Associate, Client Service Operations

Bridgewater Associates; Westport (CT); Hybrid; USD 135,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Bridgewater Associates in Westport, CT is seeking an Associate for its Client Service Department. You will act as the central operational hub, coordinating with the Client Advisor to manage client requests, calendars, and project initiatives for around 30 clients.

The role demands strong organizational skills, professional communication, and a proactive problem-solving mindset in a hybrid schedule with four onsite days weekly.

Qualifications

• Effective written and oral communication skills with strong attention to detail.
• Bachelor's degree with strong academic record preferred.
• Experience in financial services or a professional business environment is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Partner with your team to translate client goals into an organized operational cadence.
• Provide high quality client service as the first point of contact for inquiries.
• Distill information and synthesize key points for the team and stakeholders.
• Coordinate tasks and collaboration sessions to meet client needs from visualization to scheduling.
• Drive execution and project manage initiatives across multiple stakeholders.
• Facilitate synchronization and track status of key activities and knowledge repositories.
• Ensure preparation for client interactions with presentations and prep notes.
• Coordinate logistics for clients and team, including travel and events.

Skills

Communication skills

Attention to detail

Team player

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Outlook

PowerPoint

Word

Excel

Job description

About Bridgewater

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

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 for 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. Explore more information about Bridgewater on our website here.

Our Culture

Our culture is anchored in excellence, meaning constant improvement, and it is deeply tied to our mission. Because markets are objective, competitive, and getting smarter everyday, we need to keep rapidly improving to have any chance of beating them. Truth is our most essential tool for engaging with the markets and constantly improving because once you know what's true about your problems and opportunities, you can determine how to get better. Valuing truth means being transparent about your decision-making and mistakes, giving and receiving feedback with humility, and fighting for the best answers over hierarchy, ego, or self-interest. Operating this way is hard – it's only possible because we build meaning in our work and relationships. This meaning comes from the audacity of the mission, and the joy of working alongside people who make you a better version of yourself. The culture, like Bridgewater itself, is always evolving. In 1997 our founder Ray Dalio wrote down his lessons, starting with a Philosophy Statement which remains our foundation. This later evolved into a set of 300+ Principles. In 2022, when Ray transitioned the company, we re-underwrote several of those principles and evolved others, with a specific focus on Meritocracy. Today the culture sits, alongside our people, as our most important edge. When we get it right, it's the engine that powers everything else.

About the Client Service Department

The goal of Client Service is to build and grow meaningful relationships with the world's largest, most sophisticated investors and help clients achieve their goals through high quality return streams and tailored insights. To this end, we deeply understand the global pools of capital, develop strategies to effectively develop relationships, and partner with clients on their most difficult investment and portfolio construction problems. We help our clients broaden their understanding of our investment process, strategies and performance as well as deepen their understanding of financial markets more generally.

About Your Role

As an Associate, you'll help the Client Service Department achieve our mission by ensuring clients receive exceptional service and that your team is achieving its strategic goals. In order to do so, you will be the 'air traffic controller' of your team, responsible for a variety of administrative, operational and project management activities, serving around 30 clients. You will help set goals, brainstorm execution, project manage multiple initiatives, coordinate directly with clients and internal stakeholders, be the first point of contact for client requests, and plan meetings, trips and events. Without the Associate, the team doesn't run. Associates must be highly organized, detail-oriented, calm under pressure, and great at time management. They must communicate professionally, enjoy problem solving, and thrive in a dynamic, relationship-driven environment.

You will drive the following responsibilities:

• Partner with your team's Client Advisor (senior relationship manager) to understand client goals and translate the business plan into an organized operational cadence for the team, including providing administrative and calendar support
• Provide high quality and professional client service, acting as the first point of contact for all incoming client inquiries via email or phone
• Distill information and synthesize the key points to the team and other relevant, internal stakeholders
• Coordinate tasks, activities and collaboration sessions to meet client needs from visualization to scheduling
• Drive execution, provide direction, and project manage initiatives across multiple stakeholders
• Facilitate synchronization and communication across the team, by tracking and reporting on status of key activities and keeping knowledge repositories up to date (i.e. CRM)
• Ensure team and key stakeholders are prepared for all client interactions (i.e. presentations, prep notes, technology)
• Coordinate logistics for clients and team, including travel strategy, events and presentation materials
• Anticipate and resolve problems efficiently and independently
• Work with other teams on projects to improve departmental operations

You will be a click for the role if you:

• Are a team player who can learn quickly and who can proactively seek to improve efficiency and quality
• Are a 'big picture' thinker who is able to focus on the goal at hand, not only tasks
• Distill information, prioritize well and summarize key points for senior leaders
• Enjoy solving problems using logic and common sense to develop practical solutions
• Have the ability to orchestrate and prioritize multiple activities at once while maintaining high quality work
• Hold a high standard for excellent client/customer service and desire to help others
• Are willing and able to anticipate the needs and concerns of others
• Have a preference for interpersonal interactions and are unafraid to engage with others
• Value the pursuit of truth and excellence
• Demonstrate innate curiosity and a tendency to thrive on learning new things
• Are dedicated to self-improvement and improvement of others

Minimum Qualifications

• Effective written and oral communication skills with strong attention to detail
• A high degree of proficiency in Outlook, PowerPoint, Word and Excel; general comfort with learning
• and using new software tools
• Bachelor's degree with strong academic record preferred
• Experience in financial services or a professional business environment is a plus, though not required

Physical Requirements

This role will follow a hybrid schedule, with an onsite requirement of four days per week at our Westport CT campus.

Wage Range

The wage range for this role is$135,000-$200,000inclusive of base salary and discretionary target bonus. The expected base salary for this role is between 80% - 90% of this wage range.

Why Choose Bridgewater?

It takes all types to make Bridgewater great. We seek a diverse group of innovative thinkers and push them to engage in rigorous and thoughtful inquiry. We develop people through an honest examination of their abilities and performance, enabling personal growth and professional development. We strive to provide you opportunities that will challenge you and unlock your potential. One of our core priorities at Bridgewater is to enable our employees to build a great life and career, and we believe our benefits are an important extension of that philosophy. As such, currently Bridgewater offers a competitive suite of benefits. Explore more information about Bridgewater's benefits on our website here. Bridgewater reserves the right to change its current benefits program at any time, in a manner that is consistent with applicable federal and state regulations. This job description is not a contract and confers no contractual rights, privileges, or benefits on any applicant or potential applicant. Bridgewater has the right to change any and all terms of this job description, including, but not limited to, job responsibilities, qualifications and benefits. Nothing in this job description constitutes an offer or guarantee of employment. Please note that we do not provide immigration sponsorship for this position. Bridgewater Associates, LP is an Equal Opportunity Employer