Head of Market Risk recruitment

Organisational overview

NEST Corporation is the trustee body responsible for overseeing NEST (National Employment Savings Trust).

NEST Corporation has overall responsibility for the scheme and is a non-departmental public body independent of government but accountable to Parliament through the Department for Work and Pensions.

NEST will be a new workplace pension scheme that’s being designed specifically to meet the needs of low-to-moderate earners and their employers.

Departmental overview

The Investment Research team is responsible for the design and implementation of the investment strategy that is the basis of the investment recommendations made to the Trustees. The Investment Team is at the cross over of capital markets and pensions. It also acts as an advisor for the NEST Trustees. The team researches, builds, and communicates all necessary material to inform NEST Corporation and the Public on best practices in investing the scheme members’ contributions, setting the strategic and tactical asset allocations, setting the investment’s choice universe, and implementing relevant risk management .

Job title and overview

Head of Market Risk

NEST Corporation is a high profile investment organisation. Among other things, it has set its reputation on very high standards of governance. To meet those standards, NEST Corporation has set Investment Risk Management as a strategic function. The Head of Market Risk participates to that effort by conducting a wide range of research and market engagement in the field of capital markets risk and making recommendations on the best course of action to maintain an appropriate level of risk.  The role will involve designing and implementing a risk management framework for market risk including applying this across all third party relationships.

This position will require research on very wide range of investment topics such as asset allocation, risk budgeting, liability driven investment, actuarial studies, and how these affect risk management. The outcome of such research, including market engagement, is to inform and implement design decision making tools or recommendations for the management of the NEST’s pension scheme.

Role deliverables

The successful candidate will have responsibility for the following deliverables and activities:

• Responsible for designing, building and delivering  the investment research around topics such as risk budgeting, risk decomposition, market regimes, risk sharing, volatility management ,strategic asset allocation (across all asset classes), tactical asset allocation, LDI, , etc…

• Designing, building and successfully implementing the Investment Risk Platform including the integration of risk management tools and systems across our network of third party providers.

• Delivering a market risk framework which takes into account a fund of funds approach rather than in-house investment.

• Acting as the key in-house expert on market risk, and making appropriate decisions or recommendations based on available data in the context of member risk appetite and targeted investment outcomes for members.

• Initially this role will not include any direct reports but will involve a large element of matrix management – ensuring all relevant parties across the organisation are educated on and bought into the investment risk management approach as well as managing deliverables in other external teams and externally which feed into market risk management. This includes all levels of the organisation from analyst level up to presentations to board committees.

• Maintenance of a ‘Knowledge Centre’ that will allow any member of NEST to get information/explanation on topics covered by the Research Team, and support the design of the knowledge centre. Help facilitate the induction of new joiners in the Investment Strand

• Participate in the engagement programme with external counterparties such as investment banks, asset managers and consultants to collect and analyse investment ideas and best practice in the fields covered by the team


Candidate requirements

Experience required

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate the following experience:

• Previous experience within a front office based market risk role which involved decision making capability. Previous experience gained within asset management would be highly advantageous.

• Previous experience of dynamic or structured investment strategies

• Exposure to a range of asset classes and investment strategies, which should include equities, fixed income, cash and other asset classes

• Previous experience of managing teams (both matrix and direct) and of such seniority that they can make investment recommendations

• Previous experience of delivering research using both qualitative and quantitative methods

Personal attributes required

• the successful candidate will be a self starter and have the ability to work on their own initiative

• a confident decision maker who can interpret and make recommendations based on the outcome of research rather than a pure information giver

• experience of gaining trust and being credible with senior industry professionals is essential

• an ability to take complex concepts and translate them into language understandable across the organisation.

Education/qualification requirements

• Likely to be educated past 1st degree level. Likely to have an MSc or PhD

• industry qualifications would be an advantage.