Senior Portfolio Manager - External Managers/Traditional Investments

The Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS), located in Harrisburg, PA, is seeking candidates for the position of Senior Portfolio Manager - External Managers, Traditional Investments. The organization currently has approximately $55 billion in assets under management that are invested for the long-term benefit of its members.

The position oversees existing relationships with external managers in Traditional Investments and recommends and implements relationships with new managers.  Asset classes include public equity, public fixed income, risk parity, and commodities, and include both developed and emerging markets.

This role has a significant investment component: making the case why an external manager is a fit for the PSERS portfolio, whether as a source of value-added on a net-of-fee basis and/or as a diversifier to the portfolio’s existing exposures and managers. It also has a significant administrative component: maintaining and improving a framework for monitoring performance, ensuring compliance with objectives and guidelines, generating comprehensive reports, assisting with investment advisory agreements/amendments/guideline exceptions, etc.

This position supervises one analyst, will have responsibility for hiring a second analyst, and reports directly to the Deputy Chief Investment Officer – Traditional Investments.  It requires frequent communication and interaction with staff: senior staff, internal portfolio managers, the risk management group, investment operations, investment accounting, and legal.
 

Specific duties include the following:

• Serve as the primary overseer of the external manager relationships in Traditional Investments
• Maintain and improve the policies, procedures, and comprehensive framework for the quantitative and qualitative assessment of existing external managers and potential new managers
• Gather and organize external manager quantitative data and qualitative information from internal sources (custodian, risk management group, investment operations, investment accounting, and legal) as well as external sources (e.g., PSERS’ general investment consultant and specialty investment consultants)
• Set investment objectives, benchmarks, fee structures, and guidelines for each external manager’s mandate
• For prospective managers, make inquiries to external parties or field incoming “cold calls” to identify potential candidates; organize first meetings with promising candidates; and shepherd highest conviction candidates through additional meetings, investment due diligence, operational due diligence, and, for approved new managers, implementation
• Generate regular reporting of external manager performance, exposures, and portfolio fit
• Make recommendations for the retention or termination of existing managers, the hiring of new managers, and the creation of a “backup bench” (to replace an existing external manager or to take on the mandate of an internal portfolio manager)
• Make periodic presentations to senior staff, the investment committee of the board, and the board itself
 

Preferred qualifications:
• 7 years of previous experience in a senior manager research or allocator role at an institutional investor
• Previous experience with a variety of asset classes and geographies
• CFA charter holder
• Ability to think creatively and systematically using qualitative and quantitative information from a variety of sources
• Ability to collaborate closely with internal portfolio managers as well as others in the Investment Office
• Advanced skills utilizing eVestment, Bloomberg, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Ability to communicate clearly, concisely and persuasively, orally and in writing
 

Minimum requirements:

Two years as a PSERS Manager; or a Bachelor’s degree and six years performing relevant traditional or non-traditional markets investment work; or an equivalent combination of experience and training.  Successful completion of any of the following professional accreditations may be substituted for relevant work experience:

• Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA): 1 year per level passed    
• Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA): 1 year
• Financial Risk Manager (FRM): 1 year per level passed
• Professional Risk Manager (PRM): 1 year
• Certified Treasury Professional (CTP): 1 year (only applicable to Fixed Income positions)
• Certified Property Manager (CPM):  1 year per 4 courses passed (only applicable to Real Estate positions)

  The salary range for this position is $182,084 to $280,393 and is negotiable based on experience and professional accreditations.  

  Note: There is also a posting for Director – External Managers/Traditional Investments.  Only one – a Senior Portfolio Manager or a Director – will be hired, not both. A candidate may apply to one, the other, or both of the postings.

  Apply at https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/pabureau.  The deadline is March 8, 2019.