Job Description
Senior Manager - Investments (Private Assets)
We’re a FTSE 250 Financial Services company who specialise in retirement solutions and right now, our world is moving pretty quickly. With the defined benefit buy in / buy out space growing each year, Just continues to annually grow its business by over £4bn of assets.
We are a purpose driven company with compelling and credible goals. Quite simply, we help people achieve a better later life. We achieve this by providing competitive and innovative products, services, financial advice and guidance to help our customers achieve security, certainty and provide them with peace of mind in retirement.
That’s who we are. We’re a company on a mission: to become a beacon for the entire retirement industry. Because we believe everyone deserves a fair, secure, and fulfilling retirement.
Purpose
In order to deliver Just’s vision and ambition, the Investment Team (Team) has increasingly focused its efforts towards deploying capital in private assets, either internally or via asset managers. The Team is growing and is looking to acquire talents in the private sphere of the fixed income sector.
As such, this role is seen as key to take the Team to the next step of its development and ensure it continues to make an impact and help Just deliver the best outcome possible for its customers.
About the role:
Private Transactions
- The role has a very strong focus on private deals (both internally- and externally-managed)
- Deal underwriting in line with agreed governance and processes: engagement with managers and other third parties, in depth credit analysis together with structuring considerations and rating production
- Presentation of investment paper to committees and forums, including Private Asset and Credit Committees and Credit Rating Forum
- Stakeholder engagement and management: proactive communication with managers and issuers as part of ongoing deal due diligence and monitoring
Projects
- Take a key role in projects across the business that require credit team involvement, whether originated from credit or requiring our input for other purposes (e.g. regulatory actions, investor relations, ALM)
- Being a lead point of contact within the investment team for other departments (e.g. risk, DB, actuarial) by maintaining relationships with other verticals and building a reputation for reliability and quality
- Writing and presenting papers on projects to relevant committees on updates, requests for approvals and general discussion, ensuring that materials produced are of high quality and in line with expectations of those committees
- Upgrading existing and creating new tools in order to enhance the credit research function ways of working
- Being a role model to other members of the credit team and the investment team more broadly, through attitudes and behaviours suiting a more senior member of the team, aligned with Just’s values
- Leading the onboarding of new members of the credit team, including line management of graduate research analysts
- Providing training to credit research analysts and other team members
Examples of Key Activities
- Engaging with external asset managers, sponsors, law firms in order to review transactions, including ratings (e.g. shadow ratings), structures (ability to suggest structural enhancements in order to strengthen transactions and protect ratings) and other aspects of transactions (such as legal and pricing)
- Training more junior colleagues, including the use of credit research tools and fundamental analysis
Skills and Knowledge
- Very strong deal structuring and underwriting capabilities, including financial modelling, commercial and legal negotiations
- Good knowledge of Bloomberg functions, including bond pricing and ratings
- Very strong knowledge of ratings, including production of ratings, understanding of rating methodology and drivers
- Accuracy, autonomy, attention to details, intellectual curiosity, strong verbal and writing skills and deliverability under tight deadlines are very valuable attributes to have in order to be successful in this function
- Team spirit and collaboration are essential
- Basic knowledge of the SII framework for insurers would be seen as a strong positive
Experience
- Significant experience in a full-time private deal structuring and underwriting position in a sell- or buy-side institution, such as banks or asset managers
- Strong focus on deal structuring and underwriting
Why Just?
We are committed to building a more sustainable business and have publicly committed to reduce our scope 3 emissions to Net Zero by 2050 and our scope 1 and 2 emissions to Net Zero by 2025. We’ve made good progress so far and encourage our people to make small and meaningful changes in their everyday lives, so that we can protect our planet for future generations.
Diversity, Equity and inclusion (DE&I) is a key priority for Just as part of our overall strategy and ensuring all of our people feel proud to work at Just. We have joined a number of initiatives including the Race at Work Charter, designed to improve outcomes for employees from underrepresented backgrounds. We also run a Reciprocal Mentoring scheme for employees from a BAME background, those with a disability and those who identify as LGBTQ+. There are multiple employee network groups, which champion issues including race, gender, social mobility and neurodiversity.
What’s clear about working at Just is that we care. We care about our customers, our purpose, our environment, inclusivity, wellbeing and most importantly - each other
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