VP/Head of Research, Merger Arbitrage

Job description

Who You’ll Work With: AB’s systematic merger arbitrage strategy sits within Multi-Asset & Hedge Fund Solutions, a team known for combining quantitative rigor with deep market expertise. You will report directly to the Head Portfolio Manager, a 30-year veteran of discretionary event-driven investing and serve as his primary research counterpart and deputy on the portfolio. You will collaborate closely with AB’s technology and data engineering teams, who provide infrastructure support, freeing you to focus on research, signal development, and investment decision-making. You will also engage directly with AB’s institutional clients and prospects, representing the strategy in meetings and contributing to business development alongside the Head PM and the broader client group. What You’ll Do: Systematic Research & Signal Development Identifying patterns in active and completed deals that can be systematically tested against historical data. Design and maintain quantitative models and systematic signals to assess spread dynamics, deal break probability, and portfolio-level risk and return behavior. Develop, backtest, and evaluate new investment ideas using the team’s backtesting engine; own the integrity of input data and the deal database that underpins this process, ensuring completeness, accuracy, and consistency of historical and live deal records. Identify and apply machine learning and statistical techniques to extract signals from deal, market, and alternative data. Proactively identify opportunities to leverage AI tools across the strategy — including data acquisition, deal monitoring, and research workflows — and help embed those capabilities into the team’s day-to-day investment process. Portfolio Management Support Monitor and assess active deals across the M&A universe — tracking deal timelines, deal structure, regulatory and antitrust developments, and deal outcomes. Periodically engage with company management teams and deal advisors as needed to clarify deal timelines, assess regulatory risk from the issuer’s perspective, and confirm deal economics where contractual terms require interpretation for modelling purposes. Track regulatory filings (HSR, SEC), antitrust proceedings, shareholder vote schedules, and deal timetables for all active positions. Support the Head PM in position sizing, portfolio construction, and risk management decisions. Assist with trade building and portfolio monitoring. Contribute to regular strategy performance reviews, providing attribution analysis and research-driven commentary on historical results. Technology & Data Partner with AB’s technology team to enhance research workflows, data pipelines, signal construction, and analytics. Manage deal and market data across relational databases; maintain data quality standards across all research inputs. Identify opportunities to expand the team’s data capabilities through alternative or third-party data sources. Client & Business Development Attend meetings with institutional clients and prospects to present the strategy, discuss current positioning, and present research findings — including deal-level analysis and systematic insights from the team’s backtesting work. Contribute to the preparation of investor materials, performance commentary, research publications and the strategy’s quarterly investment letter. Serve as a credible and articulate spokesperson for the strategy in client interactions and external forums. What We’re Looking For: Required 5+ years of investment management or quantitative research experience in equities. Experience with merger arbitrage or event-driven strategies a plus. Experience with quantitative research methods, including backtesting systematic strategies and evaluating signal performance Working proficiency in Python for research and data analysis purposes; comfort writing and maintaining production-quality scripts in an investment context. Working proficiency in SQL for querying and managing structured datasets. Excellent attention to detail and a strong commitment to data quality. Strong communication skills; able to present investment views clearly and credibly to sophisticated institutional audiences. Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative or finance-related discipline (Finance, Economics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Statistics, or similar). Willingness to embrace and use AI to help with all facets of the job Preferred Familiarity with Merger Arbitrage. Ability to analyze M&A transactions from announcement through close, including an understanding of typical deal timelines, deal structures, regulatory review processes, and break risk Experience with quantitative modeling and ML methods applied to event-driven or arbitrage investing (e.g., classification models, supervised learning for deal outcome prediction). Exposure to systematic strategy development: factor construction, signal combination, and portfolio optimization. Experience using AI tools to augment investment or research workflows; able to articulate clearly how AI has enhanced their work and to identify practical applications within a systematic strategy context. About AB We are a leading global investment management firm offering high-quality research and diversified investment services to institutional clients, retail investors, and private-wealth clients in major markets around the globe. With over 4,000 employees across 57 locations operating in 26 countries and jurisdictions, our ambition is simple: to be the most trusted investment firm in the world. We realize that it's our people who give us a competitive advantage and drive success in the market, and our goal is to create an inclusive culture that rewards hard work. Our culture of intellectual curiosity and collaboration creates an environment where you can thrive and do your best work. Whether you're producing thought-provoking research, identifying compelling investment opportunities, infusing new technologies into our business or providing thoughtful advice to our clients, we are fully invested in you. If you're ready to challenge your limits and empower your career, join us! All are encouraged to apply. AB does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, ancestry, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, military or veteran status or any other basis that is prohibited by applicable law. AB’s policies and practices seek to ensure that employment opportunities are available to all employees and applicants based solely on job-related criteria. In accordance with applicable law, the minimum and maximum base annual salary for this role is as follows: Base Salary Range: $200,000.00 to $250,000.00 Actual base salaries may vary based on factors including but not limited to education, training, experience, past performance, and other job-related factors. Base salary is just one component of total compensation at AB, which may include, depending on eligibility, commissions, year-end incentive compensation, short- and long-term incentives and Department-specific awards. In addition, AB provides a variety of benefits to eligible employees, including health insurance coverage, an employee wellness program, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays, sick and vacation time off New York, New York