Associate Director, Fixed Income and Currency (Global Credit)

The Group:

Research & Investments creates compelling insights and effective investment solutions to empower investor success. We honor time-tested investment principles and consistently apply robust methodologies to earn and protect trust. We thoughtfully deploy our key asset, our people, to scale and deliver more value to more investors. This diverse group comprises Morningstar’s Equity, Manager, and Multi-Asset Research teams in addition to our Behavioral Insights and Investment Management teams. 

The Role:

The Multi-Asset Research Team requires an experienced researcher to contribute to fixed income and currency research, reporting to the Head of Fixed Income and Currency Research. The role focuses on assessing credit risk, market trends, and economic factors that impact credit investments across different regions and sectors. The ideal candidate will work closely with other researchers, economists, portfolio managers to deliver world class fixed income and currency research that leads to better investment outcomes for clients.

This role is based in our Chicago. We are operating in a hybrid environment, where we are in-office 3 days/week.

Responsibilities:

• Generate fixed income and currency related capital market research deliverables, including strategic capital market assumptions and shorter-term, valuation-driven fixed income and currency research for global credit asset classes, including investment grade corporate bonds, high yield corporate bonds, hard currency denominated emerging-market sovereign bonds, municipal bonds and other credit sensitive fixed income asset classes.
• Analyze macroeconomic factors, including interest rates, inflation, and economic growth, that influence credit spreads, valuations, and fundamentals.
• Provide views on relative attractiveness across global credit asset classes for internal and external clients.
• Enhance research robustness by producing additional analysis including scenario analysis, back testing, economic regime analysis etc.
• Evaluate fair value assumptions for credit asset classes based on corporate, municipal and EM sovereign fundamentals and long-term trends.
• Lead the monthly production process of quantitative outputs from proprietary valuation models for fixed income asset classes and major currencies.
• Collaborate with economists and capital market assumption team to produce country specific economic research.
• Contribute to fixed income methodology improvements to sustain Morningstar's research excellence.
• Present research findings, conviction updates and market insights to internal portfolio management teams and clients.
• Contribute to external research publications and media engagements with a focus on the outlook for credit assets.

Requirements:

• 5+ years of research experience in fixed income and currency research gained in a pure research capacity or as part of an investment management team.
• Deep understanding of global fixed income markets, including government bonds, corporate debt, high-yield, and emerging markets.
• Prior research experience in covering credit asset classes is preferred.
• Expertise in macroeconomic analysis, monetary policy, and currency market dynamics.
• Strong time management skills, with the ability to mentor and develop junior analysts.
• Proven ability to communicate complex market information in a clear, concise, and actionable manner.
• Strong quantitative skills and proficiency in relevant financial software and research tools.

Morningstar’s hybrid work environment gives you the opportunity to work remotely and collaborate in-person each week. We’ve found that we’re at our best when we’re purposely together on a regular basis, at least three days each week. A range of other benefits are also available to enhance flexibility as needs change. No matter where you are, you’ll have tools and resources to engage meaningfully with your global colleagues.