Manager, Alpha Analytics and Portfolio Risk

MacArthur Foundation • Chicago, IL

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Investments team manages the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s $9.6 billion investment portfolio. The portfolio is managed within a globally diversified, multi-asset class framework with the objective of earning a 5% real return annually. It serves as the source of funds for the Foundation’s grant making and other organizational expenses. The Manager, Portfolio Risk and Alpha Strategies, has primary responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the Foundation’s portfolio risk analytics, manager return and factor decomposition and portable alpha program. The Manager reports to the Deputy Chief Investment Officer. The Manager partners closely with the Deputy CIO on portfolio construction, risk-aware decision-making and the implementation of derivative-based exposures. The Manager also serves as a senior technical leader for the team’s data, analytics and AI-enabled workflows. The Manager is expected to operate as a senior practitioner from day one. Over time, the Manager will grow into a broader portfolio leadership role that contributes to asset allocation, manager underwriting and Investment Committee dialogue.

Requirements

• Undergraduate degree in a quantitative field such as mathematics, statistics, engineering, economics, finance, or computer science; graduate degree a plus.
• CFA charterholder strongly preferred.
• 7 to 10 years of investment management experience, including direct experience managing or being deeply embedded in an institutional multi-asset portfolio (endowment, foundation, outsourced CIO, sovereign wealth, pension or large multi-family office).
• Experience operating within an institutional risk management framework, including risk budgeting, value-at-risk, factor and currency exposures, scenario analysis and stress testing.
• Hands-on experience decomposing manager returns, including factor exposure analysis, performance attribution and alpha-beta separation.
• Ability to translate analytical results into clear conclusions for senior portfolio managers.
• Working knowledge of equity and fixed income derivatives, including pricing, margining and the operational mechanics of overlay and portable alpha programs.
• Ability to design and maintain production data and analytics infrastructure for an investment office, including data architecture, ETL pipelines and reporting layers.
• Practical experience integrating external systems via APIs across market data, accounting, custody, risk and manager data providers.
• Advanced Excel and proficiency in Python required.
• Working knowledge of AI and large language models in an institutional investment context.
• Ability to evaluate AI use cases on their merits, distinguishing applications that add durable value from those that introduce model, data or governance risk disproportionate to the benefit.
• Interest and capability in helping to author the operating frameworks that govern the team's use of data and AI tools, including standards for data quality, documentation, human review and the boundary between automated workflows and analyst or PM judgment.
• Experience managing and developing analysts in an investment context, with the ability to lead and grow a small team of one or two direct reports.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present complex investment concepts to senior stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

• Experience underwriting and overseeing external managers preferred.

Responsibilities

• Run the day-to-day operation of the Foundation’s portable alpha program under the strategic oversight of the Deputy CIO. Responsibilities include interaction with the overlay manager, execution of derivatives trades to manage market exposure and ongoing oversight of the program’s performance and operations.
• Operate the Foundation’s portfolio risk management framework on a day-to-day basis, including monitoring of total market risk, downside exposure, factor exposures, currency exposures and portfolio resilience, working in partnership with the Deputy CIO
• Lead the decomposition and analysis of external manager returns, including factor exposure analysis, performance attribution and alpha-beta separation
• Participate as a member of the Risk Committee
• Develop conclusions from those analyses for use by the senior portfolio managers, the Deputy CIO and CIO
• Manage the Foundation’s counterparty risk on an ongoing basis, including monitoring, limit setting and reporting
• Manage the Foundation’s portfolio of short-term cash enhancement instruments
• Participate in prospective manager presentations. Contribute to the underwriting of public equity and other marketable mandates as the role matures
• Contribute to the Foundation’s annual asset allocation process, including capital markets assumptions, scenario work and portfolio construction analysis
• Measure currency and factor exposure across the portfolio. Evaluate hedges for both public and private investments
• Partner with the Operations team on the design of the Investments team's data and analytics infrastructure, defining what the analytics need to show to support portfolio decisions and shaping the analytical content of reports, dashboards and configuration models
• Maintain sufficient technical fluency in data architecture, ETL pipelines, and API-based integrations across market data, accounting, custody, risk and manager data systems to engage Operations and external providers on design and implementation
• Implement the Investments team's AI agent roadmap as defined by the CIO, including integration with Dynamo and the analytics layer, deployment and evaluation of agentic workflows and the technical governance frameworks (data quality, audit logging, human-in-the-loop boundaries) that govern production and use. Partner with the Senior Analyst, Strategy and Operations on rollout and adoption across the team.
• Prepare materials for the Investment Committee in support of the Deputy CIO and CIO, including ad hoc analyses, portfolio updates and materials supporting strategic portfolio decisions
• Mentor junior staff and manage direct reports as the team grows
• May perform other duties as assigned

Benefits

• incentive bonus of up to 130% of the base salary
• generous total compensation package that emphasizes both base salary and a comprehensive benefits package to support your life, health, and well-being

What This Job Offers

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