Specialist Capital Optimization (m/f) – Zurich recruitment

Specialist Capital Optimization (m/f) - Zurich

84438BR

The Corporate Center supports UBS' s business divisions and regions through provision of Group-level control functions, covering Finance, Legal Compliance and Risk, and shared services including HR, Information Technology, Communications Branding and Supply Demand Management.

The Capital Optimization effort was launched in 2007 to implement a mandate given by the Group Executive Board. The objective of the effort is to use risk-adjusted profitability measures to guide capital allocation.

Capital Optimization develops and maintains the Group's framework to determine the Economic Profit of UBS' businesses with the aim of facilitating the creation of shareholder value. Economic Profit is an important measure for business performance evaluation and compensation purposes.

Our key efforts include:

Equity Attribution Framework

This framework allocates the firm's equity capital to the businesses and is used to calculate and assess the RoE (Return on Equity) for each of our major businesses.

Cost of Equity methodology

This methodology relies on the idea that a minimum rate of return is required for a given business, taking an external shareholder's perspective.

Guidelines for RoA (Return on Assets) and RoRWA (Return on Risk-Weighted Assets)

These guidelines send the message that the balance sheet is a scarce resource, which must be used in a profitable way. RoA/RoRWA hurdle rates provide a rough but practicable yardstick to assess individual transactions.

The combination of the Equity attribution framework and the Cost of Equity methodology enables us to calculate and assess the Economic Profit for each of our major businesses. The guidelines for RoA and RoRWA provide a pragmatic way to ensure that individual transactions create a positive Economic Profit.

The Capital Optimization team prepares the proposals on Attributed Equity and Cost of Equity for the Group Asset and Liability Committee and the Board of Directors of UBS. The team members work closely together with the firm's businesses and Group functions on issues related to performance measurement and compensation policy.

The position Specialist Capital Optimization is a highly visible role in an international team that plays an important role within the Group.

Key responsibilities:

The individual selected would support and deputize a Zurich-based senior team member, with an initial focus on Cost of Equity methodology.

The selected individual will run, maintain, further enhance and document the existing spreadsheet and database solutions to determine the Cost of Equity, which includes an innovative and sophisticated option-based approach.

The new team member will contribute to other important efforts such as accomplishing the Group's goodwill impairment test, valuation analysis and compensation (PEP), as well as the client relationship management with a business division.

Further, the individual will have the opportunity to contribute to further progress in each of the Capital Optimization efforts outlined above. In addition, the individual selected would be encouraged to develop her or his own ideas about additional efforts that should be undertaken, additional metrics that should be developed and/or new ways of working with other functions and with the business divisions to increase the role of risk-adjusted performance in their activities.

The successful candidate will have the quantitative skills needed to understand and develop risk-adjusted performance metrics, as well as good communications skills to work with others in Corporate Center or the business divisions on a global basis.

This is an exciting challenge for an experienced professional (minimum working relevant experience of 2 -3 years) from a variety of professional backgrounds, ideally in one of the following areas: Quantitative risk management and analytics, Corporate finance or MA advisory with a focus on valuation, Equity or credit analysis (financial analyst), Equity or debt capital markets (origination, trading, risk management), Strategic analysis/corporate development, Derivatives sales/trading.

Strong quantitative skills. Educational background in finance (preferred), economics, business, statistics or related field (ideally Master's degree or PhD).
Good knowledge of option pricing theory and corporate finance (Economic Profit, Cost of Capital, CAPM). Equity valuation skills are an additional asset.
Basic programming skills (SQL, VBA, MS Excel/Access) or ability and willingness to acquire such skills quickly. Knowledge of Optrad would be highly advantageous.
Experience in using statistics programs such as 'r' would be advantageous.
Fluent in English, German would be an advantage.

UBS can offer you an environment geared towards performance, attractive career opportunities, and an open corporate culture that values and rewards the contribution of every individual. Together we will shape and strengthen the UBS brand.

Did you find what you are looking for? We look forward to hearing from you.

Corporate Center

Financial Controlling Accounting, Tax

UBS AG
Recruiting Schweiz
Frau C. Münstermann
+41-44-234 62 85