Risk Manager Job Description Template

The risk manager measures and challenges the risk the fund is taking, independently of the people taking it. That covers market risk, liquidity, leverage, concentration and the scenarios nobody in the investment team has thought about yet. The role only works if the person doing it is credible with portfolio managers and willing to say uncomfortable things, so it needs both quantitative skill and the standing to be listened to.

Typical Duties and Responsibilities

• Produce daily risk reporting covering exposure, leverage, value at risk and stress scenarios
• Monitor positions against mandate limits and escalate breaches
• Run stress tests and scenario analysis across plausible and extreme market moves
• Analyze factor exposures and unintended correlations within the portfolio
• Assess portfolio liquidity and the cost of exiting positions under stress
• Challenge portfolio managers on concentration, crowding and sizing
• Maintain and validate the risk models and the data feeding them
• Report risk to the investment committee, the board and investors
• Support counterparty and margin risk assessment with operations
• Investigate profit and loss that the risk model did not anticipate

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative discipline such as mathematics, statistics, physics, engineering or finance

Required Skills and Experience

• 5+ years of risk management experience at a fund, bank or risk vendor
• Strong command of value at risk, stress testing and factor models
• Proficiency with Python or R for risk analytics
• Understanding of derivatives, leverage and margin mechanics
• Ability to explain risk clearly to people who dislike the answer
• Experience with a risk platform such as MSCI, Axioma or Bloomberg PORT
• Independence of mind and the confidence to escalate
• Precision with data, since risk reporting is only as good as its inputs

Preferred Qualifications

• FRM or CFA charter
• Experience across multiple strategies or asset classes