Fund Accounting, Associate

About Bridgewater

Bridgewater Associates is a premier asset management firm, focused on delivering unique insight and partnership for the most sophisticated global institutional investors.

Our investment process is driven by a tireless pursuit to understand how the world’s markets and economies work — using cutting‑edge technology to validate and execute on timeless and universal investment principles.

Founded in 1975, we are a community of independent thinkers who share a commitment to excellence. By fostering a culture of openness, transparency, and inclusion, we strive to unlock the most complex questions in investment strategy, management, and corporate culture.

Our culture is anchored in excellence, constant improvement, truth, and meritocracy, and is evolving through a set of core principles.

The goal of the Operations Department is to enable Bridgewater’s ongoing investment engine and client requirements by proactively driving solutions through effective management of people, process, and partners in a principled way.

Overall responsibilities include:

• On & off‑boarding support and maintenance of investor accounts, fund launches, trading and settlement counter parties, as well as new markets & instruments
• Trade life cycle and portfolio control support (e.g. trade confirmation, collateral, reconciliation, etc.)
• Investor and Fund services (e.g. capital flows, various investor reporting, etc.)
• Accounting books and records and associated reporting (e.g. NAV)
• Tax, Audit & regulatory/compliance support for BW, its funds and clients
• Driving industry leading back‑office solutions and engaging in thought leadership and strategic partnerships with internal and external stakeholders to shape key outcomes (e.g., BW Front Office, vendors)

The Fund Accounting Associate is responsible for ensuring mission‑critical accounting responsibilities are delivered excellently for Bridgewater and our clients. The role is comprised of (1) monitoring and managing the deliverables and performance of outsource providers, (2) operating internal processes and procedures and (3) improving and evolving both (e.g. participating in initiatives enabling support of new products, markets and unique investor requirements, enhancing processes and controls, etc.).

Associates are developed as generalists who can understand the end‑to‑end processes, rather than specialists in a particular product or process.

We are seeking motivated, agile, and results‑oriented people to be part of the team critical to enabling Bridgewater to implement new investment ideas rapidly and meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of our clients.

• Review outsource partner deliverables for quality, accuracy and timeliness and troubleshoot as necessary when problems arise. Outsourcer deliverables include security and portfolio valuations (e.g. GAV, & NAV), profit & loss reporting and performance returns, and account events (e.g. transfer‑in‑kind).
• Produce various internal and external reporting, including but not limited to client, regulatory, risk & control and management metrics.
• Act as liaison between outsource partner(s) and internal BW departments (e.g. Trading/Account Mgmt., Client Service) for queries and provide subject‑matter expertise on various projects and initiatives.
• Identify problems and inefficiencies with various processes and develop and implement solutions (e.g. streamlining redundant processes, automating controls & reports, etc.).
• Contribute to training, testing, and certification of other Associates over time to ensure a high level of cross‑training and fungibility.

• Bachelor’s degree, demonstrating a strong academic record from a competitive school.
• 2–8 years of accounting and/or operations experience (e.g. NAV, valuation, investor allocations & P/L) in financial services such as investment banking, hedge fund administration, hedge fund, or consulting firm (Accounting or Operations specific).
• Proficient in commonly used software such as Excel, SharePoint, PowerPoint. Data manipulation and coding skills are not required but are valuable (e.g. pivot tables, macros, SQL,…