Research Analyst (Western Asset)

Franklin Templeton•New York, NY

8h•Hybrid

About The Position

Western Asset Management is a globally integrated fixed-income manager renowned for its expertise. As a Research Analyst, you will be a key member of the money market, municipal, and liquidity research teams. You will partner closely with portfolio managers, traders, risk, and operations to manage daily liquidity across fixed-income portfolios. This role is at the intersection of markets, cash forecasting, and portfolio construction, providing analytics, research, and decision support related to funding, cash balances, liquid instruments, and liquidity risk. You will help ensure portfolios meet liquidity guidelines, support trade execution readiness, and contribute to ongoing enhancements to our liquidity toolkit and processes. This role is based in our New York office with 4 days in office.

Requirements

Minimum 5 years of relevant experience within asset management, fixed-income research, trading, portfolio analytics, treasury/cash management, or liquidity/risk analytics.
Strong understanding of fixed-income markets and instruments, including rates, credit, funding markets, and the drivers of market liquidity.
Demonstrated analytical capability: comfort working with large datasets, developing repeatable analyses, and translating outputs into clear recommendations.
Proficiency with Bloomberg and Excel.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to convey technical concepts to portfolio managers, traders, and cross-functional partners.
High attention to detail with strong judgment and the ability to prioritize in a fast-paced, market-driven environment.
Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline.

Nice To Haves

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation highly desirable.
Experience with data/analytics tools such as Python, SQL, R, VBA, Power BI/Tableau, or similar is a plus.

Responsibilities

Monitor daily portfolio cash balances, settlement activity, inflows/outflows, margin and collateral needs; escalate emerging liquidity risks to the Liquidity Desk and portfolio teams.
Maintain and enhance cash forecasting and liquidity metrics across strategies, including scenario analysis, stress testing, and liquidity “days-to-cash” style measures.
Provide market and security-level research on liquid instruments used for cash management (e.g., T-bills, agencies, repos, money market instruments, short-duration credit), including relative value and carry/roll analytics.
Support portfolio managers and traders with pre-trade analytics, sizing recommendations, execution readiness, and post-trade reporting related to liquidity management transactions.
Track and interpret market liquidity indicators (bid/ask, depth, dealer balance sheets, funding spreads, repo levels, ETF/flow data) and communicate actionable insights to the desk.
Help ensure compliance with internal liquidity guidelines and client/mandate constraints; support periodic liquidity reporting for internal stakeholders and external clients as needed.
Partner with risk management to reconcile and validate liquidity risk analytics; investigate anomalies and improve data quality, methodology, and documentation.
Collaborate with technology, data, and operations teams to automate reporting, improve dashboards, and streamline workflows around liquidity monitoring and cash management.
Contribute to desk research projects on liquidity premia, market structure, and portfolio implementation, including analysis across sectors and regions.

Benefits

Competitive and valuable range of total rewards—monetary and non-monetary
Base compensation
Annual discretionary bonus
401(k) plan with a generous match
Recognition rewards
Comprehensive benefits package
Range of competitive healthcare options
Insurance
Disability benefits
Employee stock investment program
Learning resources
Career development programs
Reimbursement for certain education expenses
Paid time off (vacation / holidays / sick / leave / parental & caregiving leave / bereavement / volunteering / floating holidays)
Motivational wellbeing program