Senior Research Analyst, Institutional Intelligence

Pensions & Investments is the leading media and information company serving institutional investors and asset managers worldwide. We are expanding our research and data capabilities to match the ambitions of our editorial strategy — and this role is at the center of that effort.

About the role

The Senior Research Analyst, Institutional Intelligence will work alongside our existing research team to strengthen and expand P&I's proprietary databases, including our flagship institutional mandate coverage and our annual survey program. While data management is required, this is primarily an intelligence and product role.

Today, capturing institutional investment mandates requires monitoring a fragmented landscape of primary sources — pension board meeting recordings, public filings, RFP postings, and regulatory disclosures. You will use AI tools to build and refine workflows that make this process faster, more comprehensive, and more analytically rigorous, while also developing new data products and insight outputs that the team has not had the capacity to build until now. You will sit at the intersection of financial research, editorial judgment, and data technology.

Reporting to the Director of Research & Analytics, you will collaborate directly with P&I's editorial leadership and our corporate technology team to expand a research function that is growing in strategic importance across the organization. This is a role for someone who has spent time in the institutional investment world, understands how allocators and managers think, and wants to apply that knowledge in a new way.

Responsibilities

• New Data Products & Insight Production: Work with the Director of Research & Analytics and the editorial team to develop new intelligence outputs — monthly mandate trend summaries, data-driven story leads, and analytical briefs — that connect the dots across P&I's proprietary data. The goal is to build new products such as summaries, reports, and data feeds that serve subscribers, sponsors, and the newsroom.
• Institutional Mandate Intelligence (Searches & Hires): Expand P&I's institutional mandate database, one of the most widely used proprietary data assets in institutional financial media. Mandates include investment decisions like a pension fund seeking an ESG manager or an endowment restructuring its private equity allocation. You will build and refine AI-assisted workflows to monitor disparate sources (board meeting minutes, public filings, RFP portals, regulatory disclosures), flag relevant mandates, and ensure verified data enters the database with analytical judgment. Identify patterns across the data to create new intelligence products and editorial story leads.
• Survey Program Support: Support P&I's annual survey program (approximately a dozen surveys per year covering top money managers, asset owners, and investment consultants). Responsibilities include building and distributing surveys, managing participant relationships, reviewing submissions for accuracy, producing clean datasets, and proactively surfacing trends for the editorial and commercial teams.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in financial research, data analysis, or a related role at an institutional investment firm, financial data company, or investment consultancy.
• Deep familiarity with the institutional investment landscape — how pension funds, endowments, foundations, and asset managers operate, make decisions, and communicate publicly.
• Demonstrated comfort using AI tools (large language models, automated research workflows, or similar) to improve research quality and efficiency.
• Comfort working with unstructured data sources: board meeting audio and minutes, public filings, regulatory disclosures, and RFP documents.
• Strong analytical and writing skills — ability to synthesize complex data into clear, accurate, concise summaries suitable for a sophisticated financial audience.
• Experience managing large, complex datasets with a high standard of accuracy.
• Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, or a related field.

Qualifications (Preferred)

• CFA charterholder, CFA candidate, CAIA charter, or Master's degree in finance, data science, or a related field.
• Experience building or improving data collection and AI-assisted research workflows.
• Familiarity with media or publishing environments.
• Experience working directly with pension fund, endowment, or asset manager clients.

Why this role

P&I's proprietary data — our mandate database, survey program, and rankings — is one of the most strategically important assets in institutional financial media. We are investing in the people and technology to build on that foundation and develop new products from it. The person who takes this role will have a direct line to editorial and research leadership, will help shape how we expand our data capabilities, and will see their work influence how the institutional investment industry understands itself.

Pay

The estimated salary range for this position is $120,000 to $130,000. The final salary offering will take into account a wide range of factors, including experience, accomplishments, and location. In addition to base salary, Crain also offers competitive benefits including retirement plan savings contributions and bonus opportunities based on individual and company performance. This position is exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act and is not eligible for overtime pay.

Schedule

This is a full-time role. Employee work location may be on-site, hybrid, or remote, depending on team needs and subject to change. Specifics will be provided in the job posting. For hybrid roles, employees within a reasonable commute distance from a Crain office are expected to work on-site 3 days per week. Travel may be required for fieldwork, client meetings, or events.