Senior Finance Associate, Business Planning & Analysis

About Bridgewater 

Bridgewater Associates is a premier asset management firm, focused on delivering unique insight and partnership for the most sophisticated global institutional investors. Our investment process is driven by a tireless pursuit to understand how the world’s markets and economies work – using cutting edge technology to validate and execute on timeless and universal investment principles. 

Founded in 1975, we are a community of independent thinkers who share a commitment for excellence. By fostering a culture of openness, transparency, and inclusion, we strive to unlock the most complex questions in investment strategy, management, and corporate culture. 

Explore more information about Bridgewater on our website here. 

Our Culture 

Our culture is anchored in excellence, meaning constant improvement, and it is deeply tied to our mission. Because markets are objective, competitive, and getting smarter everyday, we need to keep rapidly improving to have any chance of beating them. Truth is our most essential tool for engaging with the markets and constantly improving because once you know what's true about your problems and opportunities, you can determine how to get better. Valuing truth means being transparent about your decision-making and mistakes, giving and receiving feedback with humility, and fighting for the best answers over hierarchy, ego, or self-interest. Operating this way is hard – it's only possible because we build meaning in our work and relationships. This meaning comes from the audacity of the mission, and the joy of working alongside people who make you a better version of yourself. The culture, like Bridgewater itself, is always evolving. In 1997 our founder Ray Dalio wrote down his lessons, starting with a Philosophy Statement which remains our foundation. This later evolved into a set of 300 Principles. In 2022, when Ray transitioned the company, we re-underwrote several of those principles and evolved others, with a specific focus on Meritocracy. Today the culture sits, alongside our people, as our most important edge. When we get it right, it’s the engine that powers everything else. 

About Your Role 

In this role, you will become a core finance partner to a major part of the business, helping leaders understand the financial implications of their decisions and shaping how the firm evaluates and executes opportunities. You will take on meaningful analytical responsibility from day one, work directly with senior stakeholders, and contribute to decisions that materially impact the business. This role offers a steep learning curve and accelerated development for someone motivated to build strong financial judgment, ownership, and influence early in their career. 

You will drive the following responsibilities:  

• Serve as the primary finance partner for a business unit, managing the end-to-end relationship between finance and a key area of the firm. 
• Continuously evolve how finance supports decision-making by improving clarity, rigor, and relevance for operators and leaders. 
• Play a central role in budgeting and planning, ensuring resources are aligned with business priorities and strategic objectives. 
• Support the full capital deployment lifecycle by helping shape business cases for new initiatives, evaluating trade-offs, and assessing strategic or operational shifts. 
• Maintain accountability for how capital is deployed through data-driven analysis, tracking, and ongoing dialogue with business partners to ensure spend aligns with intended outcomes. 
• Build clear, well-structured financial analyses and models that inform leadership decisions, proactively investigate key questions, and translate insights into actionable recommendations. 
• Create concise materials and narratives that communicate the “so what” behind the numbers, enabling senior stakeholders to make confident, informed decisions. 
• Act as a financial steward by bringing discipline, transparency, and rigor to how the firm allocates resources in support of long-term value creation. 

Minimum Qualifications  

• 2–4 years of analytical experience in roles such as FP&A, corporate finance, accounting, or business planning. 
• Demonstrated experience building financial models, scenario analyses, and structured recommendations to support business decision-making. 
• Strong ownership mindset with the ability to take initiative, solve problems creatively, and carry work from idea through execution. 
• High analytical horsepower with the ability to adapt quickly in a fast-paced, high-performance environment. 
• Exceptional communication skills, including the ability to partner with senior leaders, ask sharp questions, and build trust through clarity and sound reasoning. 
• Comfort challenging assumptions thoughtfully and bringing data-driven perspectives to discussions. 
• Interest in leveraging technology and staying current on AI and automation trends to improve efficiency and decision-making. 
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, ensuring timely, high-quality deliverables. 
• Bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting with a strong academic record. 

Physical Requirements  

This role will follow a hybrid schedule, with an onsite requirement alternating between our NYC and Westport campuses.   

Compensation

The expected annual base salary for this position is $160,000 - $200,000. The total compensation package includes variable compensation in the form of a discretionary target bonus. 

Why Choose Bridgewater? 

It takes all types to make Bridgewater great. We seek a diverse group of innovative thinkers and push them to engage in rigorous and thoughtful inquiry. We develop people through an honest examination of their abilities and performance, enabling personal growth and professional development. We strive to provide you opportunities that will challenge you and unlock your potential. 

One of our core priorities at Bridgewater is to enable our employees to build a great life and career, and we believe our benefits are an important extension of that philosophy. As such, currently Bridgewater offers a competitive suite of benefits. Explore more information about Bridgewater’s benefits on our website here.   

Bridgewater reserves the right to change its current benefits program at any time, in a manner that is consistent with applicable federal and state regulations. This job description is not a contract and confers no contractual rights, privileges, or benefits on any applicant or potential applicant. Bridgewater has the right to change any and all terms of this job description, including, but not limited to, job responsibilities, qualifications and benefits. Nothing in this job description constitutes an offer or guarantee of employment. Please note that we do not provide immigration sponsorship for this position. 

Bridgewater Associates, LP is an Equal Opportunity Employer