Senior Fixed Income Trader

Making a DifferenceThe State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), founded in 1951, is a premier global investment organization responsible for managing the more than $156 billion of assets of the fully funded Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS), the State Investment Fund and other state funds. Through SWIB’s effective and innovative investment management, WRS remains one of the only fully funded US public pensions. We are the 9th largest public pension fund in the U.S. and the 25th largest public or private pension fund in the world. SWIB is recognized by the investment industry for our teamwork and innovation. SWIB pursues sophisticated global investment strategies across the asset and risk allocation spectrum. Providers across the investment ecosystem seek to partner with SWIB.Serving more than 691,000 beneficiaries of the WRS, SWIB is a mission-driven organization focused on providing a strong financial future to those who committed their careers to public service. For public employees and the 1,500 Wisconsin employers who contribute on their behalf, we are a trusted partner. Our team innovates continuously to meet the challenges of an evolving investment landscape while growing and protecting the assets of the WRS.SWIB provides a strong, steady economic pillar for the state of Wisconsin by growing the trust funds under its management, managing risk, and optimizing costs of the long term. We are a mission-driven organization and the participants we serve are our mission. By bringing a disciplined, prudent, and innovative approach to market opportunities, SWIB has been successful in generating required returns and maintaining the trust of the beneficiaries and stakeholders of the funds we oversee.Home To Top TalentOur high-performing staff is key to what makes us a premier investment manager. SWIB is committed to investing in talented professionals to implement our robust, sophisticated investment strategies and to keep the organization at the forefront of the investment industry. We encourage innovation and offer professional development opportunities to help staff sharpen and expand their skills. Approximately 61 percent of SWIB’s investment professionals are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholders.

Job Description:

About the Team

The Fixed Income Strategies group manages portfolios across credit, rates, and structured products, employing both long-only and long/short strategies. Individual teams within the group collaborate to share insights, ideas and work together to achieve value-added performance.

Position Overview

We seek a leveraged loan trader to work with the lead portfolio manager and as part of the greater fixed income team to trade and manage a dedicated leveraged loan portfolio with AUM of approximately $3 billion. High yield bond experience is a definitive plus (would serve as a back-up trader on this approximate $6 billion AUM bond portfolio). Leveraged loan product trading experience is a must.

Essential activities:

• Serve as primary Street-facing contact for Leveraged Loan sector.  Maintain and enhance counterparty relationships to source improved liquidity and execution.
• Complete leveraged finance trades as directed by SWIB’s leveraged finance team across multiple sectors and portfolio strategies within the context of liquidity at best execution levels.
• Effectively disseminate information daily on sub-sectors, provide updates on changing market conditions to all team members.
• Provide immediate guidance on deal timing/details, trading strategies and security selection to the team.
• Perform ongoing surveillance of the loan portfolio and its holdings.
• Help ensure portfolio characteristics adhere to strategy and portfolio guidelines and achievement of desired exposures.
• Lead and/or participate in efforts to integrate new methods and technologies to further best execution.
• Prepare presentations to review investment strategy, objectives, and performance.
• Identify and effectively communicate relative-value trade ideas within specific issuer names and sectors.
• Evaluate offerings and pitch trade ideas to the portfolio management team based on mandate suitability.

The ideal candidate:

• Prefer 5+ years fixed income experience as a leveraged loan trader.
• History of maintaining and enhancing counterparty relationships.
• Broad understanding of fixed income asset classes.
• Trading experience in Leveraged Loans, High Yield bonds, CDS and CLOs.
• Demonstrated ability to seek out best execution, interpret market data and relay market color to team members as needed.
• Familiar with fixed income systems such as Bloomberg, Aladdin, MarketAxess, Trumid, TradeWeb, Charles River (CRD), and/or Intex.
• Knowledge and deep understanding of trade life-cycle.
• Strong communicatio