Senior Investment Analyst

The Role:

Morningstar Retirement is seeking a Senior Investment Analyst to join our Retirement Advice and Financial Planning team. This person will help construct, refine, implement, and oversee multi-strategy portfolios for large institutional clients. In this role, you will lead projects, support and partner with other team members, and be responsible for analyzing investment data to determine solutions for our clients. You will work closely with other members of the Retirement team including client relationship managers, operations/technology, developers, senior management, and other team members around the world.

The position is based in our Chicago office but will require weekly calls with our global teams.

Responsibilities:

• The Senior Investment Analyst on the Automated Portfolio Solutions team will conduct in-depth asset allocation analysis, portfolio construction analysis, and investment vehicle analysis on retirement products using key modern portfolio theory statistics and techniques.
• Construct and refine fund-specific portfolios for large institutional clients as part of Morningstar Retirement's Advice and Managed Account service offering.
• Manage plan sponsor and plan participant client relationships, communicate project goals and deliverables status updates externally, and act as key investment resource clearly articulating complex financial concepts to individuals with varying experience levels.
• Identify and work with technology, operations, data groups and clients to resolve investment data issues.
• Lead and participate in testing projects to enhance investment methodologies, software functionality and processes within the server-based portfolio construction software
• Mentor/train junior investment analysts through meetings, emails and weekly calls with global employees and delegate tasks as he or she sees fit to more junior team members.
• Perform secondary reviews of junior investment analyst fund portfolios, while refining any portfolios identified as suboptimal.
• Responsible for submitting final recommendations on fund treatment, after incorporating input from junior investment analysts and conducting individual research.
• Act as subject matter expert applying reliable, well-researched decisions regarding fund treatment and fund allocations within portfolios.
• Conduct internal and client-facing presentations detailing the five-step portfolio construction process.
• Participate in research efforts on the retirement industry with a focus on advice and managed accounts products and services.
• Assess the theoretical and practical implications of our methodology as you strive to innovate and improve our products and services.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, or a related field

• 2 years of experience working in investment research and/or data, with a preference if the candidate has hands on experience with the U.S. Retirement Plan Market.

• 2 years of experience in all the following:

• • Analyzing funds using both returns-based and holdings-based style analysis using an institutional-level software tool such as Morningstar Direct
  • Applying financial techniques from modern portfolio theory, including statistical analysis, mean-variance optimization, efficient frontiers, alpha, tracking error, Sharpe ratio, and information ratio
  • Using Morningstar's core investment methodologies, such as the Morningstar Style Box, Star Ratings, Analyst Ratings, and the 5 Key Pillars
  • Analyzing open and closed-end mutual funds, variable annuities, separate accounts, collective investment trusts, money markets, stable value and guaranteed investment contracts
  • Working within a retirement-specific asset allocation framework that includes either glide-paths models, target-date and target-risk products, or a human capital/financial capital-focused investing approach

Compensation and Benefits

At Morningstar we believe people are at their best when they are at their healthiest. That’s why we champion your wellness through a wide range of programs that support all stages of your personal and professional life. Here are some examples of the offerings we provide:

• Financial Health

  • 100% 401k match up to 6% of salary

  • Stock Ownership Potential

  • Company provided life insurance - 1x salary + commission

• Physical Health 

  • Comprehensive health benefits (medical/dental/vision) including potential premium discounts and company-provided HSA contributions (up to $500-$2,000 annually) for specific plans and coverages

  • Additional medical Wellness Incentives - up to $300-$600 annual

  • Company-provided long- and short-term disability insurance

• Emotional Health 

  • Trust-Based Time Off

  • 6-week Paid Sabbatical Program

  • 6-Week Paid Family Caregiving Leave

  • Competitive 8-24 Week Paid Parental Leave

  • Adoption Assistance

  • Leadership Coaching & Formal Mentorship Opportunities

  • Annual Flex Stipend - $1000 annually to cover personal education & well-being expenses

  • Tuition Reimbursement

• Social Health 

  • Charitable Matching Gifts program

  • Dollars for Doers volunteer program

  • Paid volunteering days

  • 15+ Employee Resource & Affinity Groups

Total Cash Compensation Range

Inclusive of annual base salary and target incentive

If you receive and accept an offer from us, we require that personal and any related investments be disclosed confidentiality to our Compliance team (days vary by region). These investments will be reviewed to ensure they meet Code of Ethics requirements. If any conflicts of interest are identified, then you will be required to liquidate those holdings immediately. In addition, dependent on your department and location of work certain employee accounts must be held with an approved broker (for example all, U.S. employee accounts). If this applies and your account(s) are not with an approved broker, you will be required to move your holdings to an approved broker.

Morningstar's hybrid work environment gives you the opportunity to collaborate in-person each week as we've found that we're at our best when we're purposely together on a regular basis. In most of our locations, our hybrid work model is four days in-office each week. A range of other benefits are also available to enhance flexibility as needs change. No matter where you are, you'll have tools and resources to engage meaningfully with your global colleagues.