THE OPPORTUNITY:

Structuring Lead role will direct the structuring and coordination between the investment theses of MassMutual's Direct Private Investments program's lending facilities and their operational interactions with borrowers, co-lenders/participants and other service providers. This position will support all aspects of the Direct Private Investments platform, including in particular, supporting the investment team in the negotiation and structuring of each transaction and documenting and operationalizing relationships with borrowers, other lenders and service providers such as servicers, administrative agents and collateral custodians.

THE TEAM:

The Direct Private Investments team is a newly created team within MassMutual Investment Management (“IM”)'s Alternative Investments group. IM manages the asset allocation and asset liability management for MassMutual's $180 billion General Investment Account (“GIA”). DPI focuses upon customized proprietary secured loans to major investment organizations backed by a range of assets and has originated approximately $14.0 billion in private direct investments over the last three years. These loans are highly negotiated with the borrowers and may be retained solely for MassMutual's own portfolio or participated to similar institutional investors. The team is small and highly collaborative and this role will become a critical full-time member of the team.

THE IMPACT:

The Structuring Lead will oversee structuring, closing, and ongoing maintenance of complex transactions that create attractive investments for MassMutual's GIA while addressing the unique financing needs of our strategic business partner customers, who are typically world-class alternative investment managers or specialty finance companies, as well as our co-lenders and service providers, taking ownership for successful delivery of the DPI value proposition to our borrowers, both as lender as well as in some cases in the role of facility servicer for the loan. The Structuring Lead will be an expert resource for the investment and operations teams, as well as external and internal counsel in understanding complex fund and lending structures and assuring that DPI facilities maximize operational flexibility and efficiency and minimize risk within these structures.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Structuring Lead will:

• Be expected to serve as the key operational resource on the deal team of lending projects, assuring through the drafting, negotiation and review of transaction documentation, working with MassMutual's investment, operations and on-boarding teams to document, structure and operationalize each transaction's unique implementation issues and negotiating and documenting MassMutual's expectations with borrowers as well as outside service providers.
• The Structuring Lead will be expected to bring her/his strong industry knowledge and connections to build relationships with MassMutual's borrowers, co-lenders and service providers as well as to leverage their network within the alternative investments market to improve the operational efficiency, risk management and positioning of the program in the market.
• Demonstrate mastery of strong investment operational, analytical, modeling and real-time problem-solving skills to serve as a critical resource helping the investment team to operationalize the investment goals of a given investment, creating situation-specific operational and servicing solutions based upon the target collateral and negotiated financing structure, and to understand and optimize the roles of our various partners post-close to facilitate ongoing operational excellence and risk monitoring of facilities and other program investments, particularly as applied to complex structures (secured lending, Collateralized Loan Obligations, Repurchase Agreements and other specialized structures) and jurisdictions (including not only standard Delaware structures but also lending constructs used in the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Jersey and Guernsey, Ireland and Scotland).
• Create and oversee ongoing calendar of scheduled and ad hoc deliverables for each facility and for the group as a whole, including tracking of MassMutual, borrower and service provider KPIs. Assure that these are implemented by the operations and investment teams and coordinate periodic reviews with borrowers and external partners for each loan facility.
• Need to identify the key structural, operational and risk factors present in a new credit facility and synthesize operations, reporting and monitoring procedures to best address and mitigate these factors. This role is expected to identify the risks associated with the borrowers' respective businesses and in the lending structure in particular, and be able to clearly articulate strategies to minimize and manage these risks in internal operational procedures and discussions as well as in presentations/briefings for co-lenders/participants.
• Coordinate ongoing interactions with current and prospective managers.
• Consult with other structuring leads, DPI team members and other MassMutual departments on the transaction-specific investment issues and due diligence findings that impact their areas of concern.

THE MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree with 10 or more years of relevant investment, investment operations/support or finance experience required
• Prior experience investing or servicing private equity, private real estate, or private credit and/or negotiating fund or lending documents
• Deep knowledge of complex private fund, SPV/SPE and lending structures and familiarity with their particular legal and operational nuances. Knowledge of European fund structures (Luxembourg, Ireland, Guernsey/Jersey, Scotland) highly desirable
• Demonstrated professional network within the alternative investments asset class
• Interest in finance/investments, with basic accounting and investment operations knowledge
• Candidate should have strong foundation in concepts of leverage in a corporate debt context (e.g., Debt/EBITDA and FCC) and of leverage in a real estate debt context (e.g., LTV, DSC, Property Debt Yield)
• Candidate should have a deep understanding of the roles, responsibilities and motivations of the primary participants in the investment management business
• Professional experience working on complex negotiated transactions such as fund structurings, secured lending or CLOs
• Strong communication skills, both written and oral; ability to distill and explain complex technical topics
• Strong computer skills including experience with financial applications
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skill set, comfortable making decisions distilled from limited available information often in real-time during negotiations
• Ability to work closely with portfolio managers, senior management, operations teams, internal legal counsel and outside legal professionals supporting program
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to work in a fast paced, team environment and with outside constituents with tight deadlines and high expectations for our program
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Excel, Power Point and Word; BI (Tableau, etc.) VBA and Visio experience a plus)
• Ability and openness to understanding, explaining and documenting operational, accounting, and legal aspects of investments
• CFA, JD, MBA or other advanced degree preferred (or enrolled as a CFA candidate)

THE IDEAL QUALIFICATIONS:

This is a role that will tend to present many new and one-off problems and issues that must be addressed. The successful candidate will have natural curiosity and a love of learning, relish the challenge of solving puzzles and intellectual challenges and be comfortable with the ambiguity presented by new situations. At the same time, the successful candidate will naturally formulate answers or solutions to those ambiguous situations based upon empirical data. While this is not an actuarial role, a basic comfort with the meaning of probability distributions will be essential in making decisive decisions within an uncertain environment. Similarly, this is not a legal role, but the Structuring Lead should have extensive experience working with complex legal documents and must be comfortable leading the formulation and review of legal documentation for their transactions. A strong understanding of illiquid private assets, complex fund and lending structures and the ability to develop strong relationships across the industry are essential for success and growth in this role. Though an individual contributor role, the Structuring Lead will coordinate investment, operations and legal teams to assure alignment with program objectives, and must be comfortable challenging and questioning team members outside of her/his direct control to assure that these objectives are met.

The incumbent will be traveling nationally and occasionally internationally on a regular basis

WORK LOCATION: Boston (Fan Pier). Will entertain remote work arrangement with regular travel to Boston

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MassMutual is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer Minority/Female/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity/Individual with Disability/Protected Veteran. We welcome all persons to apply. Note: Veterans are welcome to apply, regardless of their discharge status.