What is a Financial Engineer

What is a Financial Engineer?
What sort of Careers do Financial Engineers Pursue?

What is a Financial Engineer?

Financial engineering is the application of mathematical methods to the solution of problems in finance.  It is also known as financial mathematics, mathematical finance, and computational finance.  Financial engineering draws on tools from applied mathematics, computer science, statistics, and economic theory.  Investment banks, commercial banks, hedge funds, insurance companies, corporate treasuries, and regulatory agencies employ financial engineers.  These businesses apply the methods of financial engineering to such problems as new product development, derivative securities valuation, portfolio structuring, risk management, and scenario simulation.  Quantitative analysis has brought innovation, efficiency and rigor to financial markets and to the investment process.  As the pace of financial innovation accelerates, the need for highly qualified people with specific training in financial engineering continues to grow in all market environments.

What sorts of careers do financial engineers pursue?

Financial engineers use the skills they acquire during their degree programs toward a broad selection of careers in finance, including the trading of securities, financial modeling, sales, risk management and portfolio management. We believe that the skill sets acquired in a financial mathematics masters program are sufficiently broad to prepare students for many interesting fields. Moreover as it is increasingly recognized in financial firms that computational and mathematical skills are critical to the success of all organizations, the market for students with financial mathematics degrees continues to broaden.

In the 2002 Survey, 38% of students stated that they want a career in some sort of job related to derivatives pricing, while 21% said risk management and 18% said trading derivative instruments (14% of students did not respond).