Finance Assistant Professor

Finance Assistant Professors hold the most demanding position in academic finance: they are simultaneously expected to produce original, publishable research at the level required for tenure while teaching effectively and contributing to department life. The six-year window before a tenure decision is both the structure that organizes the role and the source of most of the pressure it carries.

The research function dominates time and attention, particularly in the first years. A Finance Assistant Professor is developing an agenda — a set of questions they are positioned to answer through empirical or theoretical work — and producing papers that contribute to that agenda. In empirical finance this typically involves large datasets: CRSP, Compustat, TAQ, SEC filings, or proprietary datasets sourced through industry relationships. In theoretical finance it involves building models of asset pricing, investor behavior, or market structure.

The teaching component runs alongside research. Most research-intensive business schools expect two courses per academic year from assistant professors, sometimes three. The courses vary by program: corporate finance and investments are standard undergraduate offerings; MBA courses in advanced corporate finance, financial modeling, or derivatives add practitioner relevance. Good teaching is expected; extraordinary teaching rarely substitutes for weak research in tenure decisions.

The service commitment at the assistant professor stage is deliberately light — departments protect junior faculty time for research. But participation in hiring processes (serving on job talk committees), occasional curriculum work, and availability to PhD students are expected.

Education:

• PhD in Finance or Financial Economics from an AACSB-accredited program (required for tenure-track positions)
• PhD from economics departments with a finance concentration is accepted at most research schools
• No MBA required; MBA without PhD does not qualify for tenure-track research positions

Research profile at hire:

• Job market paper: a sole-authored or lead-authored paper that is presented at major conferences and ideally under review at a top journal
• Secondary working paper demonstrating a research program rather than a single project
• Conference presentations at AFA, WFA, EFA, or major finance workshops
• References from well-known faculty in the candidate's field

Technical skills:

• Econometrics: OLS, panel data, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, difference-in-differences
• Programming: Stata and/or R for empirical work; Python for data manipulation and ML-adjacent methods; MATLAB or Python for theoretical/computational work
• Data sources: WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services), Bloomberg, OptionMetrics, Audit Analytics, SEC EDGAR
• Financial modeling: DCF, options pricing, portfolio optimization, multi-factor models

Teaching preparation:

• Graduate teaching assistant experience
• Finance bootcamp or MBA teaching during PhD program
• Evidence of positive student evaluations (submitted in application dossiers)

Institutional knowledge:

• Understanding of AACSB accreditation standards and their implications for research and teaching requirements
• Familiarity with CFA curriculum for programs that emphasize practitioner preparation

The market for Finance Assistant Professors at research-oriented schools is tight but well-defined. Demand for finance faculty at business schools is driven by MBA and undergraduate business enrollment, which has been resilient at top programs even as enrollment declines have hit other parts of higher education. The faculty shortage in quantitative finance and fintech-adjacent areas is acute.

At the national level, roughly 200–250 new tenure-track finance positions are posted in a typical hiring year, drawing 500–800 PhD candidates from about 30 programs. Most of the top placements concentrate at the top 30–40 research schools; the rest of the market is served by candidates from a broader range of programs with research profiles targeting teaching-focused institutions.

Several trends are shaping the field. The rise of fintech, sustainable finance (ESG investing), and crypto assets has created research and curriculum demand that many departments are still filling. Faculty with expertise in these areas or in AI applications in finance are particularly sought. The cross-disciplinary pull is also notable: finance PhDs are hired by computer science and information systems departments for fintech research, and by law schools for joint programs on financial regulation.

For candidates who land tenure-track positions and successfully achieve tenure, the long-term career is stable and well-compensated. Tenured finance professors at major research universities typically earn $175,000–$250,000 in base salary; the consulting income possible in this field can add significantly. The challenge — as in all academic disciplines — is getting through the tenure process.

Alternative paths from a Finance PhD include: Wall Street and buy-side research positions (which pay more and hire readily), fintech and financial data companies, central banks and regulatory agencies, and private equity. These alternatives create the wage competition that pushes academic finance salaries higher than most other disciplines.

Dear Search Committee,

I am writing to apply for the Assistant Professor position in Finance at [Business School]. I am a PhD candidate in Finance at [University], expecting to complete my degree in May [year] under the supervision of Professor [Name].

My job market paper, "[Title]," examines how institutional investor attention affects price discovery in equity markets. Using a novel measure of mutual fund manager distraction derived from portfolio characteristics and contemporaneous market events, I show that stocks held primarily by distracted managers exhibit predictable drift following earnings announcements that reverses over six months. The findings contribute to the growing literature on the limits of arbitrage and have implications for understanding return predictability in less liquid segments of the market. The paper is under review at the Review of Financial Studies.

My secondary paper, currently in revision, studies how information asymmetry changes around covenant violations in corporate debt. I use the EDGAR full-text search system to identify covenant waiver negotiations and find that bid-ask spreads widen significantly in the six weeks before a formal violation is disclosed, suggesting that at least some lenders trade on private information during renegotiation windows.

I have teaching experience as a course instructor for an undergraduate Investments course and as a TA for the MBA Corporate Finance core. My teaching evaluations have been strong — 4.6/5.0 and 4.4/5.0 in the two sections I've run independently.

[University]'s research environment, particularly the asset pricing group and the access to high-frequency data infrastructure, aligns well with where I'm directing my research program. I would welcome the opportunity to present my work and meet with your faculty.

[Your Name]