Municipal Research Analyst

Northern Trust Asset Management | Global Fixed Income

Municipal Research Analyst

Municipal Research Group

About Northern Trust Asset Management

We are a premier asset management firm, focusing on delivering unique insights and superior risk adjusted returns in partnership with our clients.

Who We Are

We measure success as achieving investors’ desired outcomes and delivering an exceptional client experience, rather than simply beating a benchmark. We work hard to provide clarity, to minimize complexity, to explain risk and to avoid unexpected surprises.

We are client focused

We have a clear mission: deliver superior investment performance and client service to our clients.

We are intellectually curious

We constantly search for “what we don’t know” – keeping an open mind to new ways of improving our investment process and interactions with our clients.

We are always seeking diversity of thought

We work as a team that values diversity and inclusion. That extends to diversity of thought and open communication.

We are collaborators

We foster a culture of collaboration in which we learn from and inspire one another. That collaboration extends to our clients where collaboration can lead to real problem solving.

We are innovators

We have intentionally organized our global fixed income professionals around core competencies as it relates to sources of risk. A focus on core competency, with investors close to the ground, keeps us connected to market innovations as we maintain a foundational view of risk. This model creates flexibility – and when combined with our technology model, it allows us to be innovative in partnership with our clients.

We are responsible investors

As stewards of capital, we believe we have a responsibility to our clients to have an active understanding of the risks posed by non-financial risks. Our teams have access to a proprietary data model which enables them to evaluate a wide variety of applicable metrics across environmental, social and governance factors. We believe this is part of a comprehensive fundamental research process as well as an integral part of the risk management process. It can also be a source of alpha.

Our Culture

In simple terms our culture can best be described as empowerment with accountability.

Our culture is based upon the power of the idea and not the source. It is disciplined and analytical, yet extremely challenging and collegial. We hold ourselves to a high standard of excellence and strive for complete transparency and open-dialogue in our interactions and decision making. Our investment process is the embodiment of our culture. Our assumptions need to be constantly “challenged with respect” and that only happens if we foster a meritocracy.

Our research and portfolio management teams are fully integrated. We believe the combination of these skill sets and perspectives directly benefits our clients. The portfolio managers' skill set includes market knowledge of the structural and fundamental drivers of asset classes, sectors, and individual corporations acquired through years of experience and research. Our fundamental researchers provide a deeper analysis and examine risk and return opportunities across the entire capital structure while also incorporating non-financial risks into their analysis. Our quantitative researchers provide a complementary skill set in the form of higher-level quantitative and programming skills that are applied to the development and improvement of both our security selection and overall investment processes.

The combination of these skills sets, combined with our macroeconomic research and scenario analysis, provides for a sophisticated, intuitive, and fundamental approach to making investment decisions. We have also built the proprietary systems and tools that allow our teams to adequately define and measure key risks – this forms the backbone of our investment process and is the “common language” we all speak. Importantly, it also allows risk management to be integrated into the investment process at every step. Put simply, we are all managers of risk.

Lastly, these teams come together with our portfolio construction team to ensure that risks are taken prudently and efficiently – emphasizing intended risks and more importantly, eliminating unintended risk from the portfolios we manage. We are then further supported by a robust infrastructure of traders, operations, client service, and dedicated risk management and systems professionals who provide the framework upon which our investment skills are supported.

About Your Role

The Municipal Credit Analyst role is open to all applicants who demonstrate a deep interest municipal credit and the investment process.

You will be a part of the Municipal Credit group and will be responsible, under the guidance of senior analysts, for tax and revenue-backed securities research across a broad spectrum of strategies, including high yield. You will be fully integrated into the investment process, supporting strategy related to assigned sectors and cultivating a portfolio of securities that meet investment goals. You will work closely with senior leadership, portfolio managers, and traders to inform decisions, manage portfolio risk, and produce consistent risk-adjust returns. You will also participate in the innovation and implementation of a growing product area within our global fixed income business.

You will drive the following responsibilities:

• Perform in-depth credit analysis on individual securities, incorporating portfolio goals and relative value into all investment recommendations
• Monitor credit and relative value changes for buy, sell and hold directives
• Integrate ESG assessments into fundamental research recommendations
• Support investment strategy with insight on economic, regulatory, and sector/state/climate specific risks or trends
• Contribute to thought leadership publications- highlighting views of the research team
• Actively collaborate, communicate, and share knowledge regularly with internal and external partners, including wealth and institutional clients
• Initiative improvements to the quality, reliability, and efficiency of the systems you utilize in your decision making
• Incorporate the methods and best practices used by the broader investment community to constantly learn and evolve our processes.