Investment Analyst

Pension Insurance Corporation, a specialist UK insurer, is recruiting an Investment Analyst to its Market Solutions team.

The Market Solutions team sits within the broader Investment department; the purpose of the role is to support the Portfolio Managers in the management of the derivatives (including interest rate, inflation, FX & cross currency basis), government bond and liquidity cash-like portion of PIC’s portfolio.

As an Investment Analyst, you will be responsible for supporting portfolio modelling and analysis on the in-force book, and supporting the development of the Markets Solutions core analytics library and tools.

You will need to effectively collaborate with Risk, Investments and Finance to secure their buy-in and implement improvements to systems, processes, and technology, apply knowledge and insights concerning Rates and Inflation derivatives trading and how this impacts our policyholders, and deliver strong business outcomes relating to capital, profitability, the Company brand, and market reputation whilst achieving positive outcomes to our shareholders on a consistent basis.

Key responsibilities entail:

• Distil information from various contacts in the markets to insights for the broader investment team.
• Assist portfolio managers in the management of the interest rate, inflation, FX and derivative portfolios on PIC’s balance sheet
• Work with the broader Markets Solutions team to ensure portfolios for new business and portfolio rebalancing trades are executable.
• Develop comprehensive chart packs that provide in-depth insights into the global economy, financial markets, and PIC’s investment portfolio, driving informed strategy discussions.
• Take ownership for your own learning and development in both technical (e.g. data analysis and critical judgment) and non-technical (self-insight and relationship management) skills within the Investments function.

Your specific responsibilities will include:

• Support the Markets Solutions team on the investment process across LDI portfolio management, generating value from PIC’s in-force investment portfolio or the investment process for insuring new liabilities and trade support.
• Effectively collaborates with Public Credit, ALM and Market Solutions colleagues.
• Takes ownership for their own learning and development in both technical (e.g. data analysis and critical judgement) and non-technical (self-insight and relationship management) skills of Markets Solutions
• Support on projects improving PIC’s Investment Platform Project
• Ability to work under pressure, strong attention to detail, commercial awareness in fixed income derivatives

Requirements

Knowledge and skills:

• Knowledge of the fixed income derivatives markets
• Knowledge of financial modelling applicable to a Fixed income portfolio
• Knowledge of investments in an insurance balance sheet or pension LDI strategies
• Strong organisational and communication skills
• Strong modelling skills (fixed income portfolio construction and optimisation, or ALM)
• Good working knowledge of MS Access, MS PowerPoint, MS Word, Bloomberg, and trading systems, and intermediate knowledge of Python or similar coding language as well as Excel and VBA

Experience:

• Proven experience of working in a bank, asset manager, consultant, or insurance company as a quantitative analyst within investments.
• Experience of delivering analysis that is accurate, well presented, and timely.
• Experience working with trading systems.
• Experience of producing presentations and reports presenting their analysis.
• Experience of fixed Income capital markets and derivatives product knowledge.

Desirable attributes:

• Intellectually curious with a willingness to learn through own research.
• Strong problem-solving skills utilising consultative questioning to challenge current norms and drive change within the business function.
• Effective communicator – structures insights into clear messages and effectively engages others within business function, as well as internal stakeholders, professional and regulatory bodies.
• Innovative thinker – positive attitude to change and a willingness to embrace new ideas and techniques to improve performance.

Benefits

In addition to a competitive base salary and the opportunity to participate in our annual, performance-related bonus plan, upon joining us here at Pension Insurance Corporation, you’ll get access to some great benefits, including private medical insurance, 28 days' annual leave (excluding bank holidays), a generous pension scheme and much more.