Associate, Back Office Operations

Bridgewater Associates•Westport, CT

19h•Hybrid

About The Position

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. 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. Operations Department Overview The goal of the Operations Department is to enable Bridgewater's ongoing investment engine and client requirements by proactively driving solutions through effective management of people, process, and partners in a principled way. About Your Role The Middle & Back Office Associate position in Operations is comprised of (1) monitoring and managing the deliverables and performance of outsourced providers, (2) operating internal processes and procedures and (3) improving and evolving both (e.g. participating in initiatives enabling support of new products, markets, and unique investor requirements, enhancing processes and controls, etc.). Our Associates are developed more as "generalists" who can understand the end-to-end processes of all aspects of Operations, as opposed to being specialists in just one particular product or process. We are seeking motivated, agile, and results-oriented people to be part of the team critical to enabling Bridgewater.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree with a strong academic record from a competitive school
2-7 years’ experience in financial services Operations and/or Investor Services e.g. investment banking, hedge fund administration, or an Operations-specific consulting firm
Proficient in relevant software applications, particularly Excel, SharePoint, and PowerPoint.
Data manipulation and coding skills are also valuable (e.g. pivot tables, macros, Power Query, VBA, SQL, "R", etc.)
A drive to incorporate AI into both day-to-day and long-term strategic workflows
Strong sense of personal responsibility, ownership mentality, reliability, results-orientation
Excellent ability to detect and troubleshoot problems, logical reasoning, and common sense
Process orientation (ability to both follow and streamline machines)
Strong communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to hold others accountable
Learning agility and flexibility to keep up with what can be an uncertain and/or changing environment

Responsibilities

On and off-boarding support and maintenance of investor accounts, fund launches, trading and settlement counterparties, as well as new markets & instruments
Trade life cycle and portfolio control support (e.g. trade confirmation, collateral, reconciliation, etc.)
Investor and Fund services (e.g. capital flows, various investor reporting, etc.)
Accounting books and records and associated reporting (e.g. NAV)
Tax, Audit & regulatory/compliance support for BW, its funds and clients
Driving industry leading back-office solutions and engaging in thought leadership and strategic partnerships with internal and external stakeholders to shape key outcomes (e.g., BW Front Office, vendors)
Reviewing outsourced partner deliverables for quality, accuracy and timeliness to ensure mission-critical Operations responsibilities are met including excellent escalating and troubleshooting of problems
Produce various internal and external reporting, including but not limited to client, regulatory, risk & control and management metrics
Act as a liaison between outsourced partner(s) and internal BW departments ( e.g. Trading/Front Office, Client Service) for queries and providing subject matter expertise on various projects and initiatives
Identify problems and inefficiencies with various processes and develop and implement solutions ( e.g. streamline redundant processes, automate controls & reports, etc )
Contribute towards training, testing, and certification of other Associates over time to ensure a high level of cross-training and fungibility