Position:  Associate/Vice President – Alternative Investments Division

Reports to:  Chief Investment Officer

Date Created: September 21, 2017

Position Summary:  Wafra Investment Advisory Group, Inc. is a leading global investment manager with headquarters in New York City and approximately $20 billion of assets under management. Wafra is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Institution for the Social Security of Kuwait.

The position is with Wafra’s Alternative Investments Division (AID).  AID invests globally across industries and asset classes, with particular focus on private equity investments in financial services, real assets, infrastructure, alternative real estate, hedge funds and venture capital.  AID’s broad investment program and flat organizational structure provide team members with a breadth of valuable investment experiences and responsibilities.

AID is seeking an Associate or Vice President for its New York headquarters to work primarily on its investments in private markets funds, particularly in middle market buyout, growth and venture capital. The ideal candidate is expected to contribute meaningfully to the evaluation and underwriting of new investment opportunities with a particular emphasis on investments in venture capital, growth and middle market private equity funds and will be expected to communicate effectively with team members, investment managers, counterparties and advisors.  Growth opportunities will exist to participate in secondaries, co-investments and direct investments in connection with the candidate’s core responsibilities and to participate in other segments of the AID platform.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Evaluate the merits and risks of investment opportunities in closed ended fund investments and other opportunities across the broader AID  investment platform

• Prepare detailed financial models and other qualitative and quantitative analyses to support investment underwriting and structuring decisions

• Perform market, industry, competitive set and opportunity-specific research

• Author investment memoranda and participate in communicating opportunities to the investment committee

• Sourcing and developing relationships with fund managers as well as developing and maintaining relationships with investors and intermediaries in private markets- Monitoring portfolio investments and portfolio management activity; identifying and analyzing underlying investment risk exposures for manager/fund/portfolio-level analyses

• Negotiating legal documentation in connection with portfolio investments

• Support quarterly and ad hoc reporting requirements for internal and external stakeholders

• Performs other duties as assigned. 

Requirements:

• Strong academic achievement from a top-tier undergraduate program

• Preference for 4-7 years’ work experience at an endowment/foundation, pension, investment consultant/OCIO, family office or alternative investment firm investing in alternative closed-end funds

• Self-motivated, strong work ethic and ability to work independently

• Ability to conduct high quality financial and business analysis

• Excellent written and oral communication skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills

• Intellectual curiosity