Sr. Consultant - Investment Performance Attribution

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.

Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.

With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Role Summary

Northern Trust Asset Management is a trillion-dollar investment management firm entrusted by investors around the globe to help them navigate changing market environments so they can confidently realize their long-term objectives.

The Senior Consultant will be responsible for attribution analysis across a range of mandates spanning all asset classes and investment styles. This role will analyze attribution results and articulate the sources of alpha and beta through written commentaries that integrate quantitative analysis with market and economic dynamics. The individual will understand various attribution and risk models, calculation methodologies, index constructions, and attribution use cases, with the ability to work independently to research sources of P&L and tracking error. The candidate must demonstrate strong mathematical and analytical proficiency based on prior experience and interactions with investment teams.

The scope of responsibilities will include generating high precision and quality investment performance attribution analysis to be used as feedback loop for different investment teams.  Ability to have intellectual discussions with portfolio managers to assess the effectiveness of their strategies decision making process via attribution.  In addition to the portfolio managers, this role will act in collaboration with business partners including Risk Management, Product Management, Sales and Marketing, performance and accounting, and various operational teams, to implement strategic solutions for data issues, enhance methodology and define fit-for-purpose attribution analysis, optimize the use of attribution for clients and client facing functions.  The role will leverage NT technology and analytics and external technology/analytical platforms primarily Aladdin, FactSet, Perform, Bloomberg and Morningstar to continuously refine and deliver meaningful performance attribution that explains the investment outcomes effectively.  

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

As a subject matter expert on investment performance analytics and attribution, the individual will have ownership and accountability to provide end-to-end attribution analysis for multiple asset classes such as Fixed Income (taxable and tax-exempted), Equity (fundamental and quant), Multi-Asset (FI/EQ, FoFs) with either passive or active management styles.  Responsibilities include:

• Using attribution and risk models on platforms such as Aladdin, FactSet, Perform or Bloomberg to create attribution analysis that can be used by the PMs as feedback loops to validate the results of their investment strategies or exposure management, on a daily and monthly basis.   
• Incorporate quality and fit-for-purpose attribution analysis into various management reports as the objective data that illustrates the drivers of over and under performance on the portfolio level.   Design and refine quality control mechanisms that are meaningful and impactful to improve accuracy of attribution analysis.
• Timely and effectively response to inquiries related to the methodology, data issues and accuracy of attribution analysis; appreciating the sources of inquiries maybe an attribution super-user or a novice with simple questions and treat all inquiries with respect and patience. 
• Monitoring ex-ante data set and use them as a reference point to validate the ex-post attribution results to understand the end-to-end view of the overall P&L creation and validation process. 
• Coordinate with core-competency teams upstream to solve for data issues that cause attribution to be less effective such as Corporate Actions, indices/benchmarks, pricing, schedules for options, and accounting effects that are outside of PMs’ control.  Aiming to implement strategic solutions to reduce the data issues upstream.
• Provide timely response to address any attribution analysis needs by our client facing teams/functions for client reporting, pitch-book, RFP/DDQs and other by-demand analysis that showcase our investment capabilities. 
• Engaging in productive dialogues with portfolio managers/client portfolio managers to understand the questions and concerns related to the explanation of investment performance outcomes, show ability to lead and drive standardized solutions. 
• Collaborate with risk management and governance function to utilize attribution consistently to Illustrate the source of tracking errors and exposure to various strategies and sectors, provide efficient explanations on the cause of tracking errors using attribution.
• Accountable for timeliness and quality of attribution analysis deliverables, engaging portfolios managers on a regular and consistent basis to stay current with their investment styles and expected outcomes, then use attribution objectives to provide the data to support the narrative of investment outcomes.
• Stay informed of our new product line-ups, be prepared to support the attribution analysis for the new products or fund structures. 
• Understands the optimization processes utilized to support passive and active strategies so to align and independently verify the effect of optimization in attribution analysis.
• Proactively identify and implement improvements to existing processes to further gain operational efficiency and productivity.

Necessary Knowledge and Skills

• In-depth understanding of the investment management business, with particular expertise in fixed income fundamental strategies and optionality of tax-exempted securities.  Familiarity of Alternative investment process, performance and attribution analysis is a plus.
• Specific prior knowledge of and experience with factor based attribution, ability to  differentiate different risk or asset allocation profiles may impact the output of an attribution analysis,  knowledge of BlackRock’s Aladdin analytics is highly preferred.
• Adopting and utilizing AI Agent/Co-Pilot to aid the day-to-day review of attribution analysis, monitoring of market moves and finetune commentaries contents.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently and relentlessly to pursue facts and reach conclusions on cause/effect of investment outcomes.
• Strong consultative skills ranging from gathering market and competitor insights, strategy development, influencing, facilitation and consensus building.
• Prior experience working with and influencing others to relentlessly unlock new opportunities to drive excellence.
• Understanding of technology such as abilities to perform basic programing/coding tasks, knowledgeable of database structures (relational, cloud based) and navigate  large set of data is complimentary for this role.
• Experience in driving digital and automation-driven transformation to generate efficiencies and scalability.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and demonstrate ability to achieve results in a timely manner.
• Global outlook with sensitivity and awareness of social and cultural differences.
• Strong situational awareness, communication skills and decision making capabilities. 
• Fostering a respectful team-oriented environment with our global/virtual colleagues across business units and location.

Necessary Experience and Education

• 5-10 years of work experience in the investment management industry, with a demonstrated track record within the attribution, quantitative analysis, risk analytics, portfolio construction space at a mid-to-large investment management firm.   
• Proficiency with investment as well as reporting and analytic tools and databases.  
• Proven high-level ability to communicate to wide audience with written materials.
• Can work independently with a sense of ownership and urgency to deliver measurable results.
• Distinguished academic background.
• Bachelor or Master degree; CFA and/or CIPM designation preferred.

Salary Range:

Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.

Work Authorization

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa).

Working with Us

As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.

Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.

Reasonable Accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [email protected], or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.