VP, Principal Quant Engineer

Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Department: IAD - Quantitative Systems

Position Overview:

We are seeking a Principal Quant Engineer to work in close collaboration with Research, Portfolio Management, and Data teams to design and implement scalable, production-grade platforms that support Acadian’s quantitative research and investment processes.

This role focuses on building quant tooling that enables researchers to efficiently develop, evaluate, and deploy quantitative models across investment processes including alpha, risk, transaction cost analysis, attribution, etc. The emphasis is on creating infrastructure that makes quantitative research repeatable, observable, and production-ready at scale.

Acadian supports a hybrid work environment; employees are on-site in the Boston office 3 days a week.

What You’ll Do:

• Design and implement quant tooling that supports signal construction and evaluation workflows, powering production portfolios across global asset universes.
• Work closely with quantitative researchers to ensure research infrastructure continues to evolve in step with their needs, enabling efficient experimentation and reliable alpha generation.
• Lead the AI centric development and evolution of core platform capabilities that support signal computation, data access, workflow orchestration, and distributed execution for both quantitative signals and machine learning-based techniques, including deep learning workflows built with PyTorch.
• Ensure platform flexibility while maintaining integration with downstream processes for portfolio construction, portfolio management, marketing, client reporting, etc
• Incorporate machine learning and AI techniques into signal construction, parameter estimation, and efficacy evaluation workflows where they improve forecast quality and research productivity, including hyper‑parameter optimization using frameworks such as Optuna or similar.
• Provide architectural leadership to improve robustness, transparency, scalability, and performance of data- and compute-intensive research and production workflows.
• Collaborate with data and platform teams to streamline access to market data, alternative datasets, and compute resources, reducing friction in the research “inner loop” of signal development, backtesting, and validation.
• Contribute to the end‑to‑end machine learning lifecycle capabilities, including experiment tracking, model management, embedding and graph visualization, and deployment, drawing on tools and concepts such as MLflow.

We’re Looking for Teammates With:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related quantitative field.
• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, with significant hands-on work supporting quantitative research, signal development, or systematic investing in production environments.
• Demonstrated experience building and operating quantitative platforms that support signal modeling, evaluation, and deployment at scale.
• Strong proficiency in Python and modern data processing and numerical computing tools (e.g., Polars).
• Familiarity with machine learning and AI-assisted development techniques, including the use of AI or agentic coding tools (e.g. Claude Code) to improve research and engineering productivity.
• Solid understanding of system design concepts.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver robust, transparent, and performant systems.
• Strong attention to detail and a commitment to producing accurate, reliable, and well-engineered solutions.
• Creativity and enthusiasm for solving complex problems.
• Strong work ethic and a roll-up-your-sleeves mindset, with the ability to operate effectively in a hands-on, collaborative environment.

The base salary range for this role is $185,000 – $225,000 per year. Actual compensation will be determined based on a candidate’s skills, qualifications, and relevant experience. In addition to base pay, this position may be eligible for discretionary incentive compensation and includes participation in Acadian’s comprehensive benefits program, which includes health, retirement, and wellness offerings.