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
$117,500.00-172,350.00Inclusive 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.
002_MstarAssocLLC Morningstar Investment Management LLC Legal EntitySkills Required
- Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, or a related field
- 2 years of experience working in investment research and/or data
- Experience analyzing funds using returns-based and holdings-based style analysis with an institutional-level software tool such as Morningstar Direct
- Experience applying modern portfolio theory techniques, including statistical analysis, mean-variance optimization, efficient frontiers, alpha, tracking error, Sharpe ratio, and information ratio
- Experience using Morningstar investment methodologies, including the Morningstar Style Box, Star Ratings, Analyst Ratings, and the 5 Key Pillars
- Experience analyzing open- and closed-end mutual funds, variable annuities, separate accounts, collective investment trusts, money markets, stable value products, and guaranteed investment contracts
- Experience working within a retirement-specific asset allocation framework involving glide-path models, target-date or target-risk products, or human capital and financial capital investing
- Hands-on experience with the U.S. Retirement Plan Market
What the Team is Saying
Morningstar Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off policies include flexible PTO and a paid sabbatical every four years, often highlighted as a standout perk. Feedback suggests this structure supports strong work–life balance and meaningful breaks.
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Parental & Family Support — Policies advertise a global minimum of 16 weeks for primary caregivers, up to 8 weeks for secondary caregivers, and at least six weeks of paid caregiving leave. These offerings signal above-average support for family and caregiving needs.
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Retirement Support — Retirement programs feature employer 401(k) contributions/matching, with some postings citing a 75% match on up to 7% of pay. Feedback suggests these offerings are a strong pillar of the package.
Morningstar Insights
What We Do
We are a global investment research and financial data company with 40-plus offices across North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Our products and services are used daily by individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, retirement plan providers, and institutional investors. We provide data, research, and analysis across managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, debt securities, and real-time global market data. The financial system can have real barriers—hidden information, friction that can slow decisions, and forces that can limit transparency and access. We work to remove them, bringing independent research, connected data, and investor-first tools to a system that needs more clarity. The people doing this work span research, technology, design, product, sales, and functional areas. We build many of our products in-house, so the work can connect directly to the tools investors use to make real financial decisions.
Why Work With Us
Morningstar’s missing is to empower investor success. We can only do that if our people feel empowered. That means finding people who think independently, bring a wide range of backgrounds with analytical rigor and genuine intellectual curiosity to the work.
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Across most of our offices globally, employees work four days a week in the office and one day from home. We recognize that life doesn't always fit a fixed schedule and offer programs that can help provided increased workplace flexibility.
