Political Scientist

Position description

GeoQuant is seeking to hire a Political Scientist with a strong background in quantitative social science and political economy to support country-risk research and analysis. Understanding of financial markets and experience with market data (i.e., equities, sovereign debt, currencies) is required. Candidates will have the opportunity to explore, analyze, and write about our proprietary political risk dataset for different use cases, and aid in product development.

This position requires an academic background in Political Science, Political Economy, or Public Policy with formal training in applied econometrics, quantitative methods, and/or data science, in addition to a strong background in computational social science methods using R and Python. The position will work regularly with GeoQuant’s Head of Research, Co-Heads, and other Senior Analysts. Specific responsibilities of this position include but are not limited to:

• Client engagement, including intros of the data and preparing data samples for analysis.
• Supporting client-facing deliverables, primarily via model development, data-driven analysis.
• Developing early warning signals, forecasts, and ways to manage political risk using GeoQuant data.
• Presenting data-driven analysis of geopolitics.

What We Offer:

• GeoQuant is a non-hierarchical organization comprising a small team of driven, friendly, laid-back employees; the ideal candidate would possess similar qualities while also being a self-starter and possessing the ability to work both autonomously and at the direction of a busy executive team. 
• GeoQuant’s core team is spread geographically across time zones and countries; strong time management and communication skills are therefore imperative.

We’ll Count on You To:

• Display exceptional organizational and time/deadline management skills and ability to prioritize among various internal/external deliverables.
• Ability to work independently.

What You Need to Have:

Academic

• Degree in Political Science, Political Economy, or Public Policy with formal training in applied econometrics, quantitative methods, and/or data science.
• Strong preference for candidates with a specialization in Comparative Politics, International Relations, and/or International Political Economy.
• Demonstrated proficiency in data-driven political and/or geopolitical research (e.g., peer-reviewed journal articles, thesis, dissertation, white papers).

Professional Experience

• Experience with applying structured analytic techniques and quantitative methods to design, model, validate, and monitor varying political outcomes.
• Familiarity and/or prior experience working with (1) political microdata covering elections, polling, political violence and (2) market data covering macro sentiment indicators, FX, sovereign debt, and equities.
• Exceptional organizational and time/deadline management skills and ability to prioritize among various internal/external deliverables.
• Ability to work independently.

Technical

• Substantial experience querying, cleaning, compiling, and analyzing big data.
• Familiarity applying various computational social science methods including data mining, data visualization, natural language processing, text analysis, and basic machine learning models.
• Familiarity with scenario analysis/stress-testing, simulation analysis, rare event modeling, and stochastic modeling preferred but not required.
• Substantial experience with Python, R, and relevant libraries (e.g., numpy, pandas, scikit, pytorch, tidyverse, caret, ggplot, etc.).
• Familiarity with database management tools and techniques (e.g., SQL, Selenium, S3, Sagemaker, API protocols) preferred but not required.

Why Fitch?

At Fitch Group, the combined power of our global perspectives is what differentiates us. Our global network of colleagues comes together to accomplish things greater than they ever could alone.

Every team member is essential to our business and each perspective is critical to our success. We embrace a diverse culture that encourages a free exchange of ideas, guaranteeing your voice will be heard and your work will have an impact, regardless of seniority. We are building incredible things at Fitch and we invite you to join us on our journey.

GeoQuant, a Fitch Solutions Company, is an AI-driven data and technology company that fuses political science and computer science to measure and predict political risk with unprecedented accuracy. Our core technology is a proprietary suite of real-time indicators and predictive analytics available via web application, custom dashboards and API. Clients include asset managers, multinationals, insurance companies and government entities.

Application instructions

Please be sure to indicate you saw this position on tendersglobal.net