Investment Product Manager

The Investment Product Manager will provide Investment Product Team (IP) support to the development and delivery of Prudential Retirements institutional retirement income products.  IP is responsible for the product development, product management, oversight, and the associated investment communications for the Prudential Retirement Investment Platform. IP also provides investment-related support to internal constituents in client-facing roles. The Project Manager will lead IP support of this key Divisional initiative, and will also serve as the primary liaison between IP and the Institutional Income Innovation (I3) team responsible for overall retirement income product development and management.
 
Serve as the investment product manager for the IncomeFlex (IFX) Lifetime and  EasyPath Funds

• Monitors, evaluates and oversees the Funds glide paths, asset allocations and underlying investment portfolios
• Responsible for ensuring all necessary reporting and commentary on the Funds performance is provided.  Acts as the liaison with Prudentials Strategic Investment Research Group (SIRG) for performance analysis/fund positioning.
• Serves as the primary subject matter expert for the investment aspects of the Funds for client-facing associates (including salespeople, relationship managers and investment strategists) and for external partners including Plan Sponsors and financial intermediaries

Investigate, evaluate and address investment issues raised by plan fiduciaries and their consultants who are evaluating retirement income solutions, including:

• Crafting dynamic responses to investment-related RFP questions and designing investment related reports to be used during the RFP process and in sales final situations
• Evaluating prospects existing investment offerings

Deliver and oversee delivery of investment services in support of IFX new business development:

• Providing proactive, consultative solutions for asset allocations/glidepaths and investment portfolios used with IFX Guarantees, 
• Proactively working with dedicated I3 team partners to strategize on effective investment positioning and delivery of value-added contributions throughout the sales process.
• Sharing  responsibility for IFX new business wins and effective positioning of IFX and associated investment products
• Serving as lead product/project manager in driving the implementation of investment products to be used exclusively in conjunction with the IFX guarantee.
• Work with the I3  team  in determining roles/responsibilities for administering  IFX to third party platforms.  Assume lead role in delivering IP responsibilities.

Develop and maintain strong relationships with client facing associates - including salespeople, relationship managers and investment strategists - to positively influence outcomes.
Maintain investment expertise relative to the underlying asset classes of the asset allocation products
 
Other:

• Serve as a liaison with Proprietary and third party investment management firms.
• Ensure that quantitative measures align to qualitative explanations. Attention to detail - ensures data in reports, collateral materials, etc., are accurate and reflect/support analytic opinions.
• Identify and research emerging issues, actively seeking alternatives and ultimate solutions.
• Lead a variety of analytical projects for both I3 and Investment Products to enhance value to clients.
• If applicable, monitor funds associated with existing retirement income solutions on a daily basis to assure continuous investment manager compliance with established investment guidelines.

• Bachelors degree required, MBA highly desirable.
• CFA or demonstrated progress toward attainment of the designation (i.e. CFA Level II candidate) 
• Minimum of 5 years of investment-related analytical, quantitative and/or modeling experience.
• Minimum of 2-3 years experience serving as an external-facing investment subject matter expert highly desirable.
• Minimum of 2-3 years of mean-variance optimization experience and sound understanding of the relationships among asset classes strongly preferred.
• Knowledge of U.S. and international market trends and strong understanding of sector and mandate performance drivers, including the ability to dissect and explain sources of portfolio and benchmark returns.
• Knowledge of various research and analytic software applications preferred (e.g. Morningstar, Ibbotson EnCorr, and MPI Stylus).
• Drive to Learn: Ability to ascend steep learning curve required to develop deep understanding about retirement income products.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced and evolving environment within a team as well as an independent contributor. Strong written and spoken communications skills, specifically to discuss investments in detail and answer investment-related questions to internal/external constituencies.
• Understanding of asset/liability relationships and matching a plus.