Data Scout - Data Partnerships

MSCI Inc; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

MSCI Inc. is building a platform to discover, access and monetize proprietary and third-party datasets for systematic investors. The Data Scout researches data sources, evaluates provenance and potential, and builds a vendor pipeline that feeds MarketPlace revenue and product relevance.

The role partners with the Head of Data Product to source, vet and onboard datasets, while maintaining awareness of data themes and commercial terms to support senior negotiations.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in data sourcing, data research, vendor management or commercial roles within financial data, market data or a buy-/sell-side data function.
• Direct experience at a data aggregator / data marketplace platform or in a data-sourcing / data-strategy team at a quantitative hedge fund.
• Hands-on data-scouting experience across alternative and external data categories, with a sharp eye for relevant, additive and reliable sources.

Responsibilities

• Proactively scout new and interesting external and alternative data sources across major categories (transactional, ESG, web & app, sentiment, location, fund flows, satellite, economic).
• Identify less well-known providers and secondary use-cases of a dataset to uncover valuable data.
• Keep a current view of in-demand data themes and map them to MSCI and client use-cases.
• Research and document each dataset’s attributes, strengths/ weaknesses, provenance, frequency and pricing.
• Establish data provenance and contract rights, flag compliance and reputational risk with Legal and Compliance as needed.
• Partner with Data Analytics to assess commercial potential before onboarding.
• Build, qualify and manage the vendor pipeline from first contact to opportunity.
• Document commercial terms, pricing benchmarks and deal structures for senior decision-makers.
• Contribute to promoting MarketPlace with datasets insight, marketing content, and vendor engagement.

Skills

Data sourcing

Vendor management

Commercial terms

Market research

Data licensing

Stakeholder management

Tools

Neudata

Quandl/Nasdaq Data Link

BattleFin

Eagle Alpha

Job description

MSCI is building a platform to discover, access and monetize both MSCI–proprietary and third–party datasets for systematic and quantitative investors. The Data Scout drives the discovery engine: finding new and interesting external and alternative data sources, researching their relevance and applicability, and building and qualifying the vendor pipeline. The discipline is not simply finding data, but finding data that is relevant and additive — sources that give MSCI and its clients either genuinely new insight or a sharper lens on existing analysis. The role works in close partnership with the Head of Data Product, who leads the senior decision‑making and the direct negotiation of key commercial terms; the Scout provides the research, vendor relationships and dataset evaluation that make those decisions and deals possible, and contributes directly to MarketPlace revenue and product relevance.

The role is measured on the strength of the sourcing engine and its contribution to revenue and product innovation:

Quality and depth of the vendor pipeline — conversations initiated, opportunities qualified, and well‑prepared deals brought forward for decision.

• Number and quality of datasets sourced and onboarded onto the MarketPlace.

• Contribution to MarketPlace revenue — vendor subscriptions and MSCI’s revenue split from dataset sales — supported by the partnerships sourced.

• Number of sourced datasets that end up being used in new internal products created by the MSCI Index, Analytics, Sustainability & Climate (S&C) or Private Assets teams.

Discovery & research

• Proactively scout new and interesting external and alternative data sources across the major categories (e.g. transactional, ESG, web & app, sentiment, location, fund flows, satellite, economic), prioritising those that are relevant and additive to quant and systematic workflows.

• Look beyond the obvious: identify less well‑known providers and the tangential or secondary use‑cases of a dataset, since the hardest‑to‑find data is often the most valuable.

• Keep a current view of in‑demand data themes (e.g. consumer transactional, ESG, China coverage) and emerging providers, and map them to MSCI and client use‑cases.

Vetting & evaluation

• Research and document each dataset’s key attributes, strengths and weaknesses — what the data measures, where it comes from and how it is collected, frequency, history, coverage and pricing.

• Run structured provider due diligence: how the data is collected, processed and cleaned; how raw inputs become outputs; and the applications and use‑cases (including tangential ones).

• Establish provenance and the chain of consents — confirming the provider has the right to license and resell the data — flagging compliance and reputational risk early and involving Legal and Compliance as needed.

• Assess each dataset’s commercial potential and quality in partnership with the Data Analytics team before onboarding.

Pipeline, commercial support & promotion

• Build, qualify and manage the vendor pipeline, running data‑provider conversations from first contact through to a well‑prepared, decision‑ready opportunity.

• Research and document the commercial terms, pricing benchmarks and deal structures available from each vendor, providing the analysis the Head of Data MarketPlace needs to make decisions and lead negotiations.

• Contribute to the development and promotion of the MarketPlace — proposing which datasets are featured, supporting marketing and newsletter content with vendor and dataset insight, and helping represent the offering to vendors and clients.

• Work with the data structuring team, the Index team and the Analytics Research team to surface newly sourced datasets that could be relevant for creating new MSCI products, acting as the bridge between external data supply and internal product innovation.

• 5+ years in data sourcing, data research, vendor management or commercial roles within financial data, market data or a buy‑/sell‑side data function.

• Direct experience at a data aggregator / data marketplace platform (e.g. Neudata, Quandl/Nasdaq Data Link, BattleFin, Eagle Alpha) or in a data‑sourcing / data‑strategy team at a quantitative hedge fund.

• Hands‑on data‑scouting experience across alternative and external data categories, with a sharp eye for which sources are genuinely relevant, additive and reliable versus the many that are not.

• Comfortable interrogating providers on collection methodology, data provenance, chain of consents and use‑cases, and translating that into a clear assessment of value, quality and compliance risk.

• Strong research and relationship‑building skills, with the ability to identify, qualify and prepare commercial opportunities for senior decision‑making.

• Commercial awareness and comfort working through deal terms and revenue‑share concepts, supporting (rather than leading) senior negotiations.

• Solid understanding of the financial data ecosystem — index data, reference data, risk/factor models, ESG and alternative data.

• Familiarity with redistribution rights, data licensing structures and the contractual issues around reuse of third‑party data.

• Comfortable engaging commercial counterparts at vendors and technical data owners internally.

• Self‑starter able to operate with autonomy in a lean, fast‑moving build‑out team, working closely with a senior lead.

• Existing network across market‑data vendors and exchanges (preferred).

• Exposure to quant / systematic hedge fund clients and their data needs (preferred).