Associate Director (DC investment specialist)

We are looking for an insightful, adaptable and motivated DC investment consultant to join our Advisory Investment Services team within our London office. We are a very close, collaborative team in London, but you will also benefit from opportunities to work with colleagues across the UK.

We aim to empower institutional investors to achieve their specific objectives by delivering outstanding investment advice and solutions, based on a strong foundation of research, analysis, innovation and trust. As an Associate Director, you will be working with a number of client teams in the preparation and delivery of this advice. This will include leading on a number of clients, as well as supporting senior client leads in some cases. You will work primarily with a variety of UK Defined Contribution pension schemes covering a range of asset sizes (£100m to £2bn+), sectors and industries (including many household names).

The role is both analytical and client facing – you will be involved in overseeing the preparation of detailed modelling, strategy design and fund selection, which help us arrive at the proposed investment solutions and will also be discussing our ideas and persuading clients to take our advice. Building relationships internally and with clients and third parties is a key aspect of the role.

Experience of UK DC pension arrangements and investment markets will be expected for this role.

The role opportunity allows for flexibility in your working arrangements and we would be happy to discuss this with you further.

The Role

The Advisory Investment Services team represents an important part of the Global Investment business of Willis Towers Watson. We advise a large number of UK DC schemes within this team.

The core of our work involves:

• helping our clients determine their mission, beliefs and investment strategy;
• designing lifestyle glidepath strategies suitable for the client’s membership profile, taking account of expected risk tolerance and retirement behaviour;
• advising on fund selection and portfolio construction for lifestyle and self-select options;
• assisting our clients to measure and monitor investment performance, and to monitor expected member outcomes from the investment strategy.

Your role as Associate Director in the team will cover the follow elements.

Client / portfolio

• Oversee the preparation of analysis and client/internal reports covering governance, investment strategy (including default design for DC schemes), implementation (portfolio construction and manager selection) and monitoring
• Develop and build client relationships, including understanding their business environment
• Attend client meetings to deliver our advice, training and reporting of client performance
• Actively seek opportunities to grow client revenue, through delivery of additional services and developing new business

People

• Support a collaborative and inclusive working environment
• Build strong relationships across your working network and collaborate effectively across all WTW specialist teams (e.g. research, reporting, retirement) to deliver in an efficient and timely manner
• Build relationships with external entities (eg asset managers) in order to contribute to the development of client solutions
• Develop more junior colleagues, to either support you or provide services to other clients, through effective mentoring and coaching

Excellence

• Be an ambassador for ‘Excellence’ principles and risk management by ensuring high standards are applied and maintained across all work
• Engage in continuous professional development to enhance technical investment knowledge
  

The Requirements

• We would expect individuals at this level to have relevant industry experience. Knowledge and understanding of UK DC pensions and the latest investment trends and issues impacting DC schemes is expected
• Ability and desire to build relationships and adapt your communication skills to the needs of different clients and stakeholders
• Project management skills including the ability to work successfully in cross-discipline teams to ensure successful delivery of projects and to build strong networks.
• A relevant qualification, such as CFA or Actuarial is preferred

Equal Opportunity Employer