AddressThis Director, Dynamic Asset Allocation (“DAA”) role, with a focus on long-term applied research, sits near the centre of our investment team and how we design our investment strategy. The role collaborates deeply to identify, prioritise, and then drive research on certain themes, leading to proposed improvements to our broad market (“beta”) exposures for our longer (3-year plus) horizon.
As a senior, experienced investor, the successful candidate will offer fresh perspectives on our top-down thinking and processes. The role works very closely with the Long-term stream of the DAA team. The role is Sydney-based, which provides an opportunity to bring top-down perspectives and gain bottom-up insights among our Sydney-based asset team colleagues.
The role works closely with the Strategic Opportunities & Integration (“SOI”) team, the ESG team, the Economics and Capital Markets (“ECM”) team, the Research & Insights function, our external partners and internal asset teams, to source then apply the highest quality insights and research available.
Natural areas of work and collaboration include, for example, the carbon transition and re-alignment of global geopolitics, including their impact on the beta opportunities and risks in the years ahead. Critical to success is not only the deep research of select themes, but combining this with practical market implications, including an understanding of what is priced into markets for the long horizon, and ultimately what changes we should make to our long-term strategy.
Beyond the core activities of the role, the right candidate will bring experience, skills and a style, that constructively contribute to other areas in DAA and beyond.
The key duties of the position include:Key Responsibilities
Champion our joined-up whole portfolio process
• Build a detailed understanding of our investment process and add constructive relationships across the investment team.
• Bring fresh perspectives to improve our process.
• Be immediately involved in our continuous strategy review approach, over time championing this model for the whole team.
Identify the most pertinent themes to incorporate in beta strategy
• Work closely with the Research and Insights function, the SOI/ECM teams, our external partners and others to identify the most under-explored areas that inform how we set long-term beta strategy.
• Work with stakeholders to prioritise areas and delve deeper to understand drivers and what might be reflected in market pricing.
• Focus on improvements that will tangibly improve the major strategic decisions rather than striving for ‘perfect’ in a narrow area.
• Communicate clearly to, and gain buy-in from, internal fora such as the Long-term Forum and the Investment Committee.
Harness relationships and technology to uplift Long-term DAA research
• Work with the DAA Systems stream to apply technology, such as LLMs and quantitative tools, to our Long-term DAA research process.
• Harness existing and build new industry and academia relationships to source the highest quality research for our purposes.
Collaborate deeply internally and externally to reach practical recommendations
• With long-term stream colleagues, present key findings to fora, engage constructively in debate and adapt as necessary.
• Work closely with asset teams to harness insights and understand potential implementation considerations.
• Synthesise views, including potential implications across scenarios and potential actions to harness opportunities, mitigate under-rewarded risk exposures and generally improve portfolio resilience.
• Ultimately reach a set of recommendations that reflect our best thinking on portfolio implications of the identified themes.
Proactively contribute to other parts of our investment process
• Offer valuable experience and expertise to ask questions of, and suggest improvements for, the existing investment process.
• Provide top-down insights as input to decision making.
• Provide feedback on effectiveness of investment forums.
• Areas to contribute to include: responding to Board/key stakeholder queries, the medium-term Dynamic Asset Allocation process, decision making/governance, thematic impact on bottom-up investment ideas, our liquidity risk management process, and so on.
Skills and Experience
Qualifications
• A tertiary education, with a degree in finance, maths/science or related discipline.
• A post-graduate qualification with exceptional research credentials is essential.
Knowledge and Experience
• At least 10 years hands-on investment experience, in strategist and/or portfolio management roles.
• Applied research track record, with a demonstrated ability to take theoretical ideas through to practical implementation to improve portfolio outcomes.
• A demonstrated understanding of a broad range of asset class exposures and strong orientation towards whole of fund investing.
• Demonstrated ability to work in partnership with others, respectfully challenging ideas and raising questions, while being prepared to compromise in the interest of overall progress.
Key Competencies
• A big-picture thinker, with a flair for identifying and communicating the most important ideas with practical import for portfolios.
• A passion for seeking the truth through rigorous research.
• Very comfortable sharing ideas and receiving feedback, including navigating disagreements constructively and focusing on the best overall outcome.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills including the ability to liaise with stakeholders at all levels, and deliver clear recommendations and engage in robust, respectful debate.
• Demonstrates a consultative style to achieve buy-in, particularly regarding proposed process changes, while always being open to potentially superior approaches to a problem.
• A drive to develop deeper knowledge and a preparedness/inclination to “think outside the box”.
• Pragmatic and able to focus on what matters given limited resources, while always demonstrating high levels of integrity.
The Future Fund is Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, investing for the benefit of future generations of Australians. The Future Fund Board of Guardians, supported by the Future Fund Management Agency, invests the assets of six public asset funds: the Future Fund, the Medical Research Future Fund, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land and Sea Future Fund, the Future Drought Fund, the Emergency Response Fund and the DisabilityCare Australia Fund. Each fund has an investment mandate that is determined by the Australian Government under legislation. Our role is to generate strong, risk-adjusted returns over the long term.
