Public Credit Quant Senior Analyst

At Just we encourage a flexible and agile working environment for the majority of our opportunities. Get in touch with us to discuss in more detail.

Who are Just?

We’re a FTSE 250 Financial Services company who specialise in retirement solutions and right now, our world is moving pretty quickly. With the defined benefit buy in / buy out space growing each year, Just continues to annually grow its business by over £4bn of assets.

We are a purpose driven company with compelling and credible goals. Quite simply, we help people achieve a better later life. We achieve this by providing competitive and innovative products, services, financial advice and guidance to help our customers achieve security, certainty and provide them with peace of mind in retirement.

That’s who we are. We’re a company on a mission: to become a beacon for the entire retirement industry. Because we believe everyone deserves a fair, secure, and fulfilling retirement.

Purpose

The Public Credit (PC) team sits within Just Group’s investment function. Its mandate is to (1) deploy capital into the PC  markets received from new Bulk Annuity and Individual Annuity policies and (2) evaluate the PC portfolio’s risk profile (credit, liquidity, and responsible investing) and seek sustainable capital generation via back book optimisation.

The PC Quant Senior Analyst is a new role within the PC team and aligns to the newly formed PC Quantitative pillar that supports the PC Trading & PM Pillar to meet the team’s mandate.

The role will be working closely with PC Quant manager to drive the technological enhancements to PC capabilities to enable more systematic (1) evaluation of investment opportunities / risks and (2) portfolio optimisation. This will require strong collaboration with the PC Portfolio Managers and Traders to ensure enhancements meet commercial needs of the front office. Moreover a critical part of the role is idea generation; bringing new analytical techniques to enhance the team’s origination and optimisation capabilities.

Additionally, the individual will work closely with wider teams [ALM, Investment Actuarial and Capital Management] in Just to ensure PC models are optimal within the wider Just technological eco system

Job Role Accountabilities 
Accountabilities are broken down into Public Credit two vertical Pillars [Trading & Portfolio Management] and their workstreams. Please note below does not represent all workstreams within each pillar

Trading Pillar

1) Sourcing & executing primary and secondary public credit assets in risk controlled manner
Workstream Description:

• Identifying value (Defined by Portfolio Management Pillar) that is tradable and executing flow in line with governance and process controls

Quant responsibility – Role will support on below responsibilities:

• Work with Front Office Trading and Investment Actuarial to ensure a seamless pre & post trade process for individual and portfolio trades
• Provide technical support to Front Office in regards to pricing complex structures [E.g. Credit Linked Notes]

2) Price discovery for new issues / illiquid bonds for internal / external origination
Workstream Description:

• Ensure understanding of ongoing new issue premium for primary origination in IG Market
• Quant responsibility – Role will support on below responsibilities:
• Support Front Office trading in developing tools that can increase automation of this workstream
• Provide market insight to the PM Pillar

Workstream Description:

• Market information feeds into PC’s Tactical Asset Allocation [TAA] view [Covering IG valuations / Technical / Fundamentals] that governs New Business and Back Book Portfolio Management Investment strategies
• Quant responsibility – Role will support on below responsibilities:
• Work with Front Office Trading and PM to build out and maintain technology / processes that enables efficient evaluation of market trends in line with PC’s TAA framework

Portfolio Management Pillar
1) External Engagement
Workstream Description:

• Engagement with wider Just business in regards to (1) setting PC’s new business pricing curve, (2) supporting Defined Benefit Team and (3) Communicating views with wider audience
• Quant responsibility – Role will support on below responsibilities:
• Act as technical SME in terms of PC’s pricing curve and ensuring integration of output of curve into PC’s analytical models
• Work with PMs to ensure seamless communication of views in as automated manner as possible
• PC Investment Strategy and Portfolio Management of Back Book
• Workstream Description: 
• Deriving TAA view, understanding Balance Sheet requirements and integrating these to make top down investment decisions for New Business and Back Book
• Top down investment performance monitoring
• Portfolio analytics & risk monitoring
• Quant responsibility – Role will support on below responsibilities:
• Build and maintain analytical models that supports TAA view & top down investment decisions
• Work with Investment Strategy / Investment Actuarial / ALM to ensure Balance Sheet MI is appropriate to support PC investment decision making
• Build out and maintain portfolio and investment performance analytics that are appropriate for UK Life Insurer; using a combination of external vendor solutions and in house built technology

Maintaining PC governance & Tech
Workstream Description:

• Ensure PC governance, technology and process are appropriate to meet Just’s strategic objectives
• Quant responsibility – Role will support on below responsibilities:
• Work with Head of PC and PC PMs to complete and maintain the PC handbook. The handbook provides an overview of the PC function, its governance & associated pillars as well as setting out existing workstreams, process and technology
• Lead on the evaluation of new technology and investment analytics to enhance PC’s capabilities

Examples of Key Activities

• Design and implement robust quantitative analytical models which will act as the foundation to PC’s TAA framework
• Build and maintain an optimisation model that harnesses TAA framework in combination with Just’s in force portfolio and balance sheet metrics
• Perform comprehensive market analysis using statistical methods
• Integrate PC’s models into wider Just tech framework
• Present analytical findings to key stakeholders 
• Staying abreast of quant developments and feeding into the business
• Engage in tasks across the investment function and work with other quants to knowledge share

Qualifications
Essential for the role    
University Degree or ideally Masters’ Degree in Mathematics, Statistics, Finance, Engineering, Physics, or a related quantitative field     

Desirable CQF or similiar/CFA or similar

Skills & Knowledge
Essential:

• Excellent analytical capabilities with the ability to sense check numbers, perform quick “back of the envelope” calculations and build intuition over results
• Strong team player and presenter
• Good programming capabilities; preferably in Python and VBA [2+ years of demonstrable experience]
• Good understanding of statistical analysis and machine learning
• Good knowledge of fixed income products and associated financial market dynamics

Desirable: 

• Working understanding of Defined Benefit pension schemes and/or Solvency II for Life Insurers
• Previous experience in creating/validating pricing, risk and analytical models in an enterprise analytical platform
• Front-Office experience working in a fast-paced environment
• Good understanding of API/SQL/databases

Experience

• Several years’ experience in quantitative modelling and analysis, preferably with a focus in fixed income and more specifically Investment Grade credit
• Several years of demonstrable experience in Programming capabilities
• Experience in investment
• Proactive and entrepreneurial mindset
• Detailed orientated and diligent in work deliveries
• Strong focus on self-development
• Strong work ethic with a mentality to go above and beyond the status quo

Why Just?

We are committed to building a more sustainable business and have publicly committed to reduce our scope 3 emissions to Net Zero by 2050 and our scope 1 and 2 emissions to Net Zero by 2025. We’ve made good progress so far and encourage our people to make small and meaningful changes in their everyday lives, so that we can protect our planet for future generations.

Diversity, Equity and inclusion (DE&I) is a key priority for Just as part of our overall strategy and ensuring all of our people feel proud to work at Just. We have joined a number of initiatives including the Race at Work Charter, designed to improve outcomes for employees from underrepresented backgrounds. We also run a Reciprocal Mentoring scheme for employees from a BAME background, those with a disability and those who identify as LGBTQ+. There are multiple employee network groups, which champion issues including race, gender, social mobility and neurodiversity.

What’s clear about working at Just is that we care. We care about our customers, our purpose, our environment, inclusivity, wellbeing and most importantly - each other.

About Us

We’re a FTSE 250 Financial Services company who specialise in retirement solutions and right now, our world is moving pretty quickly.

How people work, save, and plan for the future is all changing.  A new generation of retirees needs a new kind of retirement company.  A company who will look for new ways of doing things – and will always put the customer first. 

That’s who we are. We’re a company on a mission: to become a beacon for the entire retirement industry.  Because we believe everyone deserves a fair, secure, and fulfilling retirement.  And with you on our team, we’re going to make sure they get it.

We’ve built our sustainability strategy around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and have selected goals where we believe we can make the most difference. By aligning our activity with these global goals, we can make sure we play our part in addressing the wider issues facing the planet and leave a positive legacy to the world. You can read more about our sustainability strategy here.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are priorities for us. Having a diverse, talented workforce with colleagues of different backgrounds, world views and experiences is the right thing to do. It’s also the most effective way to succeed, innovate and better serve our customers now and in the future. We are committed to our targets on gender and ethnicity and run a number of successful mentoring and sponsorship programmes for our colleagues from diverse backgrounds. We have multiple active employee network groups which champion issues including gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and neurodiversity. You can read more about our DE&I strategy and commitments here.

What’s clear about working at Just is that we care. We care about our customers, our purpose, our environment, inclusivity, wellbeing and most importantly - each other. We look forward to welcoming you to the team soon.