Senior Trading Risk Manager

MIO Partners, Inc. (MIO) provides proprietary investment products to McKinsey’s retirement plan and partners and offers independent, high-quality financial advice to McKinsey’s partners. We manage a wide array of investment vehicles with significant expertise and a long and successful track record in alternative strategies, including hedge funds and private equity. We have a multibillion-dollar portfolio of assets under management, and we manage assets for and advise only McKinsey-related clients; we do not accept outside or third-party investments.  

MIO is a values-based organization that is strongly aligned with our investors’ interests. MIO measures success as performance relative to a market-based benchmark.  

MIO, a 250+ person registered investment adviser, provides ample opportunities for somebody with an entrepreneurial drive to shine. We strive to meet the highest professional standards and build an organization that attracts, develops, and retains exceptional people. MIO is a wholly owned subsidiary of McKinsey, but our activities are kept entirely separate from those of the consulting Firm. 

The Portfolio

MIO Partners manages a portfolio covering an especially broad range of strategies, markets, and legal structures. Part of our capital is directly invested in our Macro Trading portfolio, which includes relative value macro trades to create alpha, as well as portfolio hedges and beta trades to manage the aggregate portfolio exposure to different markets. As a subsidiary of McKinsey & Co., MIO does not directly trade any single-name equity or credit positions, but our Macro Trading portfolio spans a broad range of asset classes, including the trading of broad-based equity and credit indices. In addition to our internally managed capital, we are an active allocator to external investment managers, either as a Limited Partner (LP) in an investment manager’s commingled fund or as a Separately Managed Account (SMA) on a platform that we manage in-house. This diversity provides a unique opportunity for the professional development of the Risk team, which we relish.

The Risk Team

The Risk Team works closely with our colleagues across Investments, Treasury, Operations, and Legal to assess and manage the risks we and our investors face. The following characteristics define the nature of our work and our team culture:

• Strategic and Disciplined Decision Making: We add value through an in-depth understanding of the nature and impact of various risks and consistently reflecting them in our decisions. We aim to ensure that our portfolios are sufficiently resilient without undue cost or unreasonably limiting our investment opportunities.


• Thought Partnership: We are independent but not isolated. We aim to achieve the best understanding and approach through collaboration with our colleagues. We are not afraid to challenge or be challenged, supported by our mutual commitment to the interests of our clients.


• Innovative Thinking: We try to learn from the collective experience of our profession across the industry while being unafraid to do things differently (after rigorous evaluation).


• Operational Excellence: We ensure our decisions are accurately implemented every day through rigorous upfront testing of our systems and daily diligence. We need to understand the limitations of each model or process and recognize when it does not apply to a new situation.

The Position and Responsibilities

The Senior Macro Trading Risk Manager will be the most senior position reporting to the Head of Macro Trading Risk. We are specifically seeking an individual to lead the risk management of our commodity trading books, which are uniquely informed by supply, demand, and storage dynamics. In addition to leading the risk management of commodity trades, we would expect and encourage the Senior Macro Trading Risk manager to become familiar with and oversee the risk of other asset classes and act as a backup to our Head of Macro Trading Risk.

The Senior Macro Trading Risk Manager would:

• Develop an accurate understanding of and clearly communicate the loss potential for individual ‘bets’ (aka ‘alpha theses’), themes (e.g., ‘natural gas’), and commodity trading in aggregate. Interpret the results of existing stress tests in the context of the current market—and if needed, complement them with ad-hoc, prospective analyses—to develop and articulate a judgmental estimate of exposure/sensitivity to different markets and potential losses at different levels of confidence.


• Effectively engage with and act as a value-adding thought partner to both the Risk and Investment teams (Portfolio Managers, Head of Macro Trading Risk, and the CRO and CIO) in enhancing our understanding of key risks and developing strategies to mitigate them. Assist the Head of Macro Trading Risks and CRO in assessing whether to approve temporarily exceeding any investment team guidelines.


• Monitor the markets and the risk profile of the portfolio and take appropriate action as needed, including confirming the reasonability of assumptions, highlighting any changes or emerging risks, and ensuring the risk profile is within the risk appetite.


• Continue to improve and expand our trading risk analytics and ensure all risk calculation frameworks appropriately reflect the risk of the underlying positions. We use a broad set of analytics, including historical simulations, VaR and CVaR, sensitivities/Greeks, and stress tests. Perform ad-hoc, topical analyses of risk, such as drill-downs on more significant risk concentrations, scenario analyses, and any other analyses to complement routine reports


• Continue to improve and expand our understanding of market liquidity, including identifying and onboarding new data sources and improving our understanding of fluctuations in market liquidity, whether due to timing (e.g., seasonality, time to maturity) or under different market scenarios and stresses.


• Expand oversight beyond Commodities to other asset classes, and act as a backup to the Head of Macro Trading Risk, including overseeing the timely production of risk and guideline reporting, and acting as a thought partner to the CRO in evolving the market risk appetite framework as appropriate.

Required Skills

• Deep understanding of various commodities, commodity markets, and commodity trading strategies. Experience with other asset classes is a plus.


• Proven ability to engage closely and effectively with portfolio managers both as a thought partner and as an independent risk manager providing oversight; independent thinker, good listener, and persuasive and clear communicator who can gain the trust of senior leaders across both Risk and Investment Management teams.


• Distinctive conceptual and analytical capabilities; quickly understands the key defining features of a problem, develops a reasonable approach to new problems, effectively prioritizes research and analyses based on impact and required effort, and quickly converges to a reasonable conclusion.


• Understanding of and comfort with introductory probability and statistics and their application to financial risk management. Can identify and assess the importance of the shortcomings of an analytical model in the context of a specific portfolio.


• Good judgment. Can synthesize various pieces of information about a position or portfolio to draw sound conclusions about risks.


• Able to work effectively in a fast-paced and entrepreneurial environment.


• Highly productive, diligent, and detail-oriented.

Experience                                

• 7+ years of professional experience in commodities trading and/or commodity risk management at a hedge fund or bank. Experience across various commodities, e.g., in risk management at a global macro or multi-strategy fund with an active commodity trading focus, is much preferred.


• First-hand experience with industry-standard multi-asset class risk systems (e.g., RiskMetrics and Aladdin) preferred.

Education

• Distinctive academic pedigree. Minimum bachelor’s degree in mathematics, physics, philosophy, economics, computer science, or engineering. Advanced degree preferred.


• CFA and FRM or PRMIA designations are a plus.

MIO Partners, Inc. (MIO) is an equal opportunity employer. MIO will consider all applicants regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or disability status.  

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