Bridgewater Associates

Fund Accounting, Associate

Bridgewater Associates$110K — $175K *
Finance & Insurance
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree from a competitive school with a strong academic record
  • 2-8 years of accounting or operations experience in financial services, particularly in areas like NAV and valuation
  • Proficient in Excel, SharePoint, and PowerPoint; coding skills are a plus
  • Motivated to integrate AI into workflows
  • Possesses strong problem detection and troubleshooting abilities
  • Demonstrates excellent communication and interpersonal skills
  • Adaptable with a strong sense of personal responsibility

Responsibilities

  • Monitor and manage deliverables from outsource partners for quality and timeliness
  • Produce internal and external reporting, including client and regulatory metrics
  • Serve as a liaison between outsource partners and internal departments
  • Identify and solve inefficiencies within processes
  • Contribute to the training and certification of fellow Associates

Benefits

  • Work in a rapidly evolving firm with a strong focus on innovative back-office solutions
  • Engage in a unique 'tri-party model' that enhances responsibility and capability
  • Benefit from a culture that encourages generalist development over specialization
  • Participate in firm-wide change initiatives and thought leadership engagements
  • Opportunity for significant cross-training and career development
Full Job Description
Operations Department Overview:

The goal of the Operations Department is to enable Bridgewater's ongoing investment engine and client requirements by proactively driving solutions through effective management of people, process, and partners in a principled way.

Overall responsibilities include:
  • On & off-boarding support and maintenance of investor accounts, fund launches, trading and settlement counterparties, as well as new markets & instruments
  • Trade life cycle and portfolio control support (e.g. trade confirmation, collateral, reconciliation, etc.)
  • Investor and Fund services (e.g. capital flows, various investor reporting, etc.)
  • Accounting books and records and associated reporting (e.g. NAV);
  • Tax, Audit & regulatory/compliance support for BW, its funds and clients
  • Driving industry leading back-office solutions and engaging in thought leadership and strategic partnerships with internal and external stakeholders to shape key outcomes (e.g., BW Front Office, vendors)

Bridgewater has grown rapidly in recent years, transforming from an investment boutique to a leading global institutional asset manager. To manage this excellently, Bridgewater has placed explicit focus on evolving our world-class investment and support infrastructure inclusive of utilizing external partners for key processes. Since Back Office processes are mission-critical, the department has evolved the way in which it meets its goals and responsibilities. Bridgewater now operates a unique and innovative "tri-party model" that enables us to remain responsible for investment management and oversight of our back office, while also taking advantage of the independent processes and technology of two strategic partners who are industry leaders in this space. Key aspects of the Bridgewater's internal back office include quality control and relationship management with the service providers as well as enablement of firm-wide change initiatives.

About Your Role

The Fund Accounting Associate is responsible for ensuring mission critical accounting responsibilities are delivered excellently for Bridgewater and our clients. The role is comprised of (1) monitoring and managing the deliverables and performance of outsource providers, (2) operating internal processes and procedures and (3) improving and evolving both (e.g. participating in initiatives enabling support of new products, markets and unique investor requirements, enhancing processes and controls, etc.).

One of the key advantages of the role at Bridgewater as compared to a traditional accounting role is the Associates are developed more as "generalists" who can understand the end-to-end processes, as opposed to being specialists in a particular product or process.

We are seeking motivated, agile, and results-oriented people to be part of the team critical to enabling Bridgewater to implement new investment ideas rapidly and meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of our clients.

Responsibilities Include:
  • Reviewing outsource partner deliverables for quality, accuracy and timeliness and troubleshooting as necessary when problems arise. Outsourcer deliverables include security and portfolio valuations (e.g. GAV, & NAV), profit & loss reporting and performance returns, and account events (e.g. transfer-in-kind).
  • Producing various internal and external reporting, including but not limited to client, regulatory, risk & control and management metrics.
  • Acting as liaison between outsource partner(s) and internal BW departments (e.g. Trading/Account Mgmt., Client Service) for queries and providing subject matter expertise on various projects and initiatives.
  • Identifying problems and inefficiencies with various process and developing and implementing solutions (e.g. streamlining redundant processes, automating controls & reports, etc.)
  • Contributing towards training, testing, and certification of other Associates over time to ensure a high level of cross-training and fungibility

Minimum Requirements:
  • Bachelor's degree, demonstrating a strong academic record from a competitive school
  • 2-8 years of accounting and/or operations experience (e.g. NAV, valuation, investor allocations & P/L) in financial services i.e. investment banking, hedge fund administration, hedge fund, or consulting firm (Accounting or Operations specific)
  • Proficient in commonly used software such as Excel, SharePoint, PowerPoint. Data manipulation and coding skills are also not required but are valuable (e.g. pivot tables, macros, SQL, etc.)
  • A drive to incorporate AI into both day-to-day and long-term strategic workflows
  • Strong sense of personal responsibility and adaptability
  • Excellent ability to detect and trouble-shoot problems
  • Strong communication and interpersonal skills

Wage Range

The wage range for this role is $110,000 - $175,000 inclusive of base salary and discretionary target bonus. The expected base salary for this role is between 80% - 90% of this wage range.

Physical Requirements

The anticipated onsite requirement for this role is four days per week at our Westport, CT office.

About Bridgewater Associates

Bridgewater Associates is an investment management firm that manages approximately $140 billion in assets for institutional clients and high net worth individuals. The firm is known for its unique investment philosophy, which is based on a set of principles known as 'radical transparency.' Bridgewater's investment approach is focused on macroeconomic trends and uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis to identify investment opportunities. The firm's clients include pension funds, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds.
Learn more about Bridgewater Associates
Size
1,500 employees
Industry

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