Investment Associate / Senior Associate

ORGANIZATION SUMMARY

The YMCA Retirement Fund oversees a $11 billion investment portfolio that plays an integral role in supporting the YMCA, its mission, and all its life-changing programs. Founded in 1844, the YMCA is a leading non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening local communities by empowering individuals, improving the health and well-being of people of all ages, and inspiring action within and across communities. At over 2,600 locations throughout the U.S., the YMCA is one of the largest providers of child-care and child-development services in the country, in addition to delivering a broad range of educational, health, cultural, and social services.

The YMCA Retirement Fund was formed in 1922 with the sole purpose of attracting and retaining top talent to support the YMCA’s mission, rewarding YMCA employees’ dedicated service with lifetime income in retirement. Today, the Fund serves over 125,000 individuals nationwide, managing their retirement assets in a diversified, institutional investment portfolio. We regularly hear from YMCA employees expressing their gratitude for the Fund's role in enabling them to achieve financial stability.

BENEFITS

• Compensation: Commensurate with experience, the Fund offers a generous benefits package:
• Bonus: The annual bonus is an integral and substantial piece of the overall compensation package.
• Retirement: Generous, employer-funded retirement savings package.
• Time Off: Vacation, paid sick days, and holidays.
• Mission-Oriented: Ability to work for a mission-oriented organization with a real, meaningful, positive impact.
• Additional Perks: Free membership at a New York City-based YMCA.

Requirements

• Four to eight years of investment experience, particularly across public markets.
• Experience with direct and/or co-investing is a plus.
• Strong academic credentials, including a Bachelor’s degree in any field.
• Desire to pursue the CFA is a plus.

Experience with AI tools

Fluency in Microsoft Office including Excel, Word and PowerPoint

Bloomberg, MSCI Private I, and/or Power BI is a plus.

KEY TRAITS

• A strong passion for investing
• Exceptional organization skills and ability to “manage-up” given the high demands on the DCIO
• Personally enjoys the “non-investment” aspects of a sophisticated investment operation as much as the investment work, as you’ll be tasked with helping the DCIO and CIO on a number of special projects for the broader team, organization, and Board/IC
• Eager to learn and be a part of a fast paced, dynamic team.
• A motivated self-starter with intellectual curiosity, strong critical reasoning skills, and a record of success.
• Strong analytical and quantitative capabilities, and great attention to detail.
• Superior written and verbal communication skills.
• A great teammate with the desire and ability to work independently or collectively as needed to set goals, prioritize tasks, meet objectives, and manage multiple responsibilities simultaneously
• Flexibility and willingness to contribute to areas beyond the direct scope of responsibility.
• Ability to foster a positive work environment, characterized by open communication, collegiality, support, accountability, and motivation
• Mission-driven with the highest standards of ethics, integrity, and professional standards.

Summary

JOB SUMMARY

The Associate /Senior Associate position allows entrepreneurial, intellectually curious, and self-motivated individuals to work on a close-knit investment team to develop their investment and analytical skills by participating in the management of an $11 billion institutional investment fund. You will be an integral member of a collaborative investment team responsible for investing the retirement savings of over 125,000 participants by assisting in the execution of our long-term oriented, endowment-style investment strategy.

Responsibilities will be wide-ranging as this role is primarily to support the Deputy Chief Investment Officer (DCIO) in all of his responsibilities across Investments, Board/Investment Committee (IC) relations, and other leadership initiatives across the Retirement Fund. This creates an exciting opportunity in which each project will likely be different from the last, and providing the hire with exposures across investment and non-investment functions.

The candidate will be a member of our Marketables team, and so while investment-related projects will span the entire portfolio, investment work is primarily focused on evaluating opportunities across public markets (such as hedge funds, public equities, credit, fixed income). Responsibilities include performing quantitative and qualitative analysis, conducting market research, and analyzing and monitoring the overall portfolio and its investments.

Secondarily, the hire will support the DCIO, CIO, and other colleagues on private asset classes (such as venture capital, private equity, real estate, and natural resources spanning primary fund commitments, secondaries, continuation vehicles and co-investments). Part of working with the DCIO will also involve broader portfolio-wide projects collaborating with other team members across asset allocation, risk management, operations, and tactical opportunities.

You will also help with the team’s preparation of presentations to the Board/IC.

We are looking for a proactive self-starter who is eager to be involved in all aspects of an investment process, including but not limited to investment diligence. The candidate should enjoy investigating all asset classes, enjoy thinking in a total-portfolio context, and want to engage with stakeholders across the Retirement Fund. This position provides many unique and interesting learning opportunities through the management of our institutional investment fund that cannot likely be found in other asset class-specific or investments-only roles.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Participate in the identification, evaluation, and selection of investments and investment managers spanning
• Hedge Fund strategies, Equities, Credit & Fixed Income, and occasionally Private Markets across structures such as Primaries, Secondaries, Continuation Vehicles, and Co-Investments
• Contribute to investment decisions across all asset classes within the Fund’s diversified portfolio by participating in internal investment committee discussions.
• Conduct market research to evaluate market trends and investment opportunities.
• Engage with other industry participants to network, research, identify and source areas of opportunity.
• Work with investment team members across all aspects of the investment process, including managing the investments pipeline and identifying new areas and managers of interest.
• Assist with broader portfolio management efforts, such as portfolio construction and asset allocation efforts.
• Participate in routine team conversations regarding updates of existing investments.
• Produce periodic analytics, performance and exposure reports on the Fund’s various asset classes.
• Occasionally attend Annual Meetings, Limited Partner Advisory Committees, conferences and other industry events.
• Assist in preparation of materials for presentation to our Investment Committee with opportunities to interact with Board and Investment Committee members.
• Assist with other special projects and portfolio-wide initiatives as needed.
• Willingness to travel for work (~10-20% of overall work time).