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.

As a market leader, the talent and passion of our people is critical to our success. Together, we share a common set of values rooted in integrity, excellence and strong team ethic. Morgan Stanley can provide a superior foundation for building a professional career-a place for people to learn, to achieve and grow. A philosophy that balances personal lifestyles, perspectives and needs is an important part of our culture.

Department Overview

Wealth Management's Global Investment Office produces macro-to-micro research and analysis to help Advisors build their practices and manage their clients' portfolios.
• Provide direction on investment strategy and portfolio construction
• Publish market-related commentary, including fundamental and technical drivers, investment themes, actionable ideas, and white papers"
• Design and monitor asset allocation models and single-security model portfolios
• Perform investment manager due-diligence on traditional and alternative funds
• Provide research coverage on municipal fixed income, ETFs, and CEFs
• Partner with Advisors to understand investments and help them manage relationships with clients and close business with prospects
• Manage Field initiatives including road shows, conference calls, and summits

Job Description

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 Financial Advisors with their discretionary portfolio construction, seeking to recommend high-quality portfolio lineups and deliver scalable customization across multiple clients.

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 to follow and share with 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 Global Insights" and secondarily contributing the team's quantitative frameworks, managed portfolios, and publications. The candidate will have responsibility for articulating the Firm's global macro and portfolio positioning views, focusing on the implications for non-US regions and for non-resident clients. 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 global macro strategies, and experience with derivatives, commodities, and currencies would be highly welcome.
• Bachelor's degree, preferably including quantitative coursework
• Eight-plus years of experience as an investment strategist or portfolio manager
• Buy-side or sell-side experience a plus
• Series 7 and 66 preferred, with expectation to obtain within three months of start date
• Strong attention to detail and analytical skills
• Effective written and verbal communication skills
• Entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm for a culture of ownership
• Passion for gaining understanding of financial markets and their key drivers
• 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
• Able to work under pressure
• Intellectually curious
• Demonstrated experience in multi-asset strategy, including equities, fixed income, commodities, and FX
• 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 quantitative programming languages (Matlab, SAS, SQL, Dataiku, or Python)

Morgan Stanley's goal is to build and maintain a workforce that is diverse in experience and background but uniform in reflecting our standards of integrity and excellence. Consequently, our recruiting efforts reflect our desire to attract and retain the best and brightest from all talent pools. We want to be the first choice for prospective employees.

It is the policy of the Firm to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, sex stereotype, gender, gender identity or expression, transgender, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, marital and civil partnership/union status, pregnancy, veteran or military service status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversifying its workforce (M/F/Disability/Vet).

Expected base pay rates for the role will be between $150,000 - $235,000 per year at the commencement of employment. However, base pay if hired will be determined on an individualized basis and is only part of the total compensation package, which, depending on the position, may also include commission earnings, incentive compensation, discretionary bonuses, other short and long-term incentive packages, and other Morgan Stanley sponsored benefit programs.