Associate, Back Office Operations

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

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

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.

• On and 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)

Bridgewater has grown rapidly in recent years, transforming from an investment boutique to a leading global institutional asset manager. To manage this excellently, Bridgewater has placed explicit focus on evolving our world-class investment and support infrastructure including the use of external partners for key processes. Since Back Office processes are mission-critical, the department has evolved the way in which it meets its goals and responsibilities.

Bridgewater now operates a unique and innovative "tri-party model" that enables us to remain responsible for investment management and oversight of our back office, while also taking advantage of the independent processes and technology of two strategic partners who are industry leaders in this space. Key aspects of Bridgewater's internal back office include quality control and relationship management with the service providers as well as enablement of firm-wide change initiatives.

The Middle & Back Office Associate position in Operations is comprised of (1) monitoring and managing the deliverables and performance of outsourced 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.).

Our Associates are developed more as "generalists" who can understand the end-to-end processes of all aspects of Operations, as opposed to being specialists in just one particular product or process.

We are seeking motivated, agile, and results-oriented people to be part of the team critical to enabling Bridgewater.

• Reviewing outsourced partner deliverables for quality, accuracy and timeliness to ensure mission-critical Operations responsibilities are met including excellent escalating and troubleshooting of problems
• Produce various internal and external reporting, including but not limited to client, regulatory, risk & control and management metrics
• Act as a liaison between outsourced partner(s) and internal BW departments (e.g. Trading/Front Office, Client Service) for queries and providing subject matter expertise on various projects and initiatives
• Identify problems and inefficiencies with various processes and develop and implement solutions (e.g. streamline redundant processes, automate controls & reports, etc)
• Contribute towards training, testing, and certification of other Associates over time to ensure a high level of cross‑training and fungibility

• Bachelor's degree with a strong academic record from a competitive school
• 2-7 years' experience in financial services Operations and/or Investor Services e.g. investment banking, hedge fund administration, or an Operations-specific consulting firm
• Proficient in relevant software applications, particularly Excel, SharePoint, and PowerPoint. Data manipulation and coding skills are also valuable (e.g. pivot tables, macros, Power Query, VBA, SQL, "R", etc.)
• A drive to incorporate AI into both day-to-day and long-term strategic workflows
• Strong sense of personal responsibility, ownership mentality,…