What are the responsibilities and job description for the Investment Associate position at State of Wisconsin Investment Board?
Making a Difference
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), founded in 1951, is a premier global investment organization responsible for managing the more than $156 billion of assets of the fully funded Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS), the State Investment Fund and other state funds. Through SWIB’s effective and innovative investment management, WRS remains one of the only fully funded US public pensions. We are the 9th largest public pension fund in the U.S. and the 25th largest public or private pension fund in the world. SWIB is recognized by the investment industry for our teamwork and innovation. SWIB pursues sophisticated global investment strategies across the asset and risk allocation spectrum. Providers across the investment ecosystem seek to partner with SWIB.
Serving more than 691,000 beneficiaries of the WRS, SWIB is a mission-driven organization focused on providing a strong financial future to those who committed their careers to public service. For public employees and the 1,500 Wisconsin employers who contribute on their behalf, we are a trusted partner. Our team innovates continuously to meet the challenges of an evolving investment landscape while growing and protecting the assets of the WRS.
SWIB provides a strong, steady economic pillar for the state of Wisconsin by growing the trust funds under its management, managing risk, and optimizing costs of the long term. We are a mission-driven organization and the participants we serve are our mission. By bringing a disciplined, prudent, and innovative approach to market opportunities, SWIB has been successful in generating required returns and maintaining the trust of the beneficiaries and stakeholders of the funds we oversee.
Home To Top Talent
Our high-performing staff is key to what makes us a premier investment manager. SWIB is committed to investing in talented professionals to implement our robust, sophisticated investment strategies and to keep the organization at the forefront of the investment industry. We encourage innovation and offer professional development opportunities to help staff sharpen and expand their skills. Approximately 61 percent of SWIB’s investment professionals are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholders.
Job Description
About the Team
The Funds Alpha division consists of seven investment professionals that actively manage approximately $9 billion of hedge fund AUM and $28 billion of beta one equity and fixed income AUM. The team is responsible for selecting external firms to partner with and complement internal capabilities. The hedge fund portfolio is managed under an absolute return mandate leading to a wide variety of underlying sub-strategies Relative Value, Credit, Equity Long/Short, Tactical Trading, Multistrat, Specialty Finance, and Opportunistic/CoInvestments. The beta one portfolios are managed relative to global equity and fixed income benchmarks. Active strategies in beta one include a combination of fundamental and systematic investment processes.
Funds Alpha’s investment process includes significant qualitative and quantitative diligence focused on setting expectations for forwarding return levels and source across beta, style, and alpha. Investment professionals meet with existing and prospective strategies in Madison and across the globe to evaluate the quality of return and fit within the portfolio. Manager exposures, track records, and other transparency are thoroughly analyzed through multiple systems to provide evidence and support throughout the process.
SWIB is seeking an early career individual to join its Funds Alpha Team, who is responsible for the selection, allocation, and oversight of SWIB’s active external public market managers. These include hedge fund strategies and long-only strategies across equities and fixed income as well as multi-asset strategies. This opportunity lends the opportunity to gain exposure to a host of investment styles across all asset classes.
The Associate role and the early-career program are designed as an opportunity to gain professional experience in our Funds Alpha business unit. For successful candidates that are high performing, the role is envisioned to be up to three years. The role does not preclude potential employment at SWIB after graduating from the early career program, but if there is not another full-time opportunity available at SWIB for which you are selected, your employment with SWIB would end.
Position Overview
Essential activities:
Pursuant to our Hybrid Remote Work Policy, all staff have the flexibility to work remotely, but are required to have a weekly presence in our offices, the frequency of which is dependent on their distance from office. Staff are not required to reside locally; however, we offer relocation reimbursement to the Dane County area per our policy.
All SWIB employees are subject to SWIB’s Ethics Policy and Personal Trade Approvals Policy. These policies include restrictions on outside business activities and employment and have limits on personal trading. You may request copies of these policies from SWIB’s talent acquisition team and any questions can be answered by SWIB’s compliance team.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), founded in 1951, is a premier global investment organization responsible for managing the more than $156 billion of assets of the fully funded Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS), the State Investment Fund and other state funds. Through SWIB’s effective and innovative investment management, WRS remains one of the only fully funded US public pensions. We are the 9th largest public pension fund in the U.S. and the 25th largest public or private pension fund in the world. SWIB is recognized by the investment industry for our teamwork and innovation. SWIB pursues sophisticated global investment strategies across the asset and risk allocation spectrum. Providers across the investment ecosystem seek to partner with SWIB.
Serving more than 691,000 beneficiaries of the WRS, SWIB is a mission-driven organization focused on providing a strong financial future to those who committed their careers to public service. For public employees and the 1,500 Wisconsin employers who contribute on their behalf, we are a trusted partner. Our team innovates continuously to meet the challenges of an evolving investment landscape while growing and protecting the assets of the WRS.
SWIB provides a strong, steady economic pillar for the state of Wisconsin by growing the trust funds under its management, managing risk, and optimizing costs of the long term. We are a mission-driven organization and the participants we serve are our mission. By bringing a disciplined, prudent, and innovative approach to market opportunities, SWIB has been successful in generating required returns and maintaining the trust of the beneficiaries and stakeholders of the funds we oversee.
Home To Top Talent
Our high-performing staff is key to what makes us a premier investment manager. SWIB is committed to investing in talented professionals to implement our robust, sophisticated investment strategies and to keep the organization at the forefront of the investment industry. We encourage innovation and offer professional development opportunities to help staff sharpen and expand their skills. Approximately 61 percent of SWIB’s investment professionals are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholders.
Job Description
About the Team
The Funds Alpha division consists of seven investment professionals that actively manage approximately $9 billion of hedge fund AUM and $28 billion of beta one equity and fixed income AUM. The team is responsible for selecting external firms to partner with and complement internal capabilities. The hedge fund portfolio is managed under an absolute return mandate leading to a wide variety of underlying sub-strategies Relative Value, Credit, Equity Long/Short, Tactical Trading, Multistrat, Specialty Finance, and Opportunistic/CoInvestments. The beta one portfolios are managed relative to global equity and fixed income benchmarks. Active strategies in beta one include a combination of fundamental and systematic investment processes.
Funds Alpha’s investment process includes significant qualitative and quantitative diligence focused on setting expectations for forwarding return levels and source across beta, style, and alpha. Investment professionals meet with existing and prospective strategies in Madison and across the globe to evaluate the quality of return and fit within the portfolio. Manager exposures, track records, and other transparency are thoroughly analyzed through multiple systems to provide evidence and support throughout the process.
SWIB is seeking an early career individual to join its Funds Alpha Team, who is responsible for the selection, allocation, and oversight of SWIB’s active external public market managers. These include hedge fund strategies and long-only strategies across equities and fixed income as well as multi-asset strategies. This opportunity lends the opportunity to gain exposure to a host of investment styles across all asset classes.
The Associate role and the early-career program are designed as an opportunity to gain professional experience in our Funds Alpha business unit. For successful candidates that are high performing, the role is envisioned to be up to three years. The role does not preclude potential employment at SWIB after graduating from the early career program, but if there is not another full-time opportunity available at SWIB for which you are selected, your employment with SWIB would end.
Position Overview
Essential activities:
- Assist Lead Analysts in preparing, gathering, and analyzing data in developing buy/sell/hold/watch recommendations for individual strategies.
- Contribute to the Funds Alpha manager selection, sourcing, and oversight process.
- Under the direction of the Lead analysts, evaluate from a quantitative and qualitative perspective external manager strategies’ value add.
- Construct and maintain spreadsheets, models, ad hoc analyses, and qualitative data on external managers.
- Produce, monitor, and summarize attribution, risk, and other reports of the overall portfolio and individual managers in various software packages.
- Compile reports from various sources to help facilitate discussion and reporting requirements to other departments and committees within SWIB.
- Conduct monthly performance calculation and reconciliation with SWIB’s Private Markets Portfolio Engineer, the Investment Shared Service division, monitor cash flows, and be the primary liaison with the Investment Shared Service division and technology staff.
- Maintain a clean database of managers and peer groups for analysis.
- Bachelor’s Degree in business, finance, economics, or similar required.
- 1 to 3 years of relevant work experience in manager diligence. Will consider previous internship experience within the alternative investment management industry sector.
- Experience working with Microsoft Office, specifically Excel utilizing intermediate to advanced functions.
- Previous experience utilizing MSCI RiskMetrics, SEI Novus, FactSet, and/or eVestment helpful.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- An ability to be adaptive and thrive in a fast-paced, changing environment.
- Superb work ethic, attention to detail, team orientation, and commitment to excellence.
- Competitive total cash compensation, based on AON (formerly McLagan) industry benchmarks
- Comprehensive benefits package
- Educational and training opportunities
- Tuition reimbursement
- Challenging work in a professional environment
- Hybrid work environment
Pursuant to our Hybrid Remote Work Policy, all staff have the flexibility to work remotely, but are required to have a weekly presence in our offices, the frequency of which is dependent on their distance from office. Staff are not required to reside locally; however, we offer relocation reimbursement to the Dane County area per our policy.
All SWIB employees are subject to SWIB’s Ethics Policy and Personal Trade Approvals Policy. These policies include restrictions on outside business activities and employment and have limits on personal trading. You may request copies of these policies from SWIB’s talent acquisition team and any questions can be answered by SWIB’s compliance team.
