Daryl Hurst

I spent over three years as Head of Data & Quantitative Strategies at a small hedge fund, where I led the research and operation of systematic trading models for equities and indices. My role combined hands-on data science with technical leadership: I managed a small analytics team, rebuilt legacy spreadsheet workflows into efficient R-based pipelines, and automated SQL data ingestion to reduce processing time more than tenfold. I developed and productionised a range of predictive models—including logistic regression, K-NN and deep-learning approaches—for trend forecasting and company classification. I also designed diagnostics to monitor data quality and model robustness, using techniques such as bootstrap validation and noise testing. Across the role, I worked end-to-end from data processing and modelling through to deployment, documentation, and communicating research findings to stakeholders.

I spent more than a decade at Winton Group, a leading quantitative hedge fund, working as a Vice President across research and portfolio management. From 2018 to 2021 I managed a fully systematic US equity strategy with approximately one billion dollars under management, built around a forecasting model I developed using signals derived from M&A activity. I designed and maintained the Python codebase that powered this live trading system, integrating market data from in-house databases and AWS S3, and overseeing real-time monitoring and coordination with traders when interventions were needed. Earlier, from 2006 to 2018, I worked as an equity researcher developing multiple independent predictive systems, managing end-to-end research workflows including data ingestion, feature engineering, model fitting, and signal validation in SQL and R. I explored and incorporated alternative datasets such as Google Trends, product recalls, board composition changes, and M&A data, and built robust tooling to test, validate, and monitor model performance. Across both roles I contributed regularly to research discussions and presented findings to peers, senior leadership, and the executive team.

– Modelled the propulsion, aerodynamics, and guidance systems of tactical missiles, running simulations and analytical tools to evaluate overall performance.