Senior Investment Analyst

Morningstar; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 118,000 - 172,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k match

Sabbatical program

Paid family leave

Hybrid work

Job summary

Morningstar Retirement is seeking a Senior Investment Analyst to join the Retirement Advice and Financial Planning team in Chicago. You will lead multi‑strategy portfolio construction for large institutional clients, analyze investment data, and partner with relationship managers, operations, developers, and global teams.

You will mentor junior analysts, present research results, and help evolve our retirement-focused asset allocation framework using Morningstar methodologies.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, or a related field.
• 2 years of experience in investment research and/or data, with preference for U.S. Retirement Plan Market experience.
• 2 years of experience analyzing funds using an institutional tool such as Morningstar Direct; applying modern portfolio theory techniques; familiarity with Morningstar methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Conduct asset allocation, portfolio construction, and investment vehicle analysis for retirement products.
• Construct and refine portfolios for large institutional clients as part of Retirement Advice and Managed Accounts.
• Manage client relationships and communicate progress to stakeholders; mentor junior analysts.
• Collaborate with technology, operations, data groups, clients and global teams.
• Lead testing projects to enhance methodologies and software; present final recommendations.

Skills

Asset allocation

Portfolio construction

Investment analysis

Data analysis

Mentoring

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in finance/economics or related field

Tools

Morningstar Direct

Job description

The Role

Morningstar Retirement is seeking a Senior Investment Analyst to join our Retirement Advice and Financial Planning team. This person will help construct, refine, implement, and oversee multi-strategy portfolios for large institutional clients. In this role, you will lead projects, support and partner with other team members, and be responsible for analyzing investment data to determine solutions for our clients. You will work closely with other members of the Retirement team including client relationship managers, operations/technology, developers, senior management, and other team members around the world. The position is based in our Chicago office but will require weekly calls with our global teams.

Responsibilities

• Conduct in-depth asset allocation analysis, portfolio construction analysis, and investment vehicle analysis on retirement products using key modern portfolio theory statistics and techniques.
• Construct and refine fund-specific portfolios for large institutional clients as part of Morningstar Retirement's Advice and Managed Account service offering.
• Manage plan sponsor and plan participant client relationships, communicate project goals and deliverables status updates externally, and act as key investment resource by clearly articulating complex financial concepts to individuals with varying experience levels.
• Identify and work with technology, operations, data groups and clients to resolve investment data issues.
• Lead and participate in testing projects to enhance investment methodologies, software functionality and processes within the server-based portfolio construction software.
• Mentor/train junior investment analysts through meetings, emails and weekly calls with global employees and delegate tasks as he or she sees fit to more junior team members.
• Perform secondary reviews of junior investment analyst fund portfolios, while refining any portfolios identified as suboptimal.
• Submit final recommendations on fund treatment, after incorporating input from junior investment analysts and conducting individual research.
• Act as subject matter expert applying reliable, well-researched decisions regarding fund treatment and fund allocations within portfolios.
• Conduct internal and client-facing presentations detailing the five-step portfolio construction process.
• Participate in research efforts on the retirement industry with a focus on advice and managed accounts products and services.
• Assess the theoretical and practical implications of our methodology as you strive to innovate and improve our products and services.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, or a related field.
• 2 years of experience working in investment research and/or data, with a preference if the candidate has hands on experience with the U.S. Retirement Plan Market.
• 2 years of experience in all the following:
• Analyzing funds using both returns-based and holdings-based style analysis using an institutional-level software tool such as Morningstar Direct.
• Applying financial techniques from modern portfolio theory, including statistical analysis, mean-variance optimization, efficient frontiers, alpha, tracking error, Sharpe ratio, and information ratio.
• Using Morningstar's core investment methodologies, such as the Morningstar Style Box, Star Ratings, Analyst Ratings, and the 5 Key Pillars.
• Analyzing open and closed-end mutual funds, variable annuities, separate accounts, collective investment trusts, money markets, stable value and guaranteed investment contracts.
• Working within a retirement-specific asset allocation framework that includes either glide-paths models, target-date and target-risk products, or a human capital/financial capital-focused investing approach.

Compensation and Benefits

• Financial Health 100% 401k match up to 6% of salary.
• Stock Ownership Potential Company provided life insurance - 1x salary + commission.
• Physical Health Comprehensive health benefits (medical/dental/vision) including potential premium discounts and company-provided HSA contributions (up to $500-$2,000 annually) for specific plans and coverages.
• Additional medical Wellness Incentives - up to $300-$600 annual.
• Company-provided long- and short-term disability insurance.
• Emotional Health Trust-Based Time Off.
• 6-week Paid Sabbatical Program.
• 6-Week Paid Family Caregiving Leave Competitive.
• 8-24 Week Paid Parental Leave.
• Adoption Assistance.
• Leadership Coaching & Formal Mentorship Opportunities.
• Annual Flex Stipend - $1000 annually to cover personal education & well-being expenses.
• Tuition Reimbursement.
• Social Health Charitable Matching Gifts program Dollars for Doers volunteer program Paid volunteering days 15+.
• Employee Resource & Affinity Groups.
• Total Cash Compensation Range $117,500.00-172,350.00 inclusive of annual base salary and target incentive.
• If you receive and accept an offer from us, we require that personal and any related investments be disclosed confidentiality to our Compliance team (days vary by region). These investments will be reviewed to ensure they meet Code of Ethics requirements. If any conflicts of interest are identified, then you will be required to liquidate those holdings immediately. In addition, dependent on your department and location of work certain employee accounts must be held with an approved broker (for example all, U.S. employee accounts). If this applies and your account(s) are not with an approved broker, you will be required to move your holdings to an approved broker.
• Morningstar's hybrid work environment gives you the opportunity to collaborate in‑person each week as we've found that we're at our best when we're purposely together on a regular basis. In most of our locations, our hybrid work model is four days in-office each week. A range of other benefits are also available to enhance flexibility as needs change. No matter where you are, you'll have tools and resources to engage meaningfully with your global colleagues.

Company Overview

• Morningstar Investment Management LLC is a global independent investment research and financial data company. Here, you'll help uncover what’s hidden, simplify what’s complex, and create insights that empower investor success.
• Morningstar is strongly committed to creating and preserving equal opportunity for all employees and applicants. We make all employment decisions—including recruitment, hiring, compensation, training, promotion, transfer, discipline, termination, and other personnel matters—without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation, genetic information, citizenship, gender identity and expression, parental status, or other legally protected characteristics or conduct.