Associate – Financial Economics practice

About Charles River Associates

Charles River Associates is a leading global consulting firm that provides economic, financial, and business management expertise to major law firms, corporations and governments around the world. CRA advises clients on economic and financial matters pertaining to litigation and regulatory proceedings, and guides corporations through critical business strategy and performance-related issues. Since 1965, clients have engaged CRA for its combination of industry experience and rigorous, fact-based analysis that provide clients with clear, implementable solutions to complex business concerns.

Position Overview

CRA’s Financial Economics practice provides financial institutions, legal teams, and regulators with the experience and quantitative analysis capabilities they need to achieve their objectives in regulatory and litigation matters related to consumer finance and risk management. The practice applies rigorous statistical modeling techniques to matters involving a full spectrum of consumer finance issues including lending discrimination, mortgage practices, risk management, credit risk and credit scoring. They also conduct regulatory reviews involving federal financial regulatory agencies, including the CFPB, OCC, FRB, FDIC and HUD. The Practice staff are based primarily in Washington, DC and junior staff would be expected to work in that office.

Associates work closely with senior consultants on project teams. Successful candidates have a strong working knowledge of financial, accounting, and economic concepts and a broad range of research and quantitative skills. A typical Associate would:

• Conduct sophisticated economic, financial, and strategic analysis in a project-based environment;
• Develop familiarity with data that serves as input to this analysis, including company financial reporting, consumer financial account information, Census data, macroeconomic data, and social and economic survey data;
• Work collaboratively with senior-led teams, including respected scholars and industry experts;
• Ensure reliability of analysis via peer review, focused on testing the robustness of results;
• Develop familiarity with research tools most relevant for your practice area;
• Assemble compelling evidence from data and research that support our expert opinions and business recommendations;
• Interact with clients by participating in client meetings, often through conference calls and WebEx sessions.

As most of our work is done in the office, minimal travel is required.

Desired Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree candidates with an academic focus on quantitative research (Economics, Finance, Financial Economics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Accounting, Engineering, Statistics, or related quantitative discipline)
  • Recent graduates or individuals without directly relevant experience may be hired at the Analyst title;
• Up to 3 years of related experience building and using data sets including merging, appending, and feature generation to solve client problems;
• Research experience and quantitative ability, exhibited in honors thesis completion or research seminar program, is highly desired;
• Demonstrated understanding of, and ability to explain, economic, financial and/or accounting concepts, and quantitative and qualitative analysis methods;
• Proficiency with statistical analysis programs, such as Stata, Python, R, SAS, ArcGIS/ArcPy;
• Curious and analytical thinkers who bring creative approaches to non-standard problems;
• Effective written and oral communication skills;
• Eagerness to learn new skills and programming languages;
• Demonstrated high level of initiative and leadership;
• Strong teamwork and collaboration capabilities;
• Excellent time management and task prioritization skills;
• Clear and demonstrated interest in consulting through coursework, work experience, and other activities.

To Apply

To be considered for a position in the United States, we require the following:

• Resume – please include current address, personal email and telephone number;
• Cover letter – please describe your interest in CRA and how this role matches your goals;
• Transcript – may be unofficial.

NOTE: This position is immediately available. If you are a graduating student, please visit our Careers site to view and apply for available jobs.

Career Growth & Benefits 

• CRA’s robust skills development programs, including both formal and informal programs, encourage you to thrive as an individual and team member. Beginning with research and analysis skill building, training continues with technical training, presentation skills, internal seminars, and career mentoring and performance coaching from an assigned senior colleague. Additional leadership and collaboration opportunities exist through internal firm development activities.
• We offer a comprehensive total rewards program including a superior benefits package, wellness programming to support physical, mental, emotional and financial well-being, and in-house immigration support for foreign nationals and international business travelers.

Work Location Flexibility

CRA creates a work environment that enables our colleagues to benefit from being together in the office to best deliver on our promise of career growth, mentorship and inclusivity. At the same time, we recognize that individuals realize a range of benefits when working from home periodically. We currently expect that individuals spend at least 3 to 4 days a week working in the office (which may include traveling to another CRA office or to client meetings), with specific days determined in coordination with your practice or team.

Responsible AI Use in Recruiting

We believe that recruiting is fundamentally a human process, and we are committed to a hiring process that is consistent, transparent, and people-focused. While AI and other technology-enabled tools help our team operate more efficiently, we strive to provide every candidate with a personalized, thoughtful, and high-touch experience. As CRA invests significant human effort to find qualified members for our teams, we expect candidates to invest corresponding human effort to learn about CRA, prepare thoughtful application materials, and engage with our interviewers. Read more about appropriate hiring manager, recruiting team, and candidate AI at CRA on our website.  

Our Commitment to Equal Employment Opportunity

Charles River Associates is an equal opportunity employer (EOE). All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.

Salary and other compensation

A good-faith estimate of the annual base salary range for this position is $92,500 - $105,000. Starting pay within this range may vary based on factors such as education level, experience, skills, geographic location, market conditions, and other qualifications of the successful candidate. This position may be eligible for additional bonus incentive compensation. CRA offers a comprehensive benefits package, subject to eligibility requirements, which include: medical, dental, and vision insurance; 401(k) retirement plan with employer match; life and disability insurance; paid time off (vacation, sick leave, holidays); paid parental leave; wellness programs and employee assistance resources; and commuter benefits.