Associate Fixed-Income Principal Trader

ameriprise; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Ameriprise Financial is seeking a licensed fixed-income trader to join the principal trading desk, initially focused on municipal securities. The role owns inventory, executes trades, prices, hedges, and makes risk-informed decisions within established limits.

The candidate should hold a Bachelor's degree in Finance or related field and active Series 7 and 63 licenses, with strong ability to explain pricing to advisors.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Business, or related field.
• Active Series 7 and Series 63 licenses at hire.
• Experience in fixed-income pricing, hedging, and risk judgment.
• Ability to explain pricing relative to alternatives to advisors and clients.
• Strong independence in buy/sell decisions within delegated authority.
• Office presence: Minneapolis location.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end execution of principal fixed-income transactions within authority and limits.
• Execute trades in assigned inventory books with pricing and risk considerations.
• Own inventory positioning, bid coverage, and trade-review deliverables.
• Evaluate value drivers, market movements, and DV01 to improve turnover and profitability.
• Develop dealer relationships to support execution and desk profitability.
• Explain complex concepts to advisors and coordinate with internal partners.
• Lead desk-development and knowledge transfer during unusual market scenarios.
• Demonstrate independent judgment and drive results for potential broader authority.

Skills

Fixed-income trading

Pricing

Risk management

Inventory control

Dealer relationships

Independent judgment

Education

Bachelor's degree in Finance

Series 7 & 63 licenses

Tools

Bloomberg Terminal

Job description

About Our Company

We're a diversified financial services leader with more than $1.5 trillion in assets under management, administration and advisement as of year-end 2024. Our team of 22,000 people across 19 countries, serves more than 3.5 million individual, small business and institutional clients. We are a longstanding leader in financial planning and advice, a global asset manager and an insurer. Our unwavering focus on our clients and strong financial foundation connects each of our unique businesses - Ameriprise Financial, Columbia Threadneedle Investments and RiverSource Insurance and Annuities. Here, we foster meaningful careers, invest in the future, and make a difference for clients, institutions and communities around the world.

Job Description

Licensed fixed-income trader on a principal trading desk, initially assigned to municipal securities. The role consistently commits firm capital, holds and positions inventory, and makes independent buying, selling, pricing, hedging, and risk-reward decisions across an assigned scope within established capital and risk limits. It owns assigned inventory and desk deliverables with limited day-to-day direction, supports senior inventory books, and converts market, advisor, and dealer information into actions affecting profitability and risk. It remains below a Junior Trader's broader product authority, capital responsibility, and exception autonomy.

Key Responsbilities

• Owns end-to-end execution and resolution of assigned principal fixed-income transactions within established authority, capital, and risk limits, including independent buying and selling decisions for inventory positions.
• Executes in assigned and senior trader inventory books as needed, applying judgment to pricing and execution while escalating unusual or higher-risk matters.
• Owns assigned inventory positioning, bid coverage, pricing analysis, and trade-review deliverables with limited day-to-day direction.
• Evaluates relative value, competitive offerings, supply and demand, market movements, aging, concentration, and DV01 exposure to improve turnover, profitability, and disciplined capital use.
• Applies experienced fixed-income knowledge and developing municipal expertise to determine why bonds are priced relative to alternatives across credit, structure, call, liquidity, maturity, and market technicals.
• Converts economic, regulatory, dealer, and order-flow developments into actionable trading and inventory recommendations.
• Applies market, liquidity, credit, concentration, operational, and inventory-risk controls to positions for which the role commits firm capital.
• Establishes hedge positions within delegated authority, including short U.S. Treasury positions for assigned activity or on behalf of senior traders; supports book-level DV01, aging, and concentration reporting; and understands mark-ups/mark-downs, special trade coding, and regulatory reporting.
• Owns risk assessment for assigned decisions across market, liquidity, credit, concentration, operational, and inventory exposures.
• Establishes or recommends U.S. Treasury hedge positions, evaluates risk-reward tradeoffs, monitors book-level DV01, aging, and concentration, and applies mark-up/mark-down, special-coding, and regulatory-reporting requirements.
• Owns analysis of advisor behavior, order flow, inventory turnover, and market trends and converts those insights into distribution and inventory actions.
• Explains complex concepts to advisors, gains cooperation from internal partners, and develops dealer relationships whose quality and activity directly affect execution opportunities and desk profitability.
• Owns assigned desk-development and operating-improvement deliverables, including transfer of knowledge from unusual market and risk scenarios.
• Demonstrates sustained independent judgment and results required for consideration for broader trading authority; progression is earned and not guaranteed.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Accounting, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Series 7 and Series 63 licenses must be active at hire.
• Experienced fixed-income knowledge and demonstrated ability to explain why bonds are priced relative to competitive alternatives.
• Strong pricing, relative-value, inventory, hedging, and risk judgment using supply and demand, aging, concentration, DV01, and market information.
• Acts independently on routine buy/sell, inventory-positioning, and risk-reward decisions within delegated authority; escalates complex or higher-risk judgments.
• Explains difficult concepts to advisors and builds dealer relationships that support execution, future business, and desk profitability.
• Applies principal-trading controls, including mark-ups/mark-downs, special coding, hedging, and regulatory reporting.
• Commercial mindset, professionalism, accountability, initiative, and composure under pressure; full-time Minneapolis office presence.