Portfolio Trading Analyst

Our Story

Founded in 2008
, Hightower is a wealth management firm that provides investment, financial and retirement planning services to individuals, foundations and family offices, as well as 401(k) consulting and cash management services to corporations. Hightower’s capital solutions, operational support services, size and scale empower its vibrant community of independent-minded wealth advisors to grow their businesses and help their clients achieve their financial vision.

Based in Chicago with advisors across the U.S., we operate as a registered investment advisor (RIA).

Hightower’s Overlay Management team owns daily trade prioritization, execution, and monitoring to ensure client portfolios are optimized to their assigned investment policies on the Hightower One platform; they coordinate with portfolio managers and advisors, manage risk and exposures (including cash, and tax overlays), and deliver compliance-ready reporting and reconciliations. We are a collaborative, and driven group passionate about delivering excellent service, supporting advisor growth, and helping clients achieve their financial goals.

The Portfolio Trading Analyst will prioritize, sequence, review and execute daily trades proposed by the Hightower One’s platform optimizer to ensure the timely investment of client portfolios to their investment policies while minimizing market and tax impacts.

• Prioritize and sequence daily trades generated by run groups within the trading platform to ensure timely review and execution of proposed trades on client portfolios.
• Execute overlay actions (tracking error reductions, exposure adjustments, cash overlays, tax-aware trades) using the platform’s optimization tools.
• Translate client investment policies into enforceable overlay rules and maintain those rule sets in the platform.
• Validate optimizer-proposed trades for alignment with the proposal objective and investment objective on the client’s account.
• Manage cash and settlement timing across aggregated accounts to avoid unintended cash shortfalls or excesses and optimize short-term liquidity.
• Perform daily reconciliations and exception management
  : trade blotters, start of day account reconciliations, failed/partial files, and documented remediation steps.
• Produce compliance-ready reporting and audit trails for overlay actions
  , including performance attribution and tax impact summaries.
• Maintain and test automation workflows and runbooks for overlay rules, change controls, and release management in the platform.
• Coordinate with stakeholders
  — including portfolio managers, advisors, compliance, and/or the platform’s vendor — to resolve exceptions or issues when optimizing client portfolios.
• Improve execution and run group logic
  : batching, crossing, smart routing, and tax-lot sequencing to enhance efficiency and reduce operational risk.

• 2-5 years in trading operations, portfolio operations, execution, or overlay/centralized portfolio management.
• Hands-on experience with OMS/EMS, TAMP platforms, portfolio optimizers and trade blotter workflows; ability to configure run group rules and maintain runbooks.
• Practical understanding of trade lifecycle, settlement mechanics, cash management, and tax-lot accounting.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related quantitative field; advanced degrees are a plus
• Advanced Excel (pivot tables, advanced formulas).
• An understanding of SQL or equivalent query skills a plus.
• Attention to detail, clear written and verbal communication, and experience coordinating with portfolio managers, advisors, compliance, and custodians.
• Problem solving under time pressure and disciplined escalation judgment.
• Communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence business and technology teams.

• Coverage on the first day of employment for medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid parental leave (16 weeks for primary caregiver and 8 weeks for secondary caregiver)
• Mother’s lounge onsite
• Flexible PTO plan
• Hybrid work schedule (minimum of 3 days in office)
• Free brand-new gym in the Chicago office
• 401k matching plan
• HSA…