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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Investment Performance Analyst

💰 $70,000 - $140,000

FinanceInvestmentAnalyticsPerformance Measurement

🎯 Role Definition

An Investment Performance Analyst is responsible for calculating, validating, and communicating investment performance and attribution across portfolios and composite groups. This role ensures accuracy and integrity of performance results, supports GIPS compliance and regulatory reporting, automates and improves performance processes, produces client-facing performance reports and commentary, and partners closely with portfolio managers, risk teams, operations, and client service to deliver transparent, timely and auditable performance analytics.

Key search terms: investment performance analyst, performance measurement, performance attribution, portfolio analytics, GIPS compliance, time-weighted return (TWR), money-weighted return (MWR), performance reporting, client reporting, performance automation.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior Performance Analyst / Performance Reporting Associate
  • Investment Operations Analyst or Fund Accounting Analyst
  • Data Analyst with experience in financial services

Advancement To:

  • Senior Investment Performance Analyst
  • Performance Reporting Manager / Head of Performance
  • Portfolio Analytics Manager or Product Specialist (Performance Solutions)

Lateral Moves:

  • Client Reporting / Client Service (Institutional)
  • Risk Analytics or Quantitative Reporting
  • Data Engineering focused on investment data pipelines

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Calculate daily, monthly, and quarterly investment performance (time-weighted returns, money-weighted returns, internal rate of return) for pooled vehicles, separate accounts and composite groups, ensuring adherence to firm methodology and industry standards such as GIPS.
  • Prepare and validate performance attribution analyses by sector, security, currency, and strategy to explain drivers of return versus benchmarks; produce both Brinson-style and factor-based attributions where relevant.
  • Reconcile performance numbers to portfolio accounting, custodial statements, trade blotters and NAV calculations; investigate and correct root causes of performance variances or reconciliation breaks.
  • Maintain and apply performance calculation policies, conventions and assumptions (e.g., cash flow handling, opening/closing prices, corporate actions, FX handling) to deliver consistent, auditable results.
  • Produce high-quality, client-ready performance reports and performance commentaries for institutional clients, advisors, and internal stakeholders, customized for client-specific mandates and benchmarks.
  • Support quarterly and annual composite preparation including performance history roll-forward, composite membership, asset-weighted calculations, and documentation required for GIPS verification and compliance.
  • Execute and document quality control and validation procedures for performance results, including automated checks, exception reporting, and manual review of outliers and anomalies.
  • Design, build, and maintain dashboards and automated reporting workflows (Power BI, Tableau, or similar) to accelerate reporting cadence and improve user self-service for portfolio managers and client teams.
  • Partner with Portfolio Management and Trading teams to ensure trades, cash flows and corporate actions are properly captured in the performance system and reflected in returns and attribution.
  • Drive automation and process improvement projects, implementing scripts and ETL processes (SQL, Python, VBA) to replace manual spreadsheets and reduce error-prone tasks across the performance lifecycle.
  • Maintain and administer performance systems and vendor relationships (e.g., Advent Geneva, Aladdin, SimCorp, FactSet, MSCI, Bloomberg, Morningstar) including system configurations, data feeds, and performance model parameters.
  • Compile and deliver regulatory and investor reporting packages such as quarterly performance books, fact sheets, subscription/redemption reconciliations and customized schedule on ad-hoc client requests.
  • Support product launches and strategy changes by building new performance templates, defining benchmark rules, and recalculating track records to ensure correct historical performance representation.
  • Conduct scenario analyses and stress-testing of performance metrics to quantify the impact of rebalancing, large flows, or pricing gaps on historical returns and attribution.
  • Perform peer and benchmark analysis, construct custom benchmarks and compare strategy performance to peer universes and indices, producing insights for PMs and business development teams.
  • Implement and maintain a robust control environment and documentation for performance processes including process maps, SOPs, change logs and audit trails for internal and external audits.
  • Lead or participate in internal audits, GIPS verifications and external vendor audits of performance data, preparing evidence, responding to audit queries and remediating control findings.
  • Train and mentor junior performance analysts and cross-functional colleagues on performance methodology, attribution techniques, and system usage to raise team capability and consistency.
  • Deliver precise, timely responses to client inquiries and RFPs relating to historical performance, composites, methodology disclosures and performance attribution; support client due diligence and commercial cycles.
  • Collaborate with Risk and Quant teams to incorporate risk-adjusted performance metrics, attribution by risk factor, volatility, drawdown and information ratios into standard reporting suites.
  • Maintain security pricing governance by validating pricing sources, inter-vendor price comparisons, stale price detection and implementing price overrides when appropriate with documented rationale.
  • Develop and maintain a library of reusable code, calculation templates, and testing harnesses to streamline performance calculations and ensure reproducible methodology across products.
  • Monitor industry developments and regulatory changes (GIPS updates, SEC guidance, international rules) and update methodology, policies and client disclosures accordingly.
  • Participate in cross-functional projects such as data warehouse builds, system migrations or vendor implementations, ensuring performance requirements and reconciliation needs are fully captured in project scope.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Maintain and update performance methodology documentation, investor disclosures and FAQ materials for internal and external use.
  • Assist client service and business development with custom analysis for RFP responses, product due diligence and pitch materials.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Advanced proficiency in Excel including pivot tables, advanced formulas, Power Query and VBA for automation of performance reports.
  • Strong SQL skills for querying, transforming and reconciling performance and portfolio data from relational databases (Postgres, SQL Server, Redshift, Snowflake).
  • Programming experience in Python or R for build-out of automation scripts, back-testing, and reproducible performance workflows.
  • Deep understanding of performance measurement methodologies: time-weighted return (TWR), money-weighted return (MWR/IRR), modified dietz, internal rate of return.
  • Performance attribution expertise (Brinson attribution, multi-factor attribution, allocation vs selection effects) and familiarity with multi-currency attribution techniques.
  • Knowledge of GIPS (Global Investment Performance Standards) requirements and experience preparing composites and GIPS disclosures for verification.
  • Hands-on experience with portfolio accounting and performance systems such as Advent Geneva, Aladdin, SimCorp, Eagle or portfolio/data vendors like FactSet, MSCI Barra, Bloomberg and Morningstar.
  • Experience building dashboards and reports in Power BI, Tableau or similar visualization tools for performance and risk metrics.
  • Strong data engineering fundamentals: ETL processes, data validation, reconciliation frameworks and understanding of data lineage.
  • Familiarity with custody and fund accounting flows, NAV calculation logic, fees and expense allocations, and trade lifecycle impacts on performance.
  • Ability to run statistical and time-series analysis (regression, correlation, volatility measures) to support attribution and risk-adjusted performance assessments.
  • Experience with version control (Git) and test-driven development for analytics code is a plus.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional attention to detail and commitment to data accuracy and auditability.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills geared to both technical and non-technical stakeholders; ability to craft clear performance commentary.
  • Problem-solving mindset with the ability to investigate complex data issues, diagnose root causes, and implement long-term fixes.
  • Client-oriented with professional presentation skills and the ability to respond to client queries under deadlines.
  • Project management capabilities: prioritize tasks, coordinate stakeholders, and deliver on time in a fast-paced environment.
  • Collaborative team player who partners effectively with PMs, trading, operations, risk and client service teams.
  • Adaptability to change, ability to learn new systems quickly and to handle shifting priorities in quarter-end or month-end windows.
  • Initiative and ownership over process improvement, automation opportunities and quality control enhancements.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Finance, Financial Engineering, Data Science, Statistics or MBA preferred.
  • Professional certifications such as CFA, CAIA or FRM are highly desirable and demonstrate advanced domain knowledge.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Finance
  • Economics
  • Mathematics / Statistics
  • Computer Science / Data Science
  • Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2 - 6 years of performance measurement, portfolio analytics, fund accounting, or investment operations experience.

Preferred: 4 - 8+ years of direct experience in investment performance, attribution, GIPS/composite management or related roles within an asset manager, hedge fund, wealth manager or custody bank; demonstrated experience with production reporting, automation, and vendor systems (Advent, Aladdin, FactSet, MSCI, Bloomberg).

Certifications, strong technical toolkit (Python/SQL/Excel), and prior exposure to regulatory or audit engagements are advantages and will accelerate time-to-impact in this role.

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