Data Specialist – Equity AI & Alternative Data

About the role

Our client is seeking a Data Specialist to own the data layer of a fundamental Equity AI project. You will be responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and integrating a wide range of data sets—alternative, fundamental, market, and internal—to support investment research and AI workflows.

Key responsibilities

• Identify, evaluate, and prioritize data sources across alternative, fundamental, and market data landscapes.
• Build and manage vendor relationships, including negotiations, dataset evaluations, pricing, and contract terms.
• Develop a structured framework for dataset due diligence covering quality, coverage gaps, refresh frequency, licensing, and integration complexity.
• Acquire data via purchase, web crawling, or internal integration, and normalize definitions across providers.
• Set up early‑stage ingestion pipelines and data infrastructure (Python, SQL, APIs, SFTP) to make datasets usable for analysts and AI platforms.
• Partner with portfolio managers and analysts to understand data needs for fundamental Equity long/short research.
• Identify and engage emerging Chinese alternative‑data vendors.

Required profile

• 5+ years working directly with alternative data in an investment‑management, hedge‑fund, or alt‑data‑vendor environment.
• Hands‑on experience with major financial data vendors such as Bloomberg, FactSet, and Wind.
• Deep understanding of the hedge‑fund industry, preferably with exposure to China‑focused funds.
• Broad knowledge of alternative data, equity fundamental research data, and market data.

Required skills

• Python
• SQL
• Standard APIs
• SFTP
• Web crawling
• Data ingestion pipelines
• Data normalization and integration
• Bloomberg, FactSet, Wind platforms