Investment Grade Corporate Bond Trader

Northwestern Mutual Group; Milwaukee (WI); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company is seeking a Corporate Bond Trader for its IG Credit Trading desk in Milwaukee. You will work with PMs and Credit Research to monitor $75B of IG credit and execute trades, balancing price, size, timing, and market impact.

You’ll distill market information, contribute to investment discussions, and develop risk-adjusted strategies while leveraging technology and AI to improve execution speed and decision quality. Hybrid work supported.

Qualifications

• Solid understanding of fixed income markets and corporate bond trading; 5–10 years experience.
• Passion for financial markets and trading.
• Bachelor’s degree; progress towards Master’s degree and CFA is a plus.
• Experience with financial modeling; basic understanding of AI in investing; Python/SQL competence.
• Familiarity with Bloomberg and electronic trading platforms (MarketAxess, Tradeweb).
• Independent worker who also contributes to a strong team.
• Attention to detail with excellent communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills for complex stakeholder situations.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to investment dialogue and decision-making for corporate bond portfolios.
• Convey market information to PMs and analysts; support execution decisions.
• Execute IG corporate trades; maintain relationships with brokers and counterparties.
• Synthesize data from trading platforms; translate analysis into actionable execution plans.
• Develop decision-support frameworks; incorporate tech and AI into processes.
• Maintain focus on risk-adjusted return and benchmark-relative performance.
• Adapt to evolving responsibilities to support desk success.

Skills

Fixed income

Trading

Communication

Team collaboration

Attention to detail

Ethics

Education

Bachelor’s degree

CFA candidate

Master’s degree in progress

Tools

Bloomberg

MarketAxess

Tradeweb

Python

SQL

Copilot

Job description

Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company, located in Milwaukee, WI, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Our firm manages almost $300 billion of insurance, annuity, and pension fund assets. Our goal is to achieve superior and sustainable long-term performance through a disciplined investment process and an experienced staff. At Northwestern Mutual, the Public Investments team manages approximately $135 billion in fixed income securities and derivatives for the company’s General Account and related entities.

About the Job:

Our Public Investment team seeks a Corporate Bond Trader for its Investment Grade (IG) Credit Trading desk. Alongside the Portfolio Management and Credit Research teams, the IG Credit Trading team helps oversee $75 billion of cash and investment grade credit investments across a variety of client portfolios. The successful candidate will bring experience, eagerness, and enthusiasm to the role, continually seeking new ways to measure and achieve best execution while helping improve our capabilities and speed to decision-making. He or she will report to the Head of IG Credit Trading.

What You'll Do:

• Contribute to the investment dialogue and investment decision-making processes governing corporate bond portfolios; develop and maintain command of portfolio objectives and composition including benchmark-relative weights across industries, issuers, capital structure, and tenor

• Distill and proactively convey market information to portfolio managers and research analysts, and to other internal constituencies as needed / relevant

• Execute IG Corporate bond trades, as well as equity and ETF trades as needed; cultivate strong professional relationships with trading counterparties and the broker-dealer community at large

• Synthesize data from multiple trading platforms, dealer runs and axes, and pricing and liquidity analytics to form a cohesive market view; translate that analysis into a clear, actionable execution plan that balances price, size, timing, and market impact

• Develop and refine decision-support frameworks; help advance efficiencies in idea generation, and trade analysis and execution; continually seek opportunities to incorporate technology / AI, and financial markets products innovation into our process

• A focus on risk-adjusted return and relative value is essential as portfolios are managed for total return against industry benchmarks

• Bring a growth mindset and a willingness to help wherever needed; take on new and evolving responsibilities across the desk as priorities shift, in support of positioning the team for success

What Experience You'll Bring:

• Solid understanding of fixed income markets and corporate bond trading, as would be consistent with 5-10yrs of experience

• Passion for financial markets, and a strong interest in trading

• Bachelor’s degree; progress towards a Master’s degree and/or CFA a plus

• Experience with financial modeling and, at a minimum, a basic understanding of how AI and other technical advances are reshaping institutional investing and trading ; proficiency in Python, SQL, Copilot a plus

• Familiarity with Bloomberg, and electronic trading platforms such as MarketAxess and Tradeweb

• Works well independently while promoting and contributing to a strong team dynamic

• Attentive to detail, with excellent oral and written communication skills

• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to navigate complex situations involving multiple stakeholders

• Unassailable ethics and integrity; trustworthy, reliable, creative, and motivated

#LI-Hybrid

Compensation Range:

We believe in fairness and transparency. It’s why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed.

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.

Skills

Investments Market Acumen (NM), Risk Evaluation (NM), Storytelling through Data (NM), Stakeholder Relationship (NM), Investment Management Systems (NM), Collaborative Partnership & Planning (NM), Attention to Detail (NM), Adaptive Communication (NM), Interpersonal & Organizational Effectiveness (NM), Industry Knowledge (NM), Trading Decision Making (NM), Financial Market Monitoring (NM), Trade Transaction Negotiation (NM)