Associate Portfolio Manager - Residential Mortgage Backed Securities

Lord Abbett; Jersey City (NJ); On-site; USD 175,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive total compensation

Retirement plans

Health and well-being plans

Job summary

Lord Abbett is seeking an Associate Portfolio Manager to support RMBS portfolios, collaborating with senior PMs and researchers. You will help drive investment decisions, manage risk, and contribute to portfolio construction across multiple RMBS subsectors.

Ideal candidates have deep RMBS experience, strong analytical and quantitative skills, and a track record of producing investment ideas. This role emphasizes teamwork, rigorous analysis, and strategic thinking in a fast-paced fixed income

Qualifications

• 5–10 years of RMBS experience across research, trading, or portfolio construction.
• Strong understanding of RMBS security types and risk drivers.
• Advanced financial modeling, duration, convexity, and credit analysis.
• Excellent communication and ability to present investment views.
• Proven ability to contribute to portfolio decisions and collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Generate recommendations and implement RMBS trades, leveraging resources for decision-making.
• Collaborate with portfolio managers, analysts, and traders to screen RMBS with best risk‑adjusted returns.
• Monitor portfolio positioning and maintain desired risk objectives across parameters.
• Perform portfolio simulations and projections including excess and total return forecasts.
• Opine on relative value within RMBS and document investment decisions.
• Communicate trade color and commentary to the broader team and department.
• Manage trade lifecycles including setup, compliance checks, and post-trade QA.
• Update market data related to valuations, supply, and trading activity.
• Build and maintain external relationships with trading and syndicate desks.
• Partner with research analysts to incorporate fundamentals into decisions.
• Stay current on housing market trends, rate dynamics, and policy developments.
• Prepare and communicate investment views and portfolio updates to senior stakeholders.

Skills

RMBS research

Portfolio management

Financial modeling

Risk analysis

Communication

Team collaboration

Excel

Education

Bachelor’s degree

CFA or progress toward designation

Tools

Bloomberg

Intex

Excel

Job description

About Lord Abbett

Founded in 1929, Lord Abbett is an independent firm with a singular focus on the management of money. Over the course of our history, we’ve earned a sterling reputation for our leadership, influence, and innovation in the asset management industry. Today, our independent perspective, our commitment to active management, and our intelligent product design continue to make us relevant to individual and institutional investors.

The Role

Founded in 1929, Lord Abbett is an independent firm with a singular focus on the management of money. Over the course of our history, we’ve earned a sterling reputation for our leadership, influence, and innovation in the asset management industry. Today, our independent perspective, our commitment to active management, and our intelligent product design continue to make us relevant to individual and institutional investors.

From the very beginning, we’ve recognized that our people are our greatest asset. As an investment-led, investor-focused firm, we value intellectual curiosity, teamwork, and collaboration across the organization.

We’re looking for people with a keen interest in working for a trusted leader in the asset management industry, a desire to expand their knowledge, and a passion for delivering a client experience that exceeds expectations.

Now that you know our history, are you ready to be part of our future?

Job Overview

We are seeking an Associate Portfolio Manager to support the management of portfolios with a focus on non-agency Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities. This individual will work closely with senior portfolio managers and research analysts to help drive and implement investment decisions across a full range of RMBS subsectors on behalf of a range of fixed income mandates at Lord Abbett.

This role is suited for an experienced investor who combines strong analytical capabilities with a growing track record of RMBS portfolio construction, credit risk management, interest rate and convexity management, and security selection alpha. The position offers principal risk‑taking responsibility in portfolio construction, risk management, and idea generation within a collaborative, team‑oriented environment.

We’ll Trust You To

• Generate recommendations and implement RMBS trades, leveraging research and risk management resources for decision‑making across a heterogenous set of mandates
• Collaborate with other portfolio managers, research analysts, and traders to screen and prioritize RMBS with the best risk‑adjusted returns
• Monitor portfolio positioning and achieve or maintain desired risk objectives and targets across a range of parameters
• Perform portfolio simulations and projections including excess and total return forecasts
• Opine on relative value within RMBS and maintain documentation supporting investment decisions
• Communicate trade color and commentary to the broader team and department
• Manage trade lifecycles including security setup process, compliance checks, and post trade quality checks for analytical integrity
• Update relevant market data pertaining to valuations, supply, trading activity
• Build and maintain external relationships with trading, banking, and syndicate desks to ensure our team retains top‑of‑funnel access to opportunities
• Partner with research analysts to incorporate fundamental insights into portfolio decisions
• Stay current on housing market trends, interest rate dynamics, and policy developments impacting residential real estate
• Prepare and communicate investment views and portfolio updates to senior stakeholders

You’ll Need To Have

• 5–10 years of relevant experience in RMBS research, trading, portfolio management, or portfolio construction
• Strong understanding of a wide range of security types within the RMBS landscape
• Exceptional analytical and quantitative skills, with experience in financial modeling and risk analysis, inclusive of duration, convexity, and credit
• Flexibility to think deeply about individual security risk as well as broadly, across securities within a portfolio, and across suites of portfolios
• Familiarity with key drivers of mortgage markets, including prepayments, credit performance, and interest rate sensitivity
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to investment decisions and portfolio outcomes
• Effective communication skills, with the ability to articulate investment views clearly and succinctly
• Detail‑oriented with strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities
• Collaborative mindset with a proactive approach to problem‑solving and idea generation
• Bachelor’s degree required; CFA or progress toward the designation preferred
• Proficiency in Excel and familiarity with market analytics tools such as Bloomberg, Intex, or similar platforms preferred

Why Lord Abbett?

Lord Abbett is a leading global independent, privately held investment management company. We are active managers and invest where we believe we have a repeatable edge and can deliver alpha for our clients. Our vision is to be the most respected asset manager in the world, admired for our people, our performance, our relationships, and our organizational agility. This inspires the three pillars of our culture.

• Principles‑Based - We empower our leaders to create an environment of trust.
• Performance‑Oriented - We inspire our people to embody our values, excellence, responsibility, transparency & collaboration.
• Purpose‑Driven - We instill a passion for always putting our clients' interests first.

We were honored to be ranked #1 in Barron’s Best Fund Families for 2024 and to have earned recognition as one of the Best Places to Work in Money Management by Pensions & Investments for five consecutive years.

Compensation Information

Annual base salary for this role is $175,000 - $225,000. Salary is estimated for this role. Actual pay may be different.

Discretionary Bonus

Role may be eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus. Discretionary bonuses are determined by several factors including, but not limited to, firm, team, and individual performance.

Benefits

Lord Abbett is committed to offering a competitive total rewards package to all eligible employees. Offerings include competitive total compensation, retirement plans, competitive health and well‑being plans. To learn more about what we offer, please visit Careers | Lord Abbett

Lord Abbett is an equal employment opportunity employer.

We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals without regard to the following legally protected characteristics: race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, sexual identity, caregiver status, military/veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal law. All employment decisions at Lord Abbett are based solely on the applicant’s relevant experience, skills and qualifications.

Important notice to Search Firms - Please Read Carefully

Without prior written agreement, Lord Abbett does not accept unsolicited submissions from employment agencies, search firms, placement services, or any similar provider (“Search Firms”) for employment opportunities. All candidates submitted by Search Firms to any employee or partner at our company without a written Search Firm agreement in place will be deemed the sole property of our company. In such circumstances, no fee, commission, or other compensation will be paid to such Search Firm in the event a candidate is hired by our company. To the extent a Search Firm has a written agreement in place, all introductions are position specific and should be directed to HR or the hiring manager, so we kindly request no unsolicited phone calls or emails.