Investment Grade Corporate Bond Trader

Northwestern Mutual • Milwaukee, WI

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, manages nearly $300 billion in insurance, annuity, and pension fund assets. The Public Investments team manages approximately $135 billion in fixed income securities and derivatives for the company’s General Account and related entities. The Investment Grade Credit Trading team works with Portfolio Management and Credit Research to oversee $75 billion in cash and investment grade credit investments across client portfolios.

The Corporate Bond Trader will contribute to investment dialogue and decision-making, pursue best execution, and help improve the team’s capabilities and speed of decision-making. The position reports 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.
• High ethical standards 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, maintaining a command of portfolio objectives, composition, and benchmark-relative weights across industries, issuers, capital structure, and tenor.
• Distill and proactively convey market information to portfolio managers, research analysts, and other relevant internal stakeholders.
• Execute investment-grade corporate bond trades, as well as equity and ETF trades as needed, and cultivate 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 plans that balance 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 team’s processes.
• Focus on risk-adjusted return and relative value while managing portfolios for total return against industry benchmarks.
• Take on new and evolving responsibilities as priorities shift, supporting the success of the desk.

What This Job Offers

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