The San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (“SFERS”) offers an exceptional opportunity for the right candidates to serve this historic, well established City Department by engaging in interesting and rewarding mission critical work. Established in 1889 as a fund for families and orphans of firefighters and police officers, today the SFERS serves more than 59,000 active and retired employees of the City and County of San Francisco and their survivors.

Our Mission
The San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System is dedicated to securing, protecting and prudently investing the pension trust assets, administering mandated benefits programs, and providing promised benefits to the active and retired members of the City and County of San Francisco.

The San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System, a $20 billion public defined benefit pension trust, currently seeks an experienced investment analyst who will be strongly committed to serving our members, and to prudently analyze and monitor a sophisticated investment portfolio allocated across a diverse range of asset classes. SFERS is seeking qualified candidates for an investment analyst position to work on the development and implementation of its Absolute Return program.  Under direction and working closely with the Managing Director of Absolute Return and other investment staff, the Investment Analyst will perform difficult and complex research work involving hedge funds, requiring knowledge of both public and private market investments.  

The essential functions are:

1. Conduct research and analysis of hedge fund strategies and external hedge fund investment managers.         
2. Support investment recommendation process with analysis of the following characteristics of external managers: business and organization, portfolio manager and analyst team, investment research, investment philosophy, execution of strategy, operational infrastructure and risk management practices.
3. Conduct ongoing qualitative and quantitative due diligence on existing external managers.
4. Analyze subscription documents, offering memorandums, and key terms of potential investments.  Maintain organized online and physical library of all documentation on investment strategies and external managers.
5. Measure and evaluate the performance of investment managers against all relevant metrics and prepare written reports for use by internal investment staff and the Retirement Board.
6. Communicate verbally and in writing to superiors concerning investment recommendations on external managers; determine the implications of recommendations on asset allocation and overall portfolio investment strategy.
7. Support relationships with external managers, outside consultants, and custodians for purpose of securing data and performing analysis of capital markets, strategies and investment managers.
8. Perform operational duties including cash flow analysis, document preparation, and coordination of funding and redemption transactions.
9. Utilize specialized investment software to conduct manager research, portfolio construction, exposure analysis, and risk management.
10. Provide technical and administrative support in utilizing quantitative and fundamental tools for use in management of the portfolio.
11. Assist in development of requests for proposals, vendor evaluation, and recommendations regarding quantitative models, tools and/or systems.
12. Determine relevant benchmarks and develop custom benchmarks when necessary.
13. Provide support and assessment regarding methods utilized for measurement, monitoring and management of asset classes, sub-asset classes and individual manager risk.
14. Prepare and/or presents complex reports related to risk assessment and variances; recommend alternatives as needed.
    
    
    Minimum Qualifications

1. Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university, with major coursework in economics, finance, accounting, business, or similar field; AND
2. Three (3) years of relevant investment experience with a major financial institution, consulting organization, pension fund, endowment or foundation including experience monitoring and measuring performance within institutional portfolios and the capital markets; developing quantitative applications to analyze and monitor public and private investments including the qualitative skills for assessment and recommendations; AND
3. Computer proficiency including Windows-based software for database management, word processing, spreadsheets and investment-related software such as Albourne, Barra, Bloomberg, Cambridge, Novus, MSCI Analytics, Morningstar, Risk Metrics, StyleAdvisor, StyleResearch, and Wilshire.

Substitution:
 

1. Possession of a graduate Degree in Business Administration, Economics, or similar field may substitute minimum qualifications #1.
2. Possession of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and a baccalaureate degree in a different field may substitute minimum qualifications #1.
3. One additional year of relevant investment experience as described above under minimum qualifications #2 anda baccalaureate degree in a different field may substitute for minimum qualifications #1.
   
   Desirable Qualifications: 
   
   The stated desirable qualifications may be used to identify job finalists at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred for hiring.

• Possession of a graduate degree in Business Administration, Economics, or similar field.
• Possession or in the process of completing a Certified Public Accountant license,  a Chartered Financial Analyst program and/or a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst program.
• Three (3) years of experience in evaluating external managers in public equity, fixed income, or hedge fund strategies.
• Five (5) years of relevant investment experience as described under minimum qualifications #2.
• Extensive proficiency with Microsoft Excel including designing and operating macros and pivot tables.