Manager, Alpha Analytics and Portfolio Risk

Summary

The Investments team manages the John

D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation’s $9.6billion investment portfolio. The portfolio is managed within a globally diversified, multi‑asset class framework with the objective of earning a 5% real return annually. It serves as the source of funds for the Foundation’s grant making and other organizational expenses.

The Manager, Portfolio Risk and Alpha Strategies, has primary responsibility for the day‑to‑day operation of the Foundation’s portfolio risk analytics, manager return and factor decomposition, and portable alpha program. The Manager reports to the Deputy Chief Investment Officer, partners closely with the Deputy CIO on portfolio construction, risk‑aware decision‑making and the implementation of derivative‑based exposures, and serves as a senior technical leader for the team’s data, analytics, and AI‑enabled workflows.

Initially, the Manager is expected to operate as a senior practitioner from day one. Over time, the Manager will grow into a broader portfolio leadership role that contributes to asset allocation, manager underwriting and Investment Committee dialogue.

• Run the day-to-day operation of the Foundation’s portable alpha program under the strategic oversight of the Deputy CIO.
• Interact with the overlay manager and execute derivative trades to manage market exposure, and oversee the program’s performance and operations.
• Operate the Foundation’s portfolio risk‑management framework on a daily basis—including monitoring total market risk, downside exposure, factor exposures, currency exposures, and portfolio resilience—in partnership with the Deputy CIO.
• Lead the decomposition and analysis of external manager returns, including factor‑exposure analysis, performance attribution and alpha‑beta separation.
• Participate as a member of the Risk Committee.
• Develop conclusions from analyses for use by senior portfolio managers, the Deputy CIO and CIO.
• Manage the Foundation’s counter party risk on an ongoing basis, including monitoring, limit setting and reporting.
• Manage the Foundation’s portfolio of short‑term cash enhancement instruments.
• Participate in prospective manager presentations.
• Contribute to the underwriting of public equity and other marketable mandates as the role matures.
• Contribute to the Foundation’s annual asset allocation process, including capital‑markets assumptions, scenario work and portfolio construction analysis.
• Measure currency and factor exposure across the portfolio and evaluate hedges for both public and private investments.
• Partner with the Operations team on the design of the Investments team’s data and analytics infrastructure, defining the analytics needed to support portfolio decisions and shaping the analytical content of reports, dashboards and configuration models.
• Maintain sufficient technical fluency in data architecture, ETL pipelines and API‑based integrations across market data, accounting, custody, risk and manager data systems to engage Operations and external providers on design and implementation.
• Implement the Investments team’s AI agent roadmap as defined by the CIO, including integration with Dynamo and the analytics layer, deployment and evaluation of agentic workflows, and the technical governance frameworks (data quality, audit logging, human‑in‑the‑loop boundaries) that govern production and use.
• Partner with the Senior Analyst, Strategy and Operations on rollout and adoption across the team.
• Prepare materials for the Investment Committee in support of the Deputy CIO and CIO, including ad‑hoc analyses, portfolio updates and materials supporting strategic portfolio decisions.
• Mentor junior staff and manage direct reports as the team grows.
• May perform other duties as assigned.

• Undergraduate degree in a quantitative field such as mathematics, statistics, engineering, economics, finance, or computer science; graduate degree a plus.
• CFA charter holder strongly preferred.
• 7 to 10 years of investment‑management experience, including direct experience managing or being deeply embedded in an institutional multi‑asset portfolio (endowment, foundation,…