Junior Associate recruitment
Cambridge Associates LLC (C|A) is a sage, global consulting practice providing industry-leading investment consulting, financial planning, and proprietary capital markets and investment manager research to over 900 highly sophisticated institutional investors. C|A was founded in the early 1970’s and our client base has grown to consist of institutions with assets ranging from several million to many billions of dollars and includes colleges and universities, secondary schools, foundations, religious organizations, research organizations, international institutions, corporations, and private clients. While headquartered in the United States, our truly global client base is served by offices in Arlington, Virginia; Beijing, China; Boston, Massachusetts; Dallas, Texas; Menlo Park, California; Singapore; Sydney, Australia; and an affiliate in London, England authorized by the Financial Services Authority. Our global network of clients represents approximately $2.5 trillion in assets spanning all asset categories, including private investments, hedge funds, and traditional long-only (equity, fixed income) investments.
Overview:The Manager Information Group (MIG) is a rapidly expanding department (formed in 2008) tasked with centralizing all investment manager data collection processes across each C|A global office. MIG serves as a liaison between investment management firms and C|A’s internal advisory departments in a vital role to capture data efficiently and improve the accessibility of information throughout the firm. Through the organization, maintenance, and ownership of various internal proprietary applications and databases, the department supports C|A’s global investment consulting practice through all stages of the investment process. This includes fully servicing data needs for research, due diligence, consulting, and performance reporting personnel.
Currently, MIG operations are primarily located in Arlington, Virginia (United States). The team is comprised of over 100 staff members, including 2 individuals strategically located in London, England. Commencing in October 2012, MIG will launch an exciting venture to build out a dedicated team in Singapore. Development plans are nearing completion and a MIG Management Team member will be relocating to Singapore in September to jump start this effort. While MIG is a well-defined department which resides in a well-established and respected company, this role is a great ground-floor opportunity for those that are interested in helping to build up a team and launch an important effort. Existing tasks and duties must be transferred from U.S.-based staff and the team will need to grow, develop and stabilize into a sustainable operation in a relatively short time-frame. There will be great opportunities to develop an excellent professional skill set, interact with many internal groups, and a strong potential for internal advancement for top performers.
The core functional teams that comprise the Manager Information Group are the Client Data Team, the Database/Documents Team, and the Private Investments Data Team. Each Team offers a wealth of opportunities (including potential exposure to investment vehicles such as private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, equity, hard assets and fixed income) in a fast-paced and dynamic work environment. We’ll be hiring staff for each of these three teams, though they all share the same basic job duties and offer the same rewarding opportunities.
Database Team: Oversees an expansive proprietary investment manager database cataloguing extensive qualitative and quantitative data on thousands of investment products spanning hundreds of different investments strategies, allowing C|A staff and clients to search, screen and monitor the global investment industry. They also manage a voluminous document archive of investment fund reports (legal, compliance, performance, etc.) serving as a research platform for C|A staff in augmenting their consulting services. Additionally, the team leverages documents produced by fund managers to capture key investment characteristics such as sector, geographic, and currency exposure for use by C|A research groups and clients.
Client Data Team: Operates a sophisticated performance measurement system by capturing and processing client-specific investment information on a real-time basis, ultimately providing our clients with industry-leading portfolio monitoring and evaluation services. On a monthly basis the team catalogues thousands of client investments to capture details such as the total account balance, portfolio transactions which occurred, and performance metrics for the account.
Private Investments Data Team: Works with industry-leading private equity, venture capital, and hard assets investment firms to further strengthen and expand the scope of key private investments data initiatives. Through populating the C|A proprietary database and document platforms, the team performs an essential role to the Cambridge research, due diligence and consulting practice; thus directly impacting the firm’s ability to serve our clients with an increased depth and breadth of services. The team collects quarterly financial statements which are used to extract data points to be populated into our proprietary system in order to analyze total fund, individual company level, and specific client investment performance statistics. This data is also the foundation of our global, industry leading private investment benchmarks.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Serve as the principal data contact for C|A relationships with investment managers (specifically those located in Asia and Europe/Middle East)
- Cultivate a deep understanding of investment firms and their reporting practices in order to effectively gather the data C|A requires as quickly as possible and with the highest level of precision and accuracy
- Proactively communicate with investment management firms to collect, extract, and enter investment data into our proprietary databases and applications so other C|A staff can leverage this for analysis
- Field ad hoc data requests from internal staff while displaying the highest level of customer service and professionalism
- Develop an understanding of multiple C|A departments and facilitate communication between staff and other relevant parties
- Consistently re-evaluate internal processes to detect inefficiencies and identify new best practices to help MIG evolve, develop and succeed as a best-in-class organization
- Perform additional duties as necessary in the evolution of the teams and department
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree (all majors welcome); familiarity with financial terminology is preferred but not required
- 1-2+ years of related work experience (preferred, but not required)
- Ability to work in a time-sensitive environment
- Strong analytical and organizational abilities
- Exceptional written and oral communication skills
- Demonstrated ability to work independently and as part of a team
- Strong computer skills – particularly with MS Outlook and Excel
- High comfort level working in a less defined environment as this is a build-out effort
- Ability to work in Singapore without sponsorship