Executive Director - Investment Strategist, Alternatives, Global Investment Office

Portfolio Construction And Cross-Asset Strategy

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services. The Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments and individuals from more than 1,200 offices in 43 countries.

Wealth Management's Global Investment Office produces macro-to-micro research and analysis to help Advisors build their practices and manage their clients' portfolios.

The Portfolio Construction and Cross-Asset Strategy (PC|XS) team within Morgan Stanley's Global Investment Office (GIO) contributes actively to the success of Morgan Stanley's Advisors and clients.

In support of the Global Investment Committee, the team develops and applies a disciplined, systematic approach to portfolio construction. Using evidence-driven frameworks and other quantitative methods to analyze opportunities and recommend tactical exposures, the team supports the Global Investment Committee (GIC) and Financial Advisors across the investment process : strategic, tactical and dynamic asset allocation; active-passive decisions; manager selection; and portfolio construction and risk management. The team has responsibility for introducing, updating, and strengthening multiple proprietary frameworks, whose conclusions guide the Global Investment Committee, our manager due-diligence teams, and Firm-discretionary investment processes. Moreover, using these frameworks, the team oversees a suite of ETF allocation portfolios and several blended ETF-mutual fund portfolios. The team assists Advisors with their discretionary portfolio construction, seeking to recommend high-quality portfolio lineups and deliver scalable customization. Recently, the team has launched a framework and tool to address taxable clients' concentrated equity positions.

The team also authors or supports multiple cross-asset strategy publications, including the "GIC Weekly," "Topics in Portfolio Construction," "Global Insights," "Fixed Income Insights," "Daily Positioning," and the ChartBook. These publications seek to analyze and simplify investment ideas and market movements and portfolio strategy guidance for Financial Advisors and clients. Advisors frequently turn to the team for strategy guidance and for support with client questions or client meetings.

The team's lead seeks a partner with sound judgment, a passion for collaboration and excellence, and a spirit of innovation and ownership, with the goal of deepening and strengthening our investment strategy and delivery. This role will provide broad opportunities to contribute to Morgan Stanley's investment strategy guidance, principally through serving as a lead author on the soon-to-be-launched "Alternatives Insights" and secondarily contributing to the team's portfolio construction consulting and quantitative frameworks. The candidate will have responsibility for articulating the Firm's global macro and portfolio positioning views, focusing on the implications for alternative investments. The candidate will contribute heavily to the team's research initiatives, including developing new frameworks and strengthening and maintaining existing ones. Portfolio management experience, particularly in multi-asset or alternative investment strategies, and experience with derivatives, commodities, and currencies would be highly welcome.

Demonstrated experience in multi-asset and alternative investments strategy, including specific knowledge of sub-strategies within hedged strategies and private investments

Strong attention to detail and analytical skills

Effective written and verbal communication skills

Entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm for a culture of ownership

Desire to thrive in a collaborative environment, leveraging strong interpersonal skills

Solid organizational skills and ability to work across multiple functions

Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills with strong business judgment

Intellectually curious

Experience in publishing investment research and strategy guidance for broad audiences

Experience with market data research and risk management systems (e.g., Aladdin, Barra, Bloomberg, FactSet, and Morningstar)

Intermediate technical skills, including advanced Excel modeling and PowerPoint skills and potentially quantitative programming languages (Matlab, SAS, SQL, Dataiku, or Python)

Bachelor's degree, preferably including quantitative coursework

Eight-plus years of experience as an investment strategist or portfolio manager

Grounding in alternative investment strategies from hedge funds to venture capital, private equity, private credit, private real estate and infrastructure.

Buy-side or sell-side experience a plus

Series 7 and 66 preferred, with expectation to obtain within three months of start date