An Interview with a Senior Risk and Pricing Specialist

Tell us about the work you do in your current role.

Being a risk specialist, the role involves sharing my expert insights into Bloomberg’s valuation and risk platform implementation and analytics with clients. This includes both buy side and sell side institutions covering cross asset pricing, market risk, XVA, CCR, and margin models to list a few. The role also involves substantial collaboration with our product, engineering, and implementation partners to help build risk management solutions that cater to ever-evolving regulatory and industry demands.

Where did you start your career and how did you get to where you are today? Were there any pivotal moments or decisions that shaped your career path? 

Basically, I'm an engineer and started my career as a software developer. However, my passion for numbers pushed me to pursue a master’s in finance and shift my career into finance. I started as a product controller supporting a large US bank, where I had the opportunity to work with structured FX and Rates products. This helped me gain significant knowledge about capital markets and various groups that are involved in the functioning of global financial institutions. Then I started supporting the market risk methodology group for a top European bank. Around that time, I found my interest towards asset pricing and that's when I decided to get more involved in the analytical aspect. I decided that the CQF would provide the right platform for this. Pursuing the CQF opened opportunities to work with various model validation techniques back in 2017/18 which also helped me to develop expertise and curiosity in this space. Along the way, I also developed expertise in multiple regulatory standards covering model risk, market risk, and margin models, which helped me to evolve as a valuation and risk expert. Among the various transitions I have made in my career, pursuing the CQF was one of the pivotal ones.

What are some of the highlights of working in this area of quant finance and what are the biggest challenges?

Risk management is evolving every day, which is great, but challenging as well. As a domain, risk management involves understanding the various risks that financial products are exposed to and the broader perspective of the various risks that are faced by financial institutions. The challenge is to always be alert, for instance, being preemptive of the unknown risks that may evolve due to model errors, operational issues, cyber-attack, and geo-political scenarios to name a few.

Can you describe what a typical working day looks like for you in your current role? 

My day involves working closely with our new and existing clients to ensure they are happy with our enterprise solution (MARS - our cross-asset valuation and risk platform). This involves helping them implement our platform and helping them to demystify the complex analytics behind the valuation and risk numbers. The day also involves working closely with our product, sales, and engineering colleagues to provide clarity on what the client expects and build enterprise solutions that meet the client’s demands. 

What do you think are the most important skills for professionals in your field to have and how would someone develop these skills if they are new to the industry? 

The main thing is to have strong domain knowledge and good programming skills. This is definitely expected if you want to excel in the quantitative finance space. As the industry is evolving so rapidly, it is also critical to be on top of what's coming in the regulatory space, as well as in AI and data science. My advice would be to regularly set aside some time and constantly upskill yourself with new techniques and courses.

Why did you decide to enroll on the CQF program and where has it added value to your career?

Back in 2017/18, I was mainly working on market risk and stress testing. I then got the opportunity to work on model validation and model development activities which required further analytical skills. I felt that the CQF was the perfect platform to improve my skills and, at the same time, do well in my job. In addition to mathematical concepts, I learned a lot about various asset classes; the mini project and the end of module projects were helpful. I enjoyed every module, but my favorite aspect of the CQF was the final project because it gave me an opportunity to start from scratch, develop my own library, debug, and write a research paper. I can still remember sitting 36 hours on a weekend coding up my final project because my professional work was so demanding I hadn’t had time to spend on it in the week. It was a very rewarding experience.

Do you think the industry has changed since you started your career and how do you see it changing in the next few years? 

The industry has changed since I started my career to today. Back then, there was less focus on regulation and there were many silo systems. Now, the industry is quickly moving towards more integrated systems and using data and technology more efficiently to build these solutions. The adoption of AI in our day-day work has been tremendous, particularly the use of natural language processing and large language models. 

What would your advice be for someone starting a career in your field today? 

Pick one area of quant finance and specialize in that first. I think the best approach is to become an expert in two to three domains and have a broader perspective across other quant finance topics. The industry values subject matter experts and it's better to build something piece by piece.  Always stay curious and keep learning!