Harbor Capital Advisors, Inc.

Junior Quantitative Developer

Harbor Capital Advisors, Inc.  •  $125k - $185k/yr  •  United States (Onsite)  •  27 days ago
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Job Description

TheMulti-Asset Solutions Team (MAST) manages a suite of active investment ETFs and delivers standard and customized multi-asset portfolio solutions across approximately$5 billionin AUM. Portfolios span U.S. and international equities, fixed income, and commodities.MAST’s investment process combines systematic quantitative models with a qualitative investment overlay. The Quantitative Research function is central to this process, designing,maintaining, and enhancing the models that translate market and macroeconomic information into portfolio allocations. These include:

  • Market regime and business-cycle detection models
  • State-space and signal-aggregation frameworks
  • Bespoke portfolio optimization engines
  • Scenario analysis and Monte Carlo simulations for outcome evaluation

The Junior Quantitative Developer playsa central roleinbuilding andmaintainingthe production infrastructure that powers MAST’s systematic investment process. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on productionizing quantitative models,operatingreliable portfolio construction pipelines, and building the tools and systems that translate research into tradeable portfolios. The role partners closely with researchers, portfolio managers, and IT to ensure that MAST’s models run robustly, repeatedly, and at scale.

Key Responsibilities

  • Own the architecture, operation, and maintenance of MAST’s systematic portfolio production platform.
  • Build andmaintainscalable, reliable pipelines for portfolio construction, data processing, and model execution.
  • Deliver optimized and implementation-ready portfolios for PM review with a focus on robustness and repeatability.
  • Design and implement tools to translate model outputs into tradeable portfolios, including override and constraint frameworks.
  • Partner with research, PMs, and IT to productionize models and improve system performance.

This role sits at the intersection ofsoftware engineering, quantitative finance, and production operations It requires strong Python skills, a systems-building mindset, and genuine interest in financial markets and quantitative methods.

Portfolio Production & Implementation

  • Own andoperatethe end-to-end systematic portfolio construction pipeline, ensuring reliability, scalability, and auditability.
  • Design, build, andmaintainproduction systems for data ingestion, transformation, model execution, and portfolio generation.
  • Implement automation, monitoring, logging, and alerting to ensure production stability and rapid issue detection.
  • Develop validation frameworks to ensure data integrity and correctness of portfolio outputs. Troubleshoot production issues across data, models, and infrastructure.

Research Deployment & Quant Development

  • Productionize quantitative models, signals, and portfolio construction methodologies developed by the research team.
  • Build reusable libraries and tools for optimization, risk modeling, and constraint handling.
  • Support back-testing and research workflows by developing scalable and consistent infrastructure.
  • Collaborate with researchers to ensure alignment between research code and production systems.

Key Behavioral Expectations

Drives for Results

  • Takesownership of production reliability and treats system failures as personal accountability.
  • Delivers robust, well-tested code aligned with Harbor’s investmentobjectivesand production standards.

UnleashesInnovation

  • Proactivelyidentifiesopportunities to improve system performance, code quality, and workflow automation.
  • Brings a builder’s mentality — eager to learn quantitative methods and financial markets whilemaintainingengineering discipline.

Communication & Engagement

  • Communicates clearly about system status, production issues, and technical tradeoffs.
  • Works effectively with researchers, PMs, and IT, bridging the gap between research prototypes and production-quality systems.

Minimum Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative or technical discipline (e.g., computer science, software engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, data science); advanced degree a plus but not required.
  • Strong proficiency in Python required, with demonstrable experience writing clean, maintainable code. Experience with databases (SQL/PostgreSQL), version control (Git), and production engineering practices preferred.
  • The ideal candidate is a strong software developer with genuine interest in systematic investing and quantitative methods. We value engineering talent with intellectual curiosity about markets — you will learn the investment side on the job.
  • 0–3 years of professional experience in software development, quantitative development, or a related technical role. Strong new graduates with relevant project work or internship experience will be considered.
  • Interest in financial markets and quantitative investing is a plus. Nofinancecredentials arerequired— we arehiring forengineering aptitude and willingness to learn.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities Required

The ideal candidate is a careful, detail-oriented developer who writes codethey’dbe comfortablemaintaininga year from now. They are eager to learn quantitative finance, comfortable asking questions, and motivated by the challenge of building systems where correctness matters.

  • Strong Python programming skills with an emphasis on clean, testable, production-quality code.
  • Foundational understanding of statistics, linear algebra, and optimization concepts. Exposure to machine learning or time-series analysis is a plus.
  • Systems-building mindset — thinks about reliability, edge cases, logging, and maintainability, not just getting code to run.
  • Comfortable working in a small, fast-paced team where you will learn on the job and take on real responsibility quickly.

Preferred Skills

  • Experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL, SQL Server) and writing efficient queries.
  • Familiarity with data pipeline design, ETL workflows, scheduling tools (e.g., Prefect, Airflow), and monitoring/alerting patterns.
  • Experience with version control (Git), testing frameworks, and CI/CD practices.
  • Exposure to financial data (Bloomberg, market data APIs), quantitative libraries (NumPy, pandas, SciPy, CVXPY), or portfolio analytics is a plus but notrequired

Compensation Pay Range: This position offers a competitive base salary range of $125,000 – $185,000, commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Harbor Capital Advisors, Inc.

About Harbor Capital Advisors, Inc.

We’re an asset manager focused on curating an intentionally select suite of active ETFs that we believe have the potential to produce compelling, risk-adjusted returns within a portfolio. The next great solution can come from anywhere, and we’re passionately obsessed with the thrill of the chase. So, we aim to push boundaries and blaze trails. Our pursuit of excellence knows no bounds.

Unconstrained by geography and uncompromising in our due diligence, we scour the globe to find boutique partners with bold solutions. The hidden gems you’re unlikely to find anywhere else. The masters of their craft. The true artisans. The innovative thinkers who are exceptional at what they do and leaders in their distinct areas of focus. There aren’t many of them. But we’re always looking, always learning, always improving.

We seek to analyze from every angle, driven by an intense curiosity to understand what challenges advisors and how we can help them. We’re perpetual ponderers, non-stop thinkers, and market fanatics. The advisors who work with us are too. And we don’t just want to earn their trust – we want to keep it. That means sourcing solutions in an effort to outperform peers, working together to navigate market and product complexity, and digging into research with those who share our fervor for details.

As a manager of managers for most of our products, our independence enables a level of objectivity that we believe few others share. We're only biased when it comes to quality, so we can make swift decisions about who we partner with and what we recommend.

We love what we do, and the magic of success is something we want to share with our clients – and their clients.

Ready to get active? Visit www.harborcapital.com.

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2956648

Industry
Finance & Insurance
Company Size
201-500 employees
Headquarters
Chicago, IL
Year Founded
Unknown
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