RIA Salesperson - Upper MidWest Region

About AQR Capital Management

AQR is a global investment firm built at the intersection of financial theory and practical application. We strive to deliver concrete, long-term results by looking past market noise to identify and isolate the factors that matter most, and by developing ideas that stand up to rigorous testing. By putting theory into practice, we have become a leader in alternative strategies and an innovator in traditional portfolio management since 1998.

 At AQR, our employees share a common spirit of academic excellence, intellectual honesty and an unwavering commitment to seeking the truth. We’re determined to know what makes financial markets tick – and we’ll ask every question and challenge every assumption.  We recognize and respect the power of collaboration and believe transparency and openness to new ideas leads to innovation.

The Position

AQR is seeking a senior sales professional to focus on the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) market.  This person will be a key member of the senior team dedicated to RIA coverage on behalf of the firm.  Specifically, this person will join AQR to lead RIA coverage in the Upper Midwest / Great Lakes region of the U.S.  This is a highly territory for the firm in terms of overall coverage and the number of large prospects in the region.  The Executive Director will be responsible for selling AQR’s full range of investment products to this channel, with a particular focus on a highly innovative “tax aware” strategy that can provide meaningful benefit as a broad solution to these RIAs.   

While AQR offers a broader set of capabilities to RIAs that is highly relevant, the firm has more recently created an innovative “tax aware” investment strategy that is unique, as it allows RIAs to manage their investment portfolios in a smarter manner from a tax perspective.  The AQR Flex Separately Managed Account (Flex SMA) is a diversified equity portfolio that seeks to generate excess returns and tax benefits that are significant and longer-lived than traditional, long-only tax harvesting strategies.  These strategies employ long and short positions that allow the firm to unlock more opportunities to realize losses.  This compares to long-only strategies, which typically realize tax benefits during early years of investment or in falling equity markets.

The Flex SMA business has grown rapidly for the firm, now having over $6bn in AUM after launching in May 2023.  This Executive Director will be expected to continue to increase the level of adoption for the product in this territory.  As this is a new product to the market and unique in the way it can be used and implemented in RIA portfolios, we are looking for someone who has both a sophisticated and a highly consultative approach with their clients.  This is a unique ability to truly build a business for a firm that is already a known and respected quantity in the RIA community.  

In this role, the Executive Director will be able to work with RIAs to drive adoption of the Flex SMA product as well as continue to market AQR’s full suite of investment offerings to the market.  We are looking for a candidate who has deep RIA relationships in this market and a long track record of selling to these entities.  This experience with the buyer base should be the most important ingredient to being able to educate and drive adoption of AQR’s full product offering.  This person should have both the desire and ability to truly build a business.  He/she needs to enjoy working with a sophisticated product and also enjoy the value of consistently educating a diverse audience on the significant benefits that this product can bring to their portfolios and broader business. 

The Executive Director of RIA Sales will have a large territory across the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region.  This territory is rife with large RIAs, as well as a group of very large/strategic accounts.  This hire must combine the sales tenacity that is necessary in this market with a high degree of intelligence and investment sophistication, and a real desire to both educate and build over time.  We are also looking for a candidate who embodies the core attributes of AQR:  highly collaborative, team oriented, self-driven and self-accountable, and consistently driving the make both himself/herself and the entire team and firm better. 

Professional Experience / Qualifications

Qualifications for this role will include but will not be limited to the following:

• At least 10-15 years of experience in sales, most of which will ideally be in the larger end of the RIA/broader private wealth market.
• Significant experience selling to the RIA market in particular, and with that, a deep understanding of these RIAs and the way in which they operate.
• While experience across traditional and alternative experience is expe