Client Service Research Associate - Westport, United States - Bridgewater Associates

Description

About Bridgewater

Bridgewater Associates is a premier asset management firm, focused on delivering unique insight and partnership for the most sophisticated global institutional investors.

Our investment process is driven by a tireless pursuit to understand how the world's markets and economies work - using cutting edge technology to validate and execute on timeless and universal investment principles.

Founded in 1975, we are a community of independent thinkers who share a commitment for excellence. By fostering a culture of openness, transparency, and inclusion, we strive to unlock the most complex questions in investment strategy, management, and corporate culture.

Explore more information about Bridgewater on our website here.

Our Culture

Bridgewater's unique success is the direct result of our unique way of being. We want an idea meritocracy in which meaningful work and meaningful relationships are pursued through radical truth and radical transparency. We require people to be extremely open, air disagreements, test each other's logic, and view discovering mistakes and weaknesses as a good thing that leads to improvement and innovation. It is by continually striving together for the highest levels of truth and excellence that we create meaningful work and meaningful relationships. Within this culture, Diversity and Inclusion is a top priority because it is essential to finding the best talent in the world, enabling our idea meritocracy, and creating an environment where all types of people can thrive. We have a full-time team as well as affinity networks that work on these issues - If you would like to learn more, please let your Bridgewater recruiter know.

Explore more information about Bridgewater's culture on our website here.

About the Sustainable Investing Team

In today's world, environmental, social, and governance ("ESG") issues are driving macroeconomies, financial markets, and the actions of governments, corporate, consumers, and investors. Increasingly, institutional investors are also seeking to have an impact on the world through their portfolios, by explicitly directing capital toward sustainable entities or outcomes. These are rapidly evolving fields with significant conceptual, analytical and data challenges.

At Bridgewater, we are addressing both sustainable investing topics like we would approach any other challenge - as researchers and engineers - applying our fundamental, systematic, and diversified approach to sustainable investing to build a deep understanding of the most important sustainability issues affecting investors, and by creating investment solutions that are designed both to offer excellent financial returns and to achieve impact objectives. Bridgewater manages capital for some of the largest institutions in the world, and we partner with them to develop investment solutions, capabilities, and tools that are designed to shape their thinking on sustainable investing.

About Your Role

We are looking for someone who is eager to tackle these challenges with us. As a Client Service Research Associates (CSRA) on the Sustainable Investing team, you will have an aerial view of our sustainability research and portfolios, play a vital role in delivering these insights and capabilities to our clients, and collaborate closely with our Co-CIOs for Sustainability, research and engineering teams, and client service professionals. Bridgewater's market-driven approach to client service requires our CSRAs to continually expand their understanding and knowledge of markets and develop a holistic understanding of our investment philosophy; through formal training and informal on-the-job instruction, you will become well-versed in our investment approach, process and strategies, our book of business, and our production systems. A successful CSRA in Sustainable Investing will develop a holistic understanding of Bridgewater's portfolio management principles and the landscape of sustainable investing, and be able to translate that understanding to sustainability research, systems, portfolio construction, and partnership for our clients.

You will drive the following responsibilities:

• Understand Bridgewater's book of business in sustainable investing, related commercial strategy and our investment thinking
• Contribute to Bridgewater's world-class client service strategy through creative thinking about how to generate insights and convey key messages to our clients on sustainable investing and our sustainability-oriented portfolios
• Strategize with Co-CIOs for Sustainability, sustainable investing research & engineering teams, client service professionals, other research teams and investment professionals to develop the best approach to handle client requests and enable high quality client engagements
• Apply analytical skills, market knowledge, and an understanding of Bridgewater's investment methodology and strategies to create insights and materials to help shape clients' investment thinking
• Work creatively with existing methodologies and tools to identify and solve problems in how we serve clients by contributing to the creation of new tools, models, and or "machines" to automate and streamline our processes

The CSRA role is a great opportunity to transition into Bridgewater. While the position does not require deep experience in asset management, qualified candidates will have prior experience in a related professional services environment. We are looking for intellectually curious individuals who enjoy solving complex problems.

Minimum Qualifications

• Ideally 3+ year of prior work experience in an analytical field
• Bachelors or Master's degree from a competitive school with a strong academic and extracurricular track record
• Interest for and understanding of markets and investing, with particular affinity for sustainability
• Ability to solve complex problems through analysis
• Aptitude for creative quantitative work involving financial and economic data
• Keen customer service mentality
• Ability to prioritize and organize time effectively in a fast-paced and constantly changing environment
• Strong work ethic and demonstrated ability to achieve results and drive projects to completion; strong attention to detail
• Aptitude for remaining composed and confident under pressure
• Effective written and oral communication skills
• Strong computer skills and Microsoft Office Suite expertise; additional analytical capabilities ideal.

In addition, to succeed within our unique culture and work environment, individuals must demonstrate humility, innate curiosity, and openness to new ideas and approaches. Candidates must be driven, confident, and goal oriented. All Bridgewater employees are expected to be honest, exceptionally direct, and eager to provide and receive objective feedback. Our employees constantly strive for self-improvement through feedback and self-reflection and are committed to the pursuit of excellence.

You will be a click for this role if you:

• Have desire to become an expert in the sustainable investing space
• Have desire to expand ownership of projects and research topics
• Are analytical, highly logical, and structured in your thinking
• Are both assertive and open minded, willing to assert your views while fully appreciating what you don't know
• Hold a high degree of pride, personal responsibility, and ownership in the work that you own
• Are able to consistently step back and improve your way of operating and are open to receiving and giving quality feedback.
• Thrive in an entrepreneurial, fast paced, ambiguous, open-ended team environment

Physical Requirements

• For most of our roles, Bridgewater offers remote work flexibility, with most employees required to work on campus as their principal work location, a minimum of two days (and in some cases three days) per week with the option to work offsite on other days.

Why Choose Bridgewater?

It takes all types to make Bridgewater great. We seek a diverse group of innovative thinkers and push them to engage in rigorous and thoughtful inquiry. We develop people through an honest examination of their abilities and performance, enabling personal growth and professional development. We strive to provide you opportunities that will challenge you and unlock your potential.

You will grow with us by:

• Participating in formal and informal on the job training
• Developing a holistic understanding of portfolios, portfolio management principles, and the sustainable investing landscape
• CSRA's become well-versed in our investment approach, process, strategies and book of business

Interested in learning more about working at Bridgewater? Hear about the experiences of our employees here.

Compensation Band:

The wage range for this role is $120,000 - $260,000 inclusive of base salary and discretionary target bonus. The expected base salary for this role is between 80% - 90% of this wage range.

One of our core priorities at Bridgewater is to enable our employees to build a great life and career, and we believe our benefits are an important extension of that philosophy. As such, currently Bridgewater offers a competitive suite of benefits including:

• Health insurance with 100% premium covered and access to additional concierge medical services
• 401(k) plan with generous employer match
• Paid time off, including fully paid parental leave and a competitive PTO package
• Workplace flexibility and access to back up childcare
• Financial assistance for family building support, including adoption and egg freezing
• Workplace wellness, including on-site gyms, free meals and healthy snacks, and meditation rooms
• An engaged and active community that includes many company events, affinity networks, and extracurricular interest groups

For a full list of Bridgewater benefits, click here.

Bridgewater reserves the right to change its current benefits program at any time, in a manner that is consistent with applicable federal and state regulations. This job description is not a contract and confers no contractual rights, privileges, or benefits on any applicant or potential applicant. Bridgewater has the right to change any and all terms of this job description, including, but not limited to, job responsibilities, qualifications and benefits. Nothing in this job description constitutes an offer or guarantee of employment. Please note that we do provide immigration sponsorship for this position.

Bridgewater Associates, LP is an Equal Opportunity Employer