The Credit Research Initiative (CRI) team is a world leader in studying and applying the modern data analytics and conventional economic/financial models to credit risk analysis. We invite Ph.D. candidates/holders from quantitative disciplines to apply for the Research Fellowship.

The CRI is committed to achieving academic excellence and practical relevance. It was launched after the 2008-2009 financial crisis and premised upon the concept of credit ratings as a public good. Over the course of its developments, it has produced top-tier original research and has helped a wide range of financial institutions, supranational organizations and FinTech companies to solve real-world problems. In collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the CRI has developed an automated stress-testing tool based on the CRI PD system – the Bottom-up Default Analysis (BuDA) toolkit. Together with a Singapore-based FinTech company, our technology is extended to help build its credit rating system for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The CRI team joins the Asian Institute of Digital Finance in NUS in 2020 and currently actively pursues a research project on Natural Language Processing (NLP) to extract credit-focused sentiments in media to complement the structured financial and behavioural data. Looking into the future, the CRI will continue to make the most of data analytics, further automate the system and make the products more actionable for various users.

Responsibilities (include but not limited to):

• Conducting individual research for journal publications on credit risk management, data analytics, natural language processing, machine learning, deep learning, financial modelling, finance/economics empirical analyses, algorithm development, databases, etc.
• Participating in the CRI operations in terms of model development/validation, data production, system enhancement and knowledge dissemination.
• Participating in the consulting projects for external parties (e.g. bespoke model development/validation).

Qualification Requirements:

• Expecting/Holding Ph.D. degree from a quantitative discipline, e.g. Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Engineering, Operations Research, Marketing, Economics, Finance, etc. The successful candidate is expected to obtain his/her Ph.D. degree at the time of appointment.
• Intending to do good research and striving to have a real-world impact.
• With great curiosity and outstanding ability to learn fast.
• Strong team spirit and comfortable working with a diverse team in a multi-cultural environment.
• Responsible and resilient when faced with challenges.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Application Materials:

• Application Form;
• NUS Personal Data Consent for Job Applicants;
• A detailed CV including publications;
• A statement of future research plan and samples of research work;
• Two reference letters.

Applicants should submit their applications electronically to eileenw@nus.edu.sg.

We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

For more information about CRI, please visit CRI Website

Be part of a dynamic team in analysing risk in today’s financial markets. An opportunity exists to join the Credit Research Initiative as a Research Analyst / Associate in the Credit Research Initiative (CRI). You will compute and publish probabilities of default (PD) of listed firms globally based on CRI’s quantitative model, and contribute to the on-going research and development of the model. This is a cross-functional role that requires the exploration of different dimensions of risk management. It will challenge successful applicants and is a great learning and development opportunity.

Career Benefits:

• Gain a detailed understanding of a cutting-edge quantitative credit risk model being pioneered by the Credit Research Initiative (CRI) under NUS AIDF.
• Further your knowledge in quantitative modeling and financial analysis.
• Gain experience in emerging technologies (e.g. cloud/grid computing, GPU computing, FPGA).
• Benefit from a world-class research environment at the forefront of credit risk, with a motivated research team a well-established network.

Successful applicant can look forward to join one of the team(s) below.

 

1. IT Operations - Systems Administrator

Responsibilities:

• Perform regular server and workstation maintenance and upgrades, for both hardware and software.
• Implement and maintain cybersecurity controls and protocols on all IT assets.
• Procurement of new IT assets, maintaining existing ones, and decommissioning of EOL assets.
• Manage and audit user accounts and permissions.
• Coordinate with different internal teams within CRI to align, recommend, and procure any IT requirements essential to upcoming projects.
• Work with the auditor to implement and maintain business continuity plans for CRI’s IT infrastructure.
• Provide technical support to users on a daily basis.

Requirements:

• Preferably major in the area of Computer Science, Information Technology, or similar discipline.
• Experience with administering Windows Server and Windows 7/8/10 operating systems.
• Familiarity with Unix, SQL, Python, and AWS (or other cloud services) is a plus.
• Experience in troubleshooting and resolving computer hardware and software issues.
• Strong customer service ethos along with great organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills.
• Enthusiasm for continual learning and always open to feedback.

 

2. Product Management Team

The Product Management Team (PMT) manages and produces various credit risk products and plays a key role at CRI. PMT is mainly involved in implementing, maintaining and improving scientific computation models for CRI products. Successful candidates will have the opportunity to quickly learn the modelling approaches, mathematical algorithms and programming skills utilized for CRI’s credit risk research work.

Responsibilities:

• Maintain and simplify the CRI Production System.
• Analyze and interpret the credit risk measures.
• Improve the developed scientific computation of credit risk measures such as Distance to Default (DTD), Probability of Default (PD) and Actuarial Spread (AS).
• Develop and improve the practical credit risk management tools such as stress testing/scenarios analysis.
• Deal with urgent or ad-hoc requests.

Requirements:

• Preferably major in the area of finance, economics, statistics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, computer science, physics or similar discipline.
• Experience in Julia, MATLAB and GitLab is preferred. Other languages, e.g. C++ or Python, are welcome, but will be requested to learn/use Julia or MATLAB.
• Must be a keen learner, proactive in nature and a strong responsibility person.
• Strong analytical techniques and problem solving skill.
• Able to work independently and across different teams.
• Possess strong interpersonal, organizational and planning skills.
• Knowledge in Financial Statement, SQL, VBA and Bloomberg Terminal would be a plus.
• Able to handle pressure and meet deadlines.

 

3. Client Services Team

The Client Services Team (CST) bridges the gap between the CRI and external users and industry clients by offering tailored solutions to suit their needs. As a member in the CST, the candidate will quickly gain knowledge to CRI models and services, and exposure in handling projects and inquiries from institutional clients such as supranational organization, international banks and FinTech companies.

Responsibilities:

• Be familiar with the CRI model and solutions.
• Prepare marketing materials, RFP, presentation slides and case studies.
• Build good relationship with clients and to provide value-added services.
• Coordinate well with other teams to provide prompt and efficient services to clients.
• Handle ad-hoc projects and clients’ inquiries.
• Initiate new projects to enhance project management and operational efficiency.

Requirements:

• Academic background of the following subjects is preferred: finance, economics, business, marketing or related discipline. Candidates who are interested in the financial industry are welcomed.
• Solid understanding of credit ratings, credit risk, quantitative models and financial analysis.
• Proficient in spoken/written English.
• Possess strong analytical skills and problem solving skills.
• Possess good communication and interpersonal skills.
• A good team player with a strong sense of responsibility.
• High efficiency, and able to manage multiple tasks and projects concurrently.
• Proficient in Microsoft product suite, knowledge in VBA, Photoshop and video making are a plus.

 

4. Validation Team

The Validation Team (VT) handles the assessment of models servicing a wide range of activities across the CRI, including Probability of Default, Actuarial Spread and Stress Testing models. As a member in the Validation Team, you will work on a variety of models covering many aspects of the model life cycle, including data management, methodology, programming and quantitative assessment. Successful candidates will contribute to the CRI’s assessment and evaluation of credit risk models.

Responsibilities:

• Independent evaluation of existing risk models including PD, AS and Stress Testing models.
• Assist with the delivery of the validation plan, ensuring timely identification of issues.
• Quantitative assessment of model performance via data evaluation and statistical testing.
• Coordination with internal stakeholders on model issues, achieving suitable resolutions.
• Deal with urgent and/or ad-hoc requests.

Requirements:

• Preferably major in the area of Economics, Statistics, Mathematics, Finance, Physics, Computer Science, or similar discipline.
• Proactive attitude, strong sense of responsibility.
• Independent thinker and fast learner, strong interest in credit risk analysis.
• Curious, with ability of speaking up and challenging perceived wisdom.
• Strong focus on quality control and attention to details.
• Familiarity with MATLAB, Python or R.
• Experience in SQL, VBA or Julia is a plus.

 

5. Market Monitoring Team

The Market Monitoring Team (MMT) is a window to continually observe financial markets and conduct relevant studies by using proprietary methods with the aim to promote CRI’s products and relate to current market events. As a member in the MMT, the candidate will quickly gain knowledge to CRI models as well as develop a greater understanding on financial markets from a credit perspective. The main tasks will be to conduct researches and financial/credit analysis on industries and companies, market surveillance for credit events and working on projects with other teams. You will have ample opportunities to improve your writing and analytical skills. Through working with other teams, you will also learn quantitative modelling and acquire useful IT and database knowledge preparing you to become a better functioning analyst who can leverage modern analytical tools.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct and publish credit/investment research reports on companies and industries in a timely manner and assist in writing quarterly and other special reports on credit market issues.
• Carry out market surveillance and to look for credit events in accordance with CRI’s credit event definition, to file credit event data in the database, etc.
• Initiate and manage inter-team projects.
• Deal with urgent and/or ad-hoc requests from supervisors.

Requirements:

• Academic background or industry experience of any of the following subjects is preferred: finance, accounting, economics, banking, business strategy, and business law. Certification of CFA or CPA is a plus. Candidates working in non-financial industry are also welcome.
• Have a proven ability to conduct financial analysis and independently analyze and write financial research reports.
• Have strong interest in the fields of investment/ credit/ risk management analysis.
• Good team player with a strong sense of responsibility.
• Able to coordinate and manage group projects between teams.
• Able to handle pressure and meet deadlines.
• Being multilingual will be a plus.

 

6. Data Management Team

The Data Management Team (DMT) takes care of all the data related needs at CRI, which acts as a data provider to all the other teams.

Responsibilities:

• Daily monitoring of operating processes.
• Importing data from various financial sources (Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, etc.) into the database.
• Investigation of suspicious data and data cleaning.
• Modification of data generating process to cater to changing operating requirements.
• Creating and improving database elements for higher efficiency of the processes and quality of data (using MSSQL, MySQL).
• Perform ad-hoc data related tasks as requested by other teams or clients.

Requirements:

• Preferably major in the area of quantitative finance, mathematics, mechanical engineering, computer science, physics or similar discipline.
• Knowledge and experience with SQL (T-SQL, MySQL), MATLAB, and Julia.
• Knowledge in Python and Bloomberg Terminal is a plus.
• Possess strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to work independently as well as part of a team as well as communicating effectively both orally and in writing.
• Proactive in nature, quick response in case of operational issues, and has a strong sense of responsibility.
• A keen learner and a strong interest in data management.

 

7. Development Team

The Development Team continuously improves CRI’s in-house models and systems, and develops new applications. As a member of the Development Team, the candidate should have an in-depth understanding about CRI products and always keep an open mind to new things. The job scope ranges from data analysis, modeling, building production systems, and almost all tasks leverage heavily on programming. We welcome candidates who possess relevant technical skills and enjoy the challenging and exciting working environment.

Responsibilities:

• Have deep understanding on various CRI models and products. Actively monitor model performances and research on possible improvements and new ideas.
• Design and build robust and readable codes for production usage to implement research outcomes.
• Write theoretical paper to disseminate research findings. Make demos and presentations internally and externally.
• Collaborate closely with Client Service Team and develop proof of concept models in a fast pace to accommodate clients’ needs.
• Review CRI’s weekly credit brief and provide insights.

Requirements:

• Bachelors or Masters in statistics, mathematics, quantitative finance or related discipline.
• Proficient programming skills such as Julia, Python, MATLAB, R, etc. Experience with building APIs or load balancers will be a plus.
• Strong sense of responsibility. Good team player.
• Able to work within fast moving, multi-tasking environments. Be proactive and passionate about building and developing new ideas and models.
• Ability to read and understand methodologies in research papers. Also able to write research papers and good presentation skills.

 

Applicants should submit their applications electronically to the team lead of the team that they are interested in.(Please refer to the CRI Team. Your application should include:

• Application Form;
• NUS Personal Data Consent for Job Applicants;
• A detailed CV;
• Cover letter.

We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

The Credit Research Initiative (CRI) in the Risk Management Institute of National University of Singapore offers internships to highly motivated students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, who want to acquire work experience and advanced knowledge on credit risk management. CRI is a balanced combination of scientific research and business services. Over the course of its developments, it has produced top-tier original research and has helped a number of corporates, financial institutions and international organizations to solve real-world problems. For example, the CRI right now collaborates with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in multiple projects. Its Bottom-up Default Analysis (BuDA) toolbox has been applied in a number of IMF stability assessments in various national contexts with rich policy implications.

Interns will have ample opportunities to develop marketable skills. Through working with different quantitatively oriented teams, you will have opportunities to learn quantitative modelling, mathematical algorithms and general programming skills utilized on the frontier of CRI’s credit risk research and services. You may also develop valuable market insights as part of the Market Monitoring Team (MMT), which is watching over the global credit markets daily. As a member of the Client Services Team, you get to interact with industry professionals through various tasks in supporting the CRI clients. If working/learning in a dynamic and exciting environment appeals to you, please do not hesitate to join us.

Successful applicant can look forward to join one of the team(s) below.

1. CLIENT SERVICES TEAM

The Client Services Team (CST) bridges the gap between the Credit Research Initiative (CRI), external users and industry clients by offering tailored solutions to suit their business needs. As a member in the CST, the candidate will quickly gain knowledge to CRI models and services, and exposures in handling projects and inquiries from institutional clients such as supranational organization, international banks and FinTech companies.

Main Responsibilities:

• Good understanding of the CRI model and the various products and services.
• Provide support to team members by preparing meeting materials, case studies and other projects related documents.
• Coordinate well with other teams to provide prompt and efficient services to clients.
• Handle ad-hoc projects and clients’ enquiries.
• Initiate new projects to enhance internal project management and operational efficiency.

Requirements:

• Academic background of the following subjects is preferred: finance, economics, business, marketing or related discipline. Candidates who are interested in the financial industry are welcomed too.
• Basic understanding of credit ratings, credit risk, quantitative models and financial analysis.
• Proficient in spoken/written English. Good ability in any second language is highly preferable.
• Possess strong analytical skills and problem solving skills.
• Possess good communication and interpersonal skills.
• A good team player with a strong sense of responsibility.
• High efficiency, and able to manage multiple tasks and projects concurrently.
• Proficient in Microsoft product suite, knowledge in programming, VBA, Photoshop and video making are a plus.

2. DEVELOPMENT TEAM

The Development Team (DT) of the Credit Research Initiative (CRI) in the Risk Management Institute (RMI) continuously improves CRI’s in-house models and systems, and develops new applications. As a member of the Development Team, the candidate should have an in-depth understanding about CRI products and always keep an open mind to new things. The job scope ranges from data analysis, modeling and website/API design, and almost all tasks leverage heavily on programming. We welcome candidates who possess relevant technical skills and enjoy the challenging and exciting working environment.

Main Responsibilities:

• Gain a deep understanding on CRI models.
• Review and build up codes in Julia to improve the efficiency and quality of the CRI production system.
• Perform statistical analysis to validate and improve CRI models. Assist to build client products.

Requirements:

• Academic background of the following subjects is preferred: statistics, computer science, mathematics, quantitative finance or related discipline.
• Proficient programming skills such as Julia, Python, MATALB, R, etc. Experience with building APIs or load balancers will be a plus.
• Proactive attitude and strong sense of responsibility.
• High efficiency, and able to manage multiple tasks and projects concurrently.

3. VALIDATION TEAM

The Validation Team (VT) handles the assessment of models servicing a wide range of activities across the CRI, including Probability of Default, Actuarial Spread and Stress Testing models. As a member in the Validation Team, you will work on a variety of models covering many aspects of the model life cycle, including data management, methodology, programming and quantitative assessment. Successful candidates will contribute to the CRI’s assessment and evaluation of credit risk models.

Main Responsibilities:

• Control the quality of CRI daily operations, ensuring the input data accuracy and output quality.
• Assist with the delivery of the validation plan, ensuring timely identification of issues.
• Report suspicious issues and suggest potential improvements.
• Deal with urgent and/or ad-hoc requests.

Requirements:

• Preferably major in the area of Economics, Statistics, Mathematics, Finance, Financial Engineering, Computer Science, or similar discipline.
• Proactive attitude, strong sense of responsibility and attention to details.
• Independent thinker and fast learner, strong interest in credit risk analysis.
• Familiarity with MATLAB, R or Python; Experience in Bloomberg or SQL would be a plus.

4. MARKET MONITORING TEAM

The Market Monitoring Team under the Credit Research Initiative (CRI) in Risk Management Institute (RMI) is a window to continually observe financial markets and carry relevant studies by using proprietary methods, aiming at promoting and improving CRI’s products. The main task for interns is assisting full-time analysts in terms of market surveillance, writing reports, data collection, and collaborating with other teams, etc.

Main Responsibilities:

• Carry out market surveillance by browsing media and official websites, finding out credit events in accordance with CRI’s credit event definition, entering credit event data in the database, etc.
• Follow crucial market news and assist in writing weekly, quarterly and other special reports on credit market issues.
• Deal with urgent and/or ad-hoc requests from supervisors.

Requirements:

• Be meticulous and responsible for routine works.
• Have an academic background or industry experience of any of the following subjects: finance, accounting, economics, banking, business strategy, and business law, etc.
• Be good at Excel modeling, financial analysis and written English.
• Have a proven ability to independently write and edit financial research reports.
• Be strongly interested in the fields of investment/ credit/ risk management analysis in the future career.
• Being multilingual will be a plus.

5. PRODUCT MANAGEMENT TEAM

The Product Management Team (PMT) manages and produces various credit risk products and plays a key role at CRI. PMT is mainly involved in implementing, maintaining and improving scientific computation models for CRI products. Successful candidates will have the opportunity to quickly learn the modelling approaches, mathematical algorithms and programming skills utilized for CRI’s credit risk research work.

Main Responsibilities:

• Monitor PMT daily production procedures, fix issues if having, examine and analyze the produced CRI credit risk products.
• Automate and simplify the production system.
• Assist to improve scientific computation of credit risk measures such as Distance to Default (DTD), Probability of Default (PD) and Actuarial Spread (AS).
• Deal with ad-hoc requests.

Requirements:

• Preferably major in the area of finance, economics, statistics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, computer science, physics or similar discipline.
• Experience in Julia and MATLAB is preferred. Other languages, e.g. C++ or Python, are welcome, but will be requested to learn/use Julia or MATLAB.
• Must be a keen learner, proactive in nature and a strong responsibility person.
• Strong analytical techniques and problem solving skill.
• Knowledge in Financial Statement, SQL, VBA and Bloomberg Terminal would be a plus.

6. DATA MANAGEMENT TEAM

The Data Management Team (DMT) takes care of all the data related needs at CRI, which acts as a data provider to all the other teams.

Main Responsibilities:

• Daily monitoring of operating processes.
• Importing data from various financial sources (Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, etc.) into the database.
• Investigation of suspicious data and data cleaning.
• Modification of data generating process to cater to changing operating requirements.
• Creating and improving database elements for higher efficiency of the processes and quality of data (using MSSQL, MySQL).
• Perform ad-hoc data related tasks as requested by other teams or clients.

Requirements:

• Preferably major in the area of quantitative finance, mathematics, mechanical engineering, computer science, physics or similar discipline.
• Knowledge and experience with SQL (T-SQL, MySQL), MATLAB, and Julia.
• Knowledge in Python and Bloomberg Terminal is a plus.
• Possess strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently as well as part of a team as well as communicating effectively both orally and in writing.
• Proactive in nature, quick response in case of operational issues, and has a strong sense of responsibility.
• A keen learner and a strong interest in data management.

7. Fintech Internship Program - NLP-AD Team

Natural Language Processing Enabled Alternative Data (NLP-AD) aims to utilize existing and develop new Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to extract issue-centric sentiments expressed through the business press and social media as well as in official documents, such as government reports. In addition to English media, the Team will cover Chinese and other media. This specialized opportunity allows you to get hands-on experience on how to augment financial analysis (e.g. credit risk management, sustainable finance sentiments, and fraud detection etc.) and use novel machine learning techniques at a cutting-edge research institution. We welcome candidates who are self-motivated and enjoy a challenging working environment. Candidates with an entrepreneurial spirit are also encouraged to apply as you will get to help build the foundations of an exciting project that aims to innovate current processes in the financial services industry.

Main Responsibilities:

• Extract financial articles/reports from media.
• Build-up and maintain MongoDB database.
• Develop with Docker Engine API.
• Conduct sentiment analysis and evaluate media sentiment’s incremental contributions in various fields.
• Review and complete programming scripts, mostly in Python, some in C++.
• Generate sentiments in different languages, such as English, Chinese, and Japanese, etc.
• Assist with AdHoc research projects that aim to propel the institution’s capabilities.

Requirements:

• Academic background of the following subjects is preferred: machine learning, statistics, computer science, mathematics, quantitative finance or related discipline.
• Basic knowledge of relational and non-relational database, such as SQL, mongoDB, etc.
• Proficient programming skills in Python, etc. C++ would be a bonus.
• Proven experience with deep learning libraries such as Pytorch, Tensorflow, MXNet, etc.
• Familiar with version control systems such as Git.
• Knowledge and project experience in big data processing, including parallel computing and distributed programming, such as Spark, Hadoop, CUDA, etc. would also be a plus.
• Self-motivated and a strong sense of responsibility.
• High efficiency, and able to manage multiple tasks and projects concurrently.

for NLP-AD team, Applicants should submit their applications electronically to the project coordinator. Please refer to the NLP-AD Team for further information.

Interested applicants, please email your application to Dr Zeng Jiajie at zengjiajie@nus.edu.sg

We regret that only short listed candidates will be notified.