Hedge fund giant Citadel has appointed Keith McNulty, a former McKinsey director and PhD mathematician, to lead its talent assessment function in London, reflecting the growing role of data-driven approaches in hedge fund hiring, according to a report by eFinancial Careers.
McNulty spent 27 years at McKinsey, most recently as director of talent science and analytics, where he implemented evidence-based methods for evaluating staff using psychometrics, decision science, predictive statistics, and machine learning. He previously designed a global assessment framework to measure employee effectiveness and success across the consultancy.
At McKinsey, he also oversaw the firm’s game-based innovations lab, which developed the ‘Solve’ platform — an interactive gaming assessment to gauge candidates’ problem-solving skills early in the interview process. While Citadel does not currently use video games in its recruitment, it has incorporated gamified challenges in datathons, where strong performance can lead to internship opportunities.
McNulty holds a PhD in pure mathematics from Imperial College London, bringing deep quantitative expertise to Citadel’s talent operations. The move reflects Citadel’s continued investment in talent and its distinctive, data-driven approach, and underscores a broader trend among hedge funds to adopt rigorous, analytics-based hiring practices alongside their investment strategies.
