Fitch Group
Senior Analyst, Political Science
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Political (Social) Scientist (Masters / PhD) / Data Scientist
About the Role
BMI is currently seeking innovative thinkers—a Political (Social) Scientist or Data Scientist—to join our team based in our London or Manchester offices. As part of our GeoQuant team, you will work with cutting-edge AI-driven Political Risk data, combining expertise in quantitative social science, political economy, and data science to create systematic, high-frequency country risk analytics that empower global organizations to manage risks and opportunities.
This role bridges classic political science with modern machine learning, requiring an ability to both interpret complex models and translate findings into actionable insights for businesses across industries. Join us to develop products that shape strategic decision-making and drive innovation with versatile, highly technical solutions.
About BMI
For nearly 40 years, BMI has delivered expert, independent, data-driven analysis to support global markets, risks, and investments. Leveraging political science, quant approaches, and technology, we provide clients with impartial, transparent insights to help them anticipate chances for growth and identify risks early.
Our team are collaborative visionaries, shaping the future with curiosity, high standards, and a commitment to excellence, diversity, and Employee Resource Groups. This is more than a job—it’s an opportunity to innovate, grow personally and professionally, and influence industries worldwide.
Visit BMI Careers to learn more.
About the Team
BMI’s GeoQuant team specializes in AI-driven Political Risk data, fusing political science with computer science to ensure models are what-you-see-is-what-you-get: transparent, validated, and interpretable. We design, deploy, and maintain advanced country-risk prediction systems, equipping clients to quantify, mitigate, and explore political threats for better investment returns.
You will join a dynamic team to:
- Work alongside political scientists, data scientists, and engineers.
- Drive innovation in political risk qualitative data by optimizing ML and quantitative models.
- Contribute to the creation of metrics, pipelines, and applications that are usable even by non-specialists.
- Collaborate in a fast-paced, research-focused environment.
Key Responsibilities
In this role, you will:
- Model and Analyze: Design, build, and optimize risk models using proprietary political risk datasets. Apply machine learning, statistical methods, and computational techniques to extract actionable insights.
- Data Pipelines: Develop and maintain clean, scalable ML/data frameworks for experimentation and deployment, working in clean code (not just notebooks).
- Unstructured Data: Prototype new methods to analyze collection heterogeneity (e.g., narrative risk databases, satellite imagery, reports) improving evidence-driven risk forecasting.
- Interpret and Communicate: Explain sophisticated ML/NLP models—and conceptual frameworks—clearly to non-technical stakeholders via graphs, clear code, and intuitive storytelling.
- Collaborate: Work cross-functionally with political risk analysts, data engineers, and product managers to deliver robust outputs that meet customer demands.
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What We’re Looking For
Ideal candidates will demonstrate:
Core Requirements
- MA/PhD in Political Science or a related quantitative social science discipline or
- Strong quantitative/computational exposure to political risk/economics from a technical foundational education, including mastery of statistical modeling.
- Experience developing/testing ML/DL models for large-scale, continuous use (not just proofs-of-concept).
- Deep proficiency in Python (including libraries like numpy, pandas, scikit-learn) and/or R. Ability to translate code between R and Python effectively.
- Self-assured work ethic with legacy systems and industrialized production setups, including Linux environments.
- Capacity to transition between research and industry demands, merging academic rigor with technical momentum.
- Commitment to collaboration within a multi-disciplinary environment.
Desired
Experience navigating through:
- Scenarios requiring precision in querying/cleaning/managing Big Data (e.g., industry, human behavior).
- Text-based NLP/ML techniques (sentiment analysis, curated datasets, news/social-media analysis).
- Stress-testing/stochastic methods for scenarios where risk is hard to anticipate (e.g., rare geopolitical turns).
- Cloud/Big Data platforms (e.g., AWS, Snowflake, Databricks).
- DevOps practices (CI/CD, repeatable experiments).
Subject Area Experience: Policing the interface between political systems’ structure and economic/societal outcomes is a plus.
Why You’ll Excel Here
We’re seeking industry-proof hybrids of technical depth and public policy passion. Other differentiating strengths will include:
- Experience applying longitudinal/multivariate statistical analysis to explain movements in economic/political metrics.
- Work history bridging coding/computational frameworks with real-world use cases.
- Having built satisfying UX touches (-light a model output visualization? Visual inference summaries let clients see the steps a model follows?).
- Proficient debugging with time-sensitive data, decreasing latency in model inferences or output predictions.
- Technical productiveness—output at scale with minimal polish needed, that we can iterate upon to meet a fast-moving client environment.
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What It Takes to Stand Out
Recommended
Familiarity with:
- Hadoop, Spark, or frameworks providing data-resilience for tasks like feature generation.
- Étage tools to track model performance, bias, and robustness—including interpretability suites like SHAP/LIME.
- Targeted digital platform products (equity/credit risk dashboards, yes—democratized risk interpretation, no).
Nice-to-Have
Proof-of-concept projects improving global operational performance through automation/foresight. Collaborative professional stories around influencing markets or government entities with argued analytical products.
**More Than Benefits: Why Choose Fitch?
We prioritize your growth, health, and work-life balance with an enabling hybrid flexibility. Imaging your days could offer:
✅ ** Hybrid Options:** Engaging office presence (3 days/week). Tune your routines into maximum efficiency. ✅ ** Learning Mailbox:** Tuition reimbursements, mentorships (from leadership role role-models to specialist training). ✅ ** 401k + Wellness:** Embedded retirement guidance. Industry-leading physical/mental health support. ✅ ** Family-Friendly Actions:** Generous global parental leave + parental stipends. ✅ ** Vascular Inclusion:** ERGs (trans allyship, racial justice, women’s leadership) that make everyone amplify their voice. ✅ ** Community Impacts:** 10+ volunteer days plus matched donations to nonprofits advancing workforce diversity.
Compliance Commitment
Fitch Global is steadfast in its reputation. Fundamental to that is adhering to independent standards. As a candidate, we ask all eligible recruits to update us should they have holdings in assets covered by Fitch’s ratings (including equities, bonds of rated entities, or derivatives). In certain cases, you may be requested to close positions prior to joining.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Our vision aligns with a belief that diverse talent thrives when valorized. We proudly recruit globally in the acknowledgment that the fusion of varied perspectives fuels smart, beneficial innovations.
Consider this: One step along the path could make you a part of our driven, thought-leading team. If application presents an opportunity to question how political dynamical systems inform global markets, imagine how their modeling insights affect the real world.
No longer remains an abstract concern when your work was the precise catalyst.
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