Executive Director, AI Research — Private Assets R&D

MSCI Inc; New York (NY); On-site; USD 246,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Health benefits

Flexible work arrangements

Learning@MSCI platform

Job summary

MSCI Inc. in New York seeks an Executive Director, AI Research, to lead the build‑out of AI‑native capabilities across MSCI's Private Assets R&D group.

You will report to the Managing Director, Head of Private Assets R&D, and shape a research program that translates cutting‑edge AI into scalable client solutions. You will collaborate with researchers, product heads across private equity, private credit, and real assets, and with technology and data engineering teams to deploy production‑ready

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in a quantitative field.
• 10+ years of applied AI/ML research or quantitative research experience.
• Proven ability to own a research agenda end‑to‑end from hypothesis to client delivery.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the AI research agenda for Private Assets R&D.
• Develop AI-driven approaches to pricing and similarity models in private markets.
• Extend nowcasting and cash flow forecasting with ML, focusing on explainability.

Skills

AI/ML research

Python

LLMs

Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Model deployment

Communication to stakeholders

Education

Master's or PhD in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Python

ML frameworks

LLMs

Job description

Your Team Responsibilities

MSCI's Private Assets R&D group develops the methodologies, models, and indexes underpinning MSCI's offerings across private equity, private credit, and private real assets. Drawing on data assets from the Burgiss, IPD, and RCA acquisitions, the team serves the world's leading institutional investors — pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and asset managers.

You will join a senior research team at the forefront of bringing institutional-grade analytics to private markets. As Executive Director, AI Research, you will report directly to the Managing Director, Head of Private Assets R&D, and be responsible for the build-out of AI-native research capabilities across the group. You will collaborate closely with researchers, product heads across private equity, private credit, and real assets, and MSCI's technology and data engineering teams to translate AI research advances into scalable client solutions.

Your Key Ressponsibilities

• Define and drive the AI research agenda for Private Assets R&D, identifying where AI creates durable competitive advantage in private markets analytics
• Develop AI-driven approaches to evaluated pricing and comparable selection, leveraging unstructured text, financial filings, and embedding-based similarity models
• Extend MSCI's nowcasting and cash flow forecasting capabilities using modern ML methods — including LLM-based models — with a focus on explainability for institutional clients
• Design and deploy agentic AI workflows and prototypes, accelerating the path from research concept to client-facing product
• Automate high-value recurring research tasks including market commentary generation and model parameter re-estimation
• Represent Private Assets R&D in client engagements and through published research

Your skills and experience that will help you excel

• Advanced degree (Master's or PhD) in Computer Science, Computational Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field
• 10+ years of experience in applied AI/ML research or quantitative research, with a track record of building and deploying models in production
• Deep expertise in Python and modern ML frameworks; hands‑on experience with large language models, retrieval‑augmented generation, and/or deep learning
• Proven ability to own a research agenda end‑to‑end — from hypothesis through model development, validation, and client‑ready delivery
• Strong communication skills — able to present complex methodological concepts credibly to senior stakeholders and institutional clients
• Preferred: domain knowledge in private markets, asset management, or institutional investment analytics
• Preferred: experience with unstructured data (NLP, document parsing, web extraction) applied to financial problems
• Preferred: familiarity with agentic AI frameworks and rapid prototyping tools

About MSCI

What we offer you

• Salary range: $246,000 - $320,000 / year - Plus eligible for annual bonus
• Transparent compensation schemes and comprehensive employee benefits, tailored to your location, ensuring your financial security, health, and overall wellbeing.
• Flexible working arrangements, advanced technology, and collaborative workspaces.

• A culture of high performance and innovation where we experiment with new ideas and take responsibility for achieving results.

• A global network of talented colleagues, who inspire, support, and share their expertise to innovate and deliver for our clients.

• Global Orientation program to kickstart your journey, followed by access to our Learning@MSCI platform, AI Learning Center , LinkedIn Learning Pro and tailored learning opportunities for ongoing skills development.

• Multi-directional career paths that offer professional growth and development through new challenges, internal mobility and expanded roles.

• We actively nurture an environment that builds a sense of inclusion belonging and connection, including eight Employee Resource Groups. All Abilities, Asian Support Network, Black Leadership Network, Climate Action Network, Hola! MSCI, Pride & Allies, Women in Tech, and Women’s Leadership Forum.

At MSCI we are passionate about what we do, and we are inspired by our vision – to power better decisions. You’ll be part of an industry‑leading network of creative, curious, and entrepreneurial pioneers. This is a space where you can challenge yourself, set new standards and perform beyond expectations for yourself, our clients, and our industry.

MSCI strengthens global markets by connecting participants across the financial ecosystem with a common language. Our research‑based data, analytics and indexes, supported by advanced technology, set standards for global investors and help our clients understand risks and opportunities so they can make better decisions and unlock innovation. We serve asset managers and owners, private‑market sponsors and investors, hedge funds, wealth managers, banks, insurers and corporates.

MSCI Inc. is an equal‑opportunity employer. It is the policy of the firm to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, marital and civil partnership/union status, pregnancy (including unlawful discrimination on the basis of a legally protected parental leave), veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. MSCI is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, please email [e-mail] and indicate the specifics of the assistance needed. Please note, this e‑mail is intended only for individuals who are requesting a reasonable workplace accommodation; it is not intended for other inquiries.

To all recruitment agencies

MSCI does not accept unsolicited CVs/Resumes. Please do not forward CVs/Resumes to any MSCI employee, location, or website. MSCI is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited CVs/Resumes.

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