Research Data Associate

11 April 2025

BCA Research is the leading independent provider of global investment research. Since 1949, BCA Research's mission has been to shape the level of conviction with which our clients make investment decisions, through the delivery of leading-edge analysis and forecasts of all the major asset classes and economies. The firm maintains a head office in Montreal, with local offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and Shanghai.

Research Data Associate

BCA Research

About BCA Research:

BCA Research is on a mission to be the essential source of macro insight for the world’s top investors. We are the largest independent macro research provider, delivering 16 specialized research services to approximately 2,000 institutional investor clients worldwide.

Team Overview:

You will be joining the Research Data team, the beating heart of BCA Research. This small team oversees all daily operations associated with ingesting, cleaning, maintaining, and deploying every research data set feeding the work of 50+ researchers.

Job Responsibilities:

1. Work closely with major macro economics and financial data vendors to ensure data cleanliness, clarify data gaps/discrepancies, and manage the research database.
2. Act as a trusted advisor for research data to BCA Research teams, seek out and vet new data sources, and ensure all research data needs are satisfied.
3. Download new series into our database at the request of the research team, map to internal series codes, and organize metadata.
4. Help researchers find the data they need across data vendor databases.
5. Update existing series at the request of the research team.
6. Review logs of automated jobs and handle exceptions, including manual review of datasets or contacting data vendors.
7. Maintain the quality and integrity of the research data by removing discontinued series from automated updates, editing metadata to reflect changes in methodology, and mapping series to alternative data sources.
8. Review and automate as many manual steps in the above processes as possible.

Requirements:

1. An undergraduate degree in commerce, finance, or economics (we may entertain candidates actively studying towards a degree in exceptional circumstances).
2. Ideally 1 to 2 years of experience in a research role.
3. Experience managing large datasets related to macroeconomic, financial, or market research.
4. Strong understanding of economic indicators, financial markets, and data sources.
5. Knowledge of programmatic languages to manage time series databases, specifically Python and SQL.
6. Knowledge of statistical packages and exposure to financial applications and time series databases.
7. Drive and ability to think creatively outside pre-defined workflows to deliver results.
8. Willingness to challenge the status quo and improve/automate existing workflows.
9. High emotional intelligence to manage relationships with vendors and researchers.
10. Professional fluency in both written and spoken English, as you will collaborate with colleagues in the US and globally.

We embrace and support each other without labels to make BCA Research a phenomenal and progressive place to thrive. We offer a competitive compensation package and benefits. Flexibility, trust and responsibility for a balance between wellness and high performance. Professional development, recognition and rewards, and a team spirit, support and sense of belonging to the company’s goals and plans.

Join us and be part of a diverse team that shapes the future of investment insights.

BCA Research provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, colour, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.