Senior Quantitative Equity Research Analyst, AI Platform

VERSANT is an independent, publicly traded company that brings together brands including CNBC, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, Golf Channel, Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, GolfPass, and SportsEngine. StockStory, part of CNBC, is building the next generation of AI-powered equity research for individual investors. We operate like a startup—small team, high ownership, fast decisions, and direct access to leadership—with the resources and long-term backing of a well-capitalized public company. Our mission is to help individual investors make better investment decisions by combining institutional-quality equity research, quantitative methods, proprietary data, and AI.

About the role

We’re looking for a Senior Quantitative Equity Research Analyst to lead the quantitative research behind our stock-selection models and help build a new generation of AI-powered equity research products. You will be the primary quantitative research expert on a small, high-caliber team that brings together top-tier engineering and buy-side talent, including senior analysts with prior experience at firms such as Millennium, Point72, and KKR. This is a hands-on individual contributor role with significant autonomy.

You will cover investment research methodology, research prototypes, testing standards, and model monitoring. Our engineering team will own production infrastructure and scalability, partnering with you to turn successful research into reliable systems.

You will operate as a research partner and lead the quantitative research behind High Quality Stocks, a long-only, factor-based stock-selection strategy designed around an approximately five-year ownership horizon. You will contribute to the development of both a quality framework and a valuation framework designed to identify high-quality businesses whose current prices offer attractive long-term return potential. The quantitative model drives stock recommendations. Working closely with senior equity analysts, you will translate fundamental investment judgment into measurable hypotheses, systematic signals, ranking models, and decision rules. Analysts help shape and challenge the investment framework; you will own the methodology, empirical validation, and ongoing performance of our models.

Responsibilities

• Lead the quantitative research agenda behind High Quality Stocks.
• Improve and refine a quality framework and valuation framework for identifying attractive long-term equity investments.
• Partner with senior equity analysts to translate fundamental concepts and investment hypotheses into systematic signals and ranking models.
• Design rigorous back tests using point-in-time data, with appropriate controls for look-ahead bias, survivorship bias, overfitting, multiple testing, and regime dependence.
• Develop machine-learning models and frameworks to help improve performance of the strategy and discover new factors.
• Evaluate factor performance across sectors, company sizes, market environments, time periods, and portfolio-construction approaches.
• Code research prototypes and apply statistical and machine-learning methods where they improve the quality or robustness of the investment process.
• Partner with equity data analysts and AI/ML engineers to validate financial data and turn successful research into scalable, production-quality systems.

Requirements

• Minimum of 5 years of quantitative equity research experience, ideally within a long-only asset manager, fundamental quantitative team, long-biased strategy, systematic equity firm, or similar institutional environment.
• Direct experience researching long-only or long-biased equity strategies with medium- to long-term investment horizons.
• End-to-end ownership of quantitative research, from hypothesis and data construction through back testing, implementation, and performance evaluation.
• Strong fundamental equity knowledge, including financial statements, profitability, capital allocation, business quality, and valuation.
• Strong knowledge of factor research, statistics, back testing, portfolio construction, and machine learning.
• Strong Python skills and experience working with point-in-time fundamentals, estimates, market data, and other financial datasets.
• Ability to independently own quantitative research while communicating findings clearly to fundamental investors, engineers, and senior leadership.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience researching quality, value, profitability, or other fundamental equity factors.
• Experience building stock-ranking models, screens, or model portfolios.
• Experience applying machine learning to cross-sectional equity research.
• Experience with LLM-powered research, financial-document analysis, or AI-assisted investment workflows.
• Experience building quantitative research or models used by portfolio managers, equity analysts, or individual investors.

Location & Schedule

Hybrid: 3 days in office at CNBC Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Benefits

• Free onsite fitness center with state-of-the-art equipment and daily group classes.
• Gourmet cafeteria with daily specials, plus soup and salad bars.
• Onsite dry cleaning and shoeshine services.
• Free shuttle transportation to and from multiple locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Hoboken, and Jersey City.
• Opportunity to join at a time of meaningful investment in data, technology, and product development, with significant scaling expected.