At Two Sigma, we take our espresso seriously. In this edition of Over Coffee, we sat down with Andrew Long, a senior developer and financial engineer at our New York City headquarters.
With nearly two decades of experience, Andrew has built risk, pricing, and trading platforms at leading firms including Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and BlueMountain Capital. He holds an M.B.A. in Quantitative Finance and Economics and a B.S. in Computer Science.
Grab your own cup of joe and read on for highlights from our chat with Andrew.
First things first, what do you do here at Two Sigma?
I am a senior software engineer in the Financial Resource Management Engineering team. The mission statement of Financial Resource Management at Two Sigma is to manage Two Sigma’s prime, banking, clearing, and executing broker relationships. To enable that, my team builds the software and systems that allow us to better optimize our financing structures, portfolio financing costs, and margin requirements; manage cash flows, payment processing, and insurance coverage; and launch new markets and broker relationships for trading.
Across your career, you’ve helped re-architect, evolve, and build out risk platforms at several firms. What drew you to this space, and what keeps it interesting for you?
The earliest days of my career were heavily influenced by the 2008 financial crisis. I worked across the street from Lehman Brothers and watched as people poured onto the street, bankers boxes in hand, on the Monday after it collapsed. I was starting business school at the time, where we would spend classes dissecting the news. How could these huge institutions, which notoriously hired the best and the brightest, ignore the bright red flags on their balance sheets?
When opportunities arose to pivot into risk measurement and management, I jumped at it. It led me to many of the largest, most complicated problems in finance and forced me to build a deep understanding of both financial markets, data modeling, and large, distributed systems.
Were there any pivotal moments or key decisions you’ve made that have significantly shaped your career path? What did you learn from them?
I would say there were three pivotal moments in my professional life.
The first came shortly before graduating from college. I met with two professors in the computer science department, knowing that their current research focus was funded by Electronic Arts. I always envisioned myself making video games, so I walked into the meeting hoping to cajole a reference or an introduction – and I walked out thoroughly discouraged from the games industry. As I sat reassessing my career goals after college, I reconnected with a former family friend in the finance industry. I got an introduction at AllianceBernstein, and from there fell in love with finance.
The second event came a few years later in undergrad. At that time, I had very little exposure to business and finance, which I felt may have been holding me back, so I cultivated mentors at AB and had a number of discussions determining what, if anything, I should do. In the end, I decided to seek out a more diversified education in an MBA program.
The last moment, which I will preface by saying it is cliched, was meeting my wife, Sam. We met through random happenstance — took a different bus one Tuesday night and sat next to her — and it changed the course of my life after that. Since then, Sam always managed to bring out the best in me, at home and in the office.
What does a great work day look like for you?
The difference between a good day and a great day is in the little details. On a great day, I get some time to tinker in the Hacker Lab, maintaining our tools or working on a personal project. I get to attend a lecture. Maybe I participate in an on-site event. I love it when I get to lead a session for the Hacker Lab or Disability Alliance. I meet with one of my mentees. All of the little things that I do every week that feel kind of unique to Two Sigma.
How do you bring your full self to work? Has that evolved over time?
I work every day to be radically open with my friends and peers in the office. It definitely took a lot of growth and evolution on my part to get here, though. I have had numerous personal issues over the years — anxiety disorders, multiple sclerosis, and more. For the longest time, I felt ashamed and wasted my energy masking these issues in the workplace. Then, a while back, these personal issues got severe enough that it started impacting my ability to function day-to-day. It was severe enough that I couldn’t hold up a mask anymore, so I started talking about it more openly. The conversations started in a book club, then stretched out to my manager and teammates. I was scared at first what that would do for my reputation in the firm, for my career. To my utter surprise, though, I was met at every turn with open arms, understanding, and compassion. This also opened unexpected doors for me, bringing me on to the steering committees for the Disability Alliance and Women at Two Sigma. It allowed me to meet, and now build upon, these incredible communities within Two Sigma, and makes me wonder how I survived as long as I did in hiding.
What’s something that’s meaningful and inspiring to you outside of work?
I’m a parent of two kids, aged 11 and 7, and these kids are my inspiration for everything I do. It’s very trite, sure, but my family is what gives life meaning.
Finally, just for fun, what’s the best movie recommendation you’ve received from a colleague?
The one that probably gave me the biggest (positive) surprise was The Naked Gun reboot. Was it the best movie in the last few years? Definitely not. But it was very funny, evoking the Leslie Nielsen originals. I really didn’t think Liam Neeson had it in him to carry a slapstick comedy like this.
Ready for the next step in your career journey and interested in working at Two Sigma? Explore our open opportunities.