City : Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Category : Full time

Industry : Public Services/Utilities

Employer : Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP)

Why you’ll love working here:

• high-performance, people-focused culture

• our commitment that equity, diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our work environment and business success, which helps employees feel valued and empowered to be their authentic selves

• learning and development initiatives, including workshops, Speaker Series events and access to LinkedIn Learning, that support employees’ career growth

• optional membership in HOOPP’s world class defined benefit pension plan, which can serve as an important part of your retirement security

• virtual fitness, yoga and meditation classes, nutritional consultations and wellness seminars

• flexible hybrid work model that embraces remote work

• the opportunity to make a difference and help take care of those who care for us, by providing a financially secure retirement for Ontario healthcare workers

Application deadline: October 1, 2023

Application requirements: resume and transcript

Job Summary

About the Team

Created in 2020, the Total Portfolio Group (TPG) is tasked with stewarding the composition of the Fund’s overall investment portfolio to ensure that HOOPP can deliver on its pension promise over the long term. TPG acts as the brain trust of the Chief Investment Officer on all issues related to the total fund and is a central part of the Front Office in the Investment Management Division. TPG has several core functions: Macro-economic commentaries and how they impact the total portfolio, Portfolio construction and asset allocation, portfolio analytics, and total portfolio management including liquidity and currency management policies.

TPG advises the CIO and CEO on matters of strategic importance to the total Fund including recommendations on how to best orient the Policy portfolio. TPG provides additional research and analytical capabilities for internal cross-departmental initiatives relating to Value-Added platforms, risk management, investment technology, policies and procedures, benchmarks, and performance. The team accomplishes this by leading research initiatives as well as developing and implementing solutions collaboratively across the firm.

TPG is led by the Senior Managing Director, Total Portfolio, who has many years of experience in portfolio construction, asset allocation and risk modelling. He publishes multiple articles in leading international peer-reviewed journal articles in Finance and Engineering including leading-edge portfolio allocation research. The TPG management team includes a Managing Director, Total Portfolio, who is a seasoned investor and has a wide array of knowledge from portfolio strategy and asset allocation. The TPG management team also include access to a full-time Professor of Finance located in Toronto. He oversees TPG’s research projects and ensures they are backed by rigorous research and analysis. He not only has strong academic background but brings extensive industry experience from large pension funds and financial institutions.

About the Role

The candidate will be working with a high-caliber team with backgrounds in Investments, Finance, Statistics, Quantitative Analysis and Data Science. The candidate will participate in regular meetings within TPG and with the Senior Managing Director, TPG as well as the Chief Investment Officer at HOOPP. This role is ideal for students who would like to gain relevant fundamental knowledge in top-down strategic asset allocation, investment analytics, and cross-asset risk management and would like to build a career in the asset management and investing businesses. The candidate will be able to gain knowledge from experts on a regular basis while working in a small, collaborative team which operates in a flat organizational structure. The candidate will have rare access to a Professor of Finance on-site, ideal for students who wish to proceed in a higher education in Finance, or are passionate about continuous learning.

This role will assist in the design, development, and automation of existing and new portfolio management & risk analytics and reports suited to both top-down portfolio construction decision-making as well as securities-level bottom-up investing by public & private investment teams (e.g., Public Equities, Fixed Income, Credit, Real Estate, etc.). This is done by leveraging the Blackrock Aladdin system that HOOPP has recently brought online and other internally-built tools. This role will also aim to support TPG as well as other investment departments in other fund wide projects of strategic importance to HOOPP. The successful candidate’s contributions will be visible to the senior management team and the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of HOOPP. The ideal candidate will be skilled in computer science / software engineering and potentially data science, and have a keen interest for financial markets and a strong desire to develop a career in Finance. This is an excellent opportunity to interact and learn from experienced investment professionals and contribute to real-world investment decision making.

What you will do:

• Assist in designing and building reporting tools related to various risk exposures, including the design of specific reports for front office use

• Help running daily front office reports and be able to independently troubleshoot issues

• Assist in streamlining existing investment system processes, as required

• Take on and automate daily reconciliation and error checking process for key reports on P&L (profit and loss), risk, and liquidity

• Develop analysis and what-if tools to be used in total fund decision making, including various impacts of asset mix shifts

• Support the Total Portfolio Group with portfolio analysis and financial modeling around private and public asset classes as well as emerging portfolio problems, as required

• Collaborate with HOOPP’s technology team on internal technology initiatives

• Assist in the preparation of oral and written materials for the Total Portfolio Group

• Perform ad-hoc research on markets and/or model methodologies, as required

• Participate in ad-hoc total fund projects, as required

What you bring:

• Enrolled in a university program in Mathematics, Science, Engineering, Finance, or other quantitative discipline.

• Proficiency in architecting and designing scalable software in Python.

• Experience in software development using OOP language is desirable, but not required.

• Strong Excel skills, especially working with large datasets and data manipulation.

• Strong numeracy is critical.

• Excellent work ethic, time management, organizational skills and the ability to meet tight deadlines.

• Strong ability to deliver effective, sensible analyses in an environment of informational uncertainty.

• Exceptional attention to detail with highly developed interpersonal and communication skills.

• Progress towards CFA designation is an asset.

• Passion and curiosity for financial markets and investing, intellectual curiosity, and willingness and ability to learn new concepts.