Quantitative Model Developer, Specialist

Vanguard; Malvern (Chester County); On-site; USD 140,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanguard is seeking a quantitative software engineer to design, develop, and operate production investment systems that directly influence decisions, portfolio construction, and research workflows.

You will translate research into scalable, production-grade capabilities, build model delivery pipelines, and advance GenAI and ML-enabled solutions within cloud-native, CI/CD, and governance frameworks to improve investment outcomes and research productivity.

Qualifications

• Experience developing production-quality Python software.
• Experience building and deploying ML/AI models to production.
• Experience translating research into production environments.
• Strong quantitative, statistical, and analytical skills.

Responsibilities

• Designs, develops, and operates production quantitative investment systems.
• Designs, engineers, tests, deploys, and supports software systems that influence investment decisions, portfolio construction, and research workflows.
• Builds and maintains production pipelines for model delivery and research-to-production processes.
• Develops GenAI, retrieval, and knowledge systems to enhance quantitative research productivity.
• Establishes software engineering standards for testing, validation, and observability within quantitative investment environments.

Skills

Python

ML/AI

Quantitative finance

Cloud technologies

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher

Tools

CI/CD pipelines

MLOps

Cloud platforms

Vector databases

Job description

This role:

• Designs, develops, and operates production quantitative investment systems
• Designs, engineers, tests, deploys, and supports software systems that directly influence investment decisions, portfolio construction, trading, risk management, and research workflows. Translates quantitative research into scalable, production-grade investment capabilities while maintaining the highest standards of reliability, reproducibility, and operational rigor.
• Engineers research-to-production model delivery pipelines
• Builds and maintains the architecture required to move quantitative models, datasets, and analytical processes from research through validation, testing, sandbox environments, and ultimately production deployment using modern software engineering, CI/CD, MLOps, and governance practices.
• Develops advanced machine learning and AI-enabled investment capabilities
• Designs and implements machine learning, statistical learning, optimization, and AI-based solutions to improve security selection, alpha research, portfolio construction, model monitoring, and investment decision support. Contributes throughout the model lifecycle including feature engineering, training, validation, deployment, observability, and ongoing performance evaluation.
• Designs and implements GenAI, retrieval, and knowledge systems
• Designs enterprise-grade GenAI solutions including Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), semantic search, knowledge retrieval, embedding architectures, reranking systems, agentic workflows, context engineering strategies, evaluation frameworks, and LLM orchestration patterns to enhance quantitative research productivity and insight generation.
• Establishes software engineering and quantitative development standards
• Develops reusable frameworks, libraries, services, and platform capabilities while establishing engineering standards for testing, validation, code review, performance optimization, reproducibility, data lineage, and operational excellence within quantitative investment environments.
• Advances quantitative investing through emerging technology
• Evaluates and applies new technologies including machine learning, deep learning, agentic AI systems, LLMs, knowledge graphs, cloud-native architectures, distributed computing, model observability tools, and software engineering best practices to improve investment outcomes and research efficiency.

Qualifications

Required Skills & Experience:

• 2+ years of experience in quantitative software development, financial engineering, machine learning/AI engineering, quantitative research technology, or a related quantitative technology field.
• Python: Demonstrated experience developing production-quality software using Python and modern software engineering practices.
• Machine Learning / Statistical Modeling: Experience developing, testing, and deploying machine learning, statistical learning, or optimization models.
• Production Model Deployment: Experience translating quantitative models, research, or analytical solutions into production environments.
• Cloud Technologies: Experience developing or deploying applications in cloud-based environments.
• Software Engineering: Working knowledge of system design, automated testing, version control, CI/CD, monitoring/observability, and production support.
• Quantitative Analysis: Strong quantitative, statistical, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Education: Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, Quantitative Finance, Economics, or a related quantitative discipline.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Investment Management / Financial Markets: Experience working in asset management, quantitative investing, systematic investing, factor investing, portfolio construction, trading systems, or financial markets.
• Quantitative Investment Research: Experience translating quantitative investment research into production systematic investment capabilities.
• MLOps: Experience with machine learning operations, including model deployment, monitoring, validation, and governance.
• Generative AI: Experience designing or building applications using generative AI or large language models (LLMs).
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): Experience developing RAG architectures, semantic search, knowledge retrieval, or related retrieval systems.
• LLM Technologies: Experience with vector databases, embeddings, context engineering, prompt engineering, LLM orchestration, agentic AI frameworks, or LLM evaluation.
• Advanced AI/ML: Experience with deep learning, knowledge graphs, agentic AI systems, or other emerging AI technologies.
• Cloud / Distributed Systems: Experience with cloud-native architectures or distributed computing.
• Advanced Degree: Master's degree or PhD in a quantitative or technical discipline preferred.

Special Factors

Sponsorship

Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.

About Vanguard

At Vanguard, we don't just have a mission-we're on a mission. To work for the lon