Associate, Portfolio Implementation - Greater London - Cambridge Associates

Description

Overview

Cambridge Associates ("CA") is a leading global investment firm. CA's goal is to help endowments & foundations, pension plans, and ultra-high net worth private clients implement and manage custom investment portfolios that generate outperformance so that they can maximize their impact on the world. Cambridge Associates delivers a range of services, including outsourced CIO, non-discretionary portfolio management, and investment consulting.

Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, CA has offices in key markets in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Our worldwide teams ensure our clients benefit from decades of global presence, local expertise, and relationships with the top global investment managers across the world. For more information, please visit

Job Description Summary

Cambridge Associates seeks to hire an Associate to join our Portfolio Implementation Management Team. The Portfolio Implementation Management Team is part of Global Portfolio Services. The Team's mission is to provide advanced operational support to clients and investment teams by developing a deep understanding of their respective operational and service needs, while acting as the central point of contact for both clients and internal teams. Additionally, our goal is to minimize the investment team's involvement and oversight of transaction implementation, tracking, and reporting so that they can focus on making investment decisions.

Job Description

The Portfolio Implementation Management Associate is a crucial part of the broader Investment Team and our Client's experience coordinating all portfolio operations and inquiries. They act as a central point of contact for investment teams and other internal stakeholders implementing portfolio decisions.

Responsibilities

• Central operational point of contact for investment teams and clients
• Serve as a key operational resource for the investment team and provide additional support as needed including investment and client relationship management activities
• Work with PIM colleagues to gain exposure to client and other external stakeholder communications for operational matters
• Contribute to projects making improvements to existing processes and platforms via engagement with the Portfolio Implementation Management Group, and assisting in the development & implementation of new initiatives
• Learn the full investment life cycle, from trade planning through to investment execution for each client portfolio, in time then managing these processes independently
• Maintain clients' portfolio monitoring and projections spreadsheets by updating portfolio positioning and future investment decisions in coordination with Portfolio Director(s)
• Develop an understanding of allocation targets and tactical tilts and how this factor into rebalancing proposals, together with specific asset class sizing and trade recommendations
• Monitor investment timing and additional portfolio & client guideline considerations to create and execute trade plans
• Learn to engage with client contact(s), internal CA business areas, and third-party managers to ensure effective communication and implementation of investment decisions
• Develop and maintain custom portfolio structure exhibits for investment team and client use
• Implement a variety of investment strategies and products e.g., ETFs, mutual funds, futures, hedge funds, private equity & other illiquid diversifiers
• Portfolio monitoring, reporting, and oversight
• Liaise with service providers to ensure proper transaction execution and that optimal exposures to target allocations are maintained
• Proactively monitor portfolio liquidity and cash balances, taking into account spending and unfunded private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) commitments
• Evaluate & monitor compliance of the portfolio against client guidelines
• Serve as liaison between investment team and performance reporting team, communicating any changes to setup/structure.
• Currency hedging and overlays
• Learn to monitor currency exposure of portfolio positions and liaise with currency specialist providers to execute FX forward contracts to hedge currency risk
• Develop an understanding of portfolio beta exposure, work with senior colleagues to monitor portfolio exposures and liaise with derivatives overlay specialists to execute equity derivatives futures contracts

Client team management and ad hoc tasks & skills

• Build an understanding for how specialized service providers operate (e.g., futures and currency overlays, traders, post distribution management, secondaries sales) and can be used for portfolio management needs.
• Coordinate with investment teams to complete ad-hoc operational projects, provide supplemental portfolio analysis, and gather information to aid investment decisions
• Participate in department projects and working groups to improve processes, training, and other ad hoc topics

Qualifications

• BS/BA with some experience in the financial services industry. Experience in portfolio-related operations is valuable. Knowledge of alternatives particularly private equity & hedge funds preferred.
• Demonstrate accountability, excellent attention to detail, intellectual curiosity, and excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Superior and demonstrated problem-solving, analytical, and organizational skills.
• Ability to work with a singular focus or on several projects simultaneously, both independently and collaboratively. Demonstrated skill in project management and prioritization.
• Strong interest in and general knowledge of investments, key industry terms and broad financial concepts.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and familiarity with other Microsoft Office

Employees of Cambridge Associates Ltd. or an affiliated firm, are prohibited from employment or other association with any company, organization, business, or other entity that is involved in any way with the securities or financial services industry except for those entities that are directly affiliated with Cambridge Associates Ltd.

Employees are prohibited from acting as a Trustee or Director of, or accepting a similar position of responsibility with, any entity that is a client of or directly affiliated with a client of Cambridge Associates Ltd. or any of its affiliated companies without prior written consent from the Chief Compliance Officer of Cambridge Associates Ltd.

Employees are prohibited from serving on the investment or finance committee of any company or organization with investable funds, or likely to develop investable funds, without prior written consent from the Chief Compliance Officer of Cambridge Associates Ltd.

If applying for the role, you need to inform the Recruiter if there are any potential conflicts with the above.

The firm is committed to the concept and practice of equal employment opportunity and will not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or veteran status. It is expected that all employees will follow a similar policy toward their co-workers.