Investment Grade Corporate Bond Trader

Northwestern Mutual • Milwaukee, WI

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and manages almost $300 billion in insurance, annuity, and pension fund assets. Its Public Investments team manages approximately $135 billion in fixed income securities and derivatives for the company’s General Account and related entities.

The Public Investments team is seeking a Corporate Bond Trader for its Investment Grade (IG) Credit Trading desk. Working alongside Portfolio Management and Credit Research, the team oversees $75 billion in cash and investment grade credit investments across a variety of client portfolios. The trader will contribute to best execution, improve trading capabilities and speed to decision-making, and report to the Head of IG Credit Trading.

Requirements

• Solid understanding of fixed income markets and corporate bond trading, consistent with 5–10 years of experience.
• Passion for financial markets and a strong interest in trading.
• Bachelor’s degree.
• Experience with financial modeling and at least a basic understanding of how AI and other technical advances are reshaping institutional investing and trading.
• Familiarity with Bloomberg and electronic trading platforms such as MarketAxess and Tradeweb.
• Ability to work independently while promoting and contributing to a strong team dynamic.
• Attention to detail and excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to navigate complex situations involving multiple stakeholders.
• Strong ethics and integrity; trustworthy, reliable, creative, and motivated.

Nice To Haves

• Progress toward a Master’s degree and/or CFA.
• Proficiency in Python, SQL, or Copilot.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to investment dialogue and decision-making for corporate bond portfolios, and maintain a command of portfolio objectives and composition, including benchmark-relative weights across industries, issuers, capital structure, and tenor.
• Distill and proactively communicate market information to portfolio managers, research analysts, and other relevant internal groups.
• Execute investment-grade corporate bond trades, as well as equity and ETF trades as needed; build professional relationships with trading counterparties and the broker-dealer community.
• Synthesize information from trading platforms, dealer runs and axes, and pricing and liquidity analytics into a cohesive market view and actionable execution plan balancing price, size, timing, and market impact.
• Develop and refine decision-support frameworks and improve idea generation, trade analysis, and execution efficiencies.
• Seek opportunities to incorporate technology, AI, and financial markets product innovation into the trading process.
• Focus on risk-adjusted return and relative value while managing portfolios for total return against industry benchmarks.
• Take on new and evolving responsibilities as desk priorities shift and help support the team's success.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level