# Data Scientist, Portfolio Optimization

**Company:** [Formation Bio](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/formation-bio)
**Location:** New York, NY, Boston, MA
**Role:** Data Science
**Salary:** $155k – $202k/yr
**Experience:** 1+ years
**Skills:** Python, pandas, NumPy, Scipy, Portfolio Construction, Risk Management, Backtesting, Data Wrangling, Sharpe Ratio, Volatility Analysis
**Posted:** 2026-05-18

> Translate AI-driven drug development predictions into measurable portfolio outcomes by building portfolio construction, risk monitoring, and performance attribution systems. Requires 1-3 years quantitative experience, strong Python skills, and portfolio construction fundamentals.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities

- Work with the team to implement and maintain core portfolio engine: order management system, execution simulation layer, portfolio construction service, and performance tracking
- Design risk frameworks that quantify exposure across a portfolio of drug development bets with radically different risk profiles, timelines, and failure modes
- Run rigorous backtesting experiments with strict temporal constraints to evaluate Formation strategies against baseline approaches and measure marginal signal from new evidence sources
- Coordinate across the organization to integrate internal Formation data sources (clinical trial data, genomic evidence, real-world data) and proprietary tooling into portfolio analytics pipelines
- Work with product and engineering teams to build dashboards and reporting that communicate portfolio performance, risk metrics, and strategy comparisons to both technical and executive stakeholders
- Collaborate with the broader data science team to ensure portfolio-level evaluation feeds back into model improvement and evidence prioritization

## Requirements

- MS or PhD in a quantitative field (statistics, finance, physics, computational science, engineering, or related)
- 1-3 years in a quantitative research, data science, or analytics role — finance, healthcare, academic research, or consulting all count; substantive internships qualify
- Strong Python programming skills with experience in data-intensive workflows (pandas, numpy, scipy)
- Solid grasp of core portfolio construction and risk concepts: position sizing, rebalancing, Sharpe ratio, drawdown, volatility, benchmark comparison
- Demonstrated ability to work with messy, real-world datasets — comfortable with data wrangling, deduplication, and quality assessment
- Clear communicator who can present quantitative results to both technical peers and business stakeholders

## Nice-to-Haves

- Experience with backtesting frameworks or portfolio simulation (vectorbt, Backtrader, or custom implementations)
- Exposure to healthcare, pharma, or biotech data (clinical trials, claims data, -omics, real-world evidence)
- Familiarity with alternative data in a research or investment context
- Experience with probability-of-success modeling, drug development decision analysis, or health economics
- Comfort with LLMs or AI/ML pipelines in a production or research setting
- Familiarity with dashboard/visualization tools (Streamlit, Plotly, Dash) and pipeline orchestration (Dagster, Airflow)

## Compensation & Benefits

- Total Compensation Range: $154,500 - $202,000
- Equity and comprehensive benefits package in addition to base salary

## Similar roles

- [Quant Research](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/3e2b07db-669f-4526-88d1-139dce541a02) - Kalshi - New York, NY - $150k – $250k/yr
- [Applied Scientist- Pricing, Dynamic Pricing & Offer Selection](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/69bdf336-4ed1-4494-a387-16bc9ddfe3b5) - Lyft - San Francisco, CA - $141k – $176k/yr
- [Data Scientist, Autonomy Behavior Monitoring](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/1ed3a68a-2218-402a-a535-f4f2db83032f) - Zoox - Foster City, CA - $176k – $240k/yr
- [Data Scientist II](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/99c6ba73-ad18-4622-a386-c04442c79b32) - Axle - Rockville, MD - $130k – $145k/yr
- [Data Scientist](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/9fd90208-6070-478b-b9c0-02108f6390d5) - Mercor - San Francisco, CA - $130k – $500k/yr

**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/f284dc9e-825b-4371-a848-cb1a14cb23c5
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/f284dc9e-825b-4371-a848-cb1a14cb23c5