The Team: Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. We offer an extensive line of products and services for individuals, financial advisors, and institutions. Morningstar provides data on more than 380,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 8 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its registered investment advisor subsidiaries and has more than $190 billion in assets under advisement or management as of March 31, 2012. We have operations in 27 countries.

The Role: In this role you will work in a team setting to develop a research methodology and associated infrastructure for the municipal bond universe. This position is based in Chicago.

Responsibilities
+ Build and use quantitative and financial models and tools for the generation of research products and services related to municipal bond credit quality, pricing, and valuation.
+ Incorporate financial, economic, demographic, and market data into statistical and financial models while utilizing linear/convex optimization tools.
+ Participate in development of empirically derived risk methodologies. Support the acquisition and maintenance of data sets from a wide variety of sources.
+ Apply knowledge of a variety of computer programming languages, systems and tools, including: MS Excel/VBA, Matlab, R, Python, Minitab, SPSS, and Mathworks.
+ Complete projects involving data mining, data visualization, business intelligence, and fixed income product trading and pricing.
+ Analyze data using RDBMS such as Microsoft SQL and Access.
+ Liaise with state and local government officials, not for profit financial employees, and industry advocates regarding events affecting the market.
+ Identify the need for analytical, simulation, and econometric techniques. Formulate, test, and implement quantitative models of financial planning, optimization, and securities analysis.

Requirements
+ A master`s degree in economics, statistics, or financial engineering,plus a minimum of 6 months of experience in financial research or as a research assistant.
+ Experience conducting statistical and financial modeling using MS Excel/VBA, SPSS and Python.
+ Ability to complete projects involving data mining or business intelligence.
+ In-depth understanding of data visualization applications.
+ Experience utilizing linear/convex optimization tools in Matlab or R.
+ Knowledge of fixed income products trading and pricing

Morningstar is an equal opportunity employer.