepare client-ready written responses to investment questions spanning a variety of topics: e.g., investment philosophy, investment process, performance drivers, portfolio characteristics, etc.
  • Create and help improve presentations, review materials and collateral for pitching new business
  • Help organize and run analyses for RFPs

• Investment monitoring and analysis:
  • Analyze portfolio performance using existing tools, and contribute to the development of new monitoring tools
  • Conduct custom portfolio analysis to address questions from clients or senior investment professionals
  • Contribute to strategic projects, with a focus on scaling investment capabilities, streamlining processes and identifying operational efficiencies

• Sample projects:
  • Analyze how and why specific investment themes, or industries or country exposures contributed to overall performance
  • Create pro-forma portfolios and assess their alpha contribution after controlling for standard factors such as value, size and momentum
  • Potential opportunity to contribute to presentations and white papers on a broad spectrum of topics (e.g. specific products, quant concepts, market environment etc.)

What You’ll Bring:                     

• Bachelor’s degree in a business or quantitative discipline
• 2-6 years of investment management experience, ideally related to equity and equity linked products.
• Superior analytical ability with a deep understanding of investments, particularly equity strategies; experience with quantitative strategies preferred.
• Programming skills (Python and SQL) or a willingness to learn programming is essential
• Proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint is required
• Ability to communicate and position complex strategies effectively to a broad range of investors both verbally and in writing.
• Entrepreneurial spirit with a demonstrated work ethic, competitiveness and tenacity required to achieve top performance.

Who You Are:

• Well-organized, detail-oriented; able to multi-task and keep track of various deadlines in a fast- paced, high demand environment
• Mature and thoughtful, with the ability to operate in a collaborative, team-oriented culture
• Creative, resourceful, and driven - an intelligent risk taker and someone who does not grow complacent with success
• Hard-working and eager to learn in a highly intellectual, innovative environment
• Highest level of integrity, empathy and character