Stewardship Associate

Job title – Stewardship Associate

Location – Pittsburgh, USA

About Federated Hermes;

Federated Hermes, Inc. is a global leader in active, responsible investment management, with $907.1B AUM in assets under management, as of March,31st, 2026. We deliver investment solutions that help investors target a broad range of outcomes and provide equity, fixed income, alternative/private markets, multi asset, and liquidity management strategies to more than 11,000 institutions and intermediaries worldwide.

Our clients include corporations, government entities, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, banks, and broker/dealers. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Federated Hermes has more than 2,000 employees in London, New York and offices worldwide. For more information, visit FederatedHermes.com

Main Function of the role:

The holder of this job is responsible for supporting the development and delivery of the engagement strategy for allocated components of EOS’ corporate and public policy & market best practice Engagement Plan, focused on North America as well as globally across a number of sectors and ESG-related themes.

This position will also support the development of allocated regional proxy voting policies/execution and provide oversight of voting in line with policy at prioritised or escalated companies. The job holder will at times represent the team internally or externally, including advocating for the team’s position on areas of expertise and supporting existing client relationships and business.

Key task and responsibilities:

Deliver a pre-agreed set of objectives across engagement, voting, integration, theme and market best practice, clients and team and personal development.

I. Engagement: support senior engagers to engage with their allocated companies , consistent with the EOS Engagement Plan and, as requested, deliver own allocated engagement on company and public policy & market best practice objectives under the supervision of senior colleagues

a. Support development of engagement strategies of senior engagers and develop engagement strategies for own allocations under senior supervision, through detailed company research and consultation with investment colleagues, development of an engagement strategy and objectives on material issues– in line with agreed KPIs.

b. Lead and support corporate engagement through development of a regular dialogue and meetings at Board and Executive Committee level and with senior managers at allocated companies on all relevant corporate governance, longterm strategy and environmental and social risks, in line with agreed KPIs.

c. Produce timely, high-quality summaries of engagements for clients, together with summary case studies for completed engagement objectives, to be presented in published form and orally.

d. Support the drafting of responses to public policy consultations and related engagement with policy makers e. Develop allocated market, sector and/ or theme stewardship strategies including identifying market leading opportunities for impact. Support the whole team in achieving tangible change in a targeted combination of priority markets, themes and sectors.

f. Support integration of stewardship work into the Federated Hermes investment process and wider products and services provided to clients.

II. Voting & ESG data products: Deliver voting recommendations and content for other ESG-related client products

a. Make voting recommendations to clients on time and in line with relevant agreed voting policies, including advising clients on high profile voting decisions via alerts and recording all recommendations and their rationale

b. Demonstrate application of relevant policies to know when to escalate uncertain or controversial issues to more senior team members.

c. Develop and maintain EOS’ voting policy for allocated countries/issues

d. Undertake appropriate research on allocated companies for ESG-related client products such as the Controversial Company Report (CCR).

IV. Clients and business development: Support the leadership and client team in the development of strong client relationships by attending at client events and responding to ad-hoc client queries and requests on stewardship activity.

V. Leadership, learning and development:

a. Contribute to the development and delivery of the wider Engagement Plan and Engagement Programme, including selection of focus companies for engagement.

b. Help support improvements to EOS’ engagement processes through participation in ad hoc projects or ideas generation or constructive feedback on new proposed approaches.

c. Proactively seek continuous personal development through an appropriate mix of on-the-job learning, internal courses and external courses, subject to agreement with line management and budget availability.

Regulatory Responsibilities: Adhere to the FCA’s Conduct Rules, understanding that they set basic standards of good personal conduct.

III. Advocacy: Develop and maintain a positive external profile by representing EOS at relevant committees and working groups, including occasionally speaking at public events as agreed with his/ her manager.

Experience Required:

• The successful applicant will be motivated, proactive and passionate about

environmental, social and governance issues and achieving positive change.

• Beneficial, but not essential, to have knowledge and work experience in a

complementary field(s) such as strategy, sustainability, governance, investor

relations, finance, accountancy, internal audit, risk management or investment/

business consultancy, equity or debt research or legal advisory services. This may

be in a corporation, government, academia, NGO or other. Exceptional new

graduates entering the workplace full time for the first time will also be considered.

• Experience of living and/ or working within North American or Global Emerging

Markets regions and an understanding of the culture and business context an

advantage.

Languages

• Fluency (written and spoken) in English required.

• Additional language skills are an advantage.

Minimum experience required:

• A significant degree of initiative and self-management is required in this role. Time

management and personal discipline are vital, as is the ability to work to short

deadlines and under pressure.

• Knowledge and passion for major environmental, social and/or governance issues.

• Relevant academic qualifications or apprenticeships: Generally, applicants should

be educated to degree level (or equivalent), in a relevant discipline, e.g. Business

Studies, Finance, Accounting or Sustainability-related or have equivalent

apprenticeship experience.

Candidate Profile:

• Excellent influencing skills including demonstrable diplomacy and tenacity

• Solid understanding of how business works (governance; business models; financial)

• Self-motivated and able to use own initiative

• Organised with strong time management skills

• Excellent written and oral communication skills

• Strong analytical ability; highly numerate

• Computer literate (MS Office)- Professional skills e.g. budget management, report writing

• Technical skills e.g. keyboard skills, MS Office, specialised software

Diversity, Inclusion and Flexible Working

We believe in genuine opportunity, fairness, and respect for all applicants and aim to ensure that no current or prospective employee is subject to discrimination or treated less favourably on the basis of their disability, gender identity or expression, race, ethnicity, religion or belief, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, age, sex, or sexual orientation, or disability.

We understand that applicants may have different needs and expectations related to their working arrangements and are committed to a discussion on flexible working. Please raise these with your Recruitment contact to discuss what type of arrangements can work for you and the role for which you are applying.

We welcome applications from all eligible candidates, and we particularly encourage applications from qualified candidates who identify as women and/or are from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background, as these groups are underrepresented throughout the financial services sector.

We are a Disability Confident Employer and participate in the “Offer of Interview” scheme, intended to actively encourage applications from people with a disability or long-term condition and offer an interview to those who meet the minimum criteria set out within this job description. You will need to let us know if you would like to opt in to this scheme by contacting Jessica Sheehan at Jessica.sheehan@federatedhermes.com or 44 207 702 0888. You do not need to share details of your disability or long-term condition.

If you would benefit from alternative methods of applying or for workplace adjustments during the recruitment process, please also let us know by contacting Jessica Sheehan at Jessica.sheehan@federatedhermes.com or 44 207 702 0888 to discuss the support you need.