City and County of San Francisco

The Director is responsible for the complete governance and oversight of one or more asset classes. A Director position requires minimal oversight and supervision from a Managing Director.

The Director oversees a large portfolio of pension plan assets; provides advice on manager recommendations for the pension plan; is responsible for conducing complete and thorough due diligence on prospective managers; is responsible for the ongoing monitoring of existing managers; provides advice on portfolio construction; and is responsible for the supervision and activities of one or more investment and/or administrative staff.

The 1115 Director is a senior level management position with full responsibility for the governance and management of a large portfolio of assets, with limited supervision of a Managing Director. Direction is received from the Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer.

The Director carries out their responsibilities with minimal supervision and only broad direction from a Managing Director. The Director is considered to be an expert in a particular asset class by the Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer. The Director also has a solid understanding of several other asset classes, and is able to contribute broadly to the overall investment strategy and asset allocation for the pension plan as a whole.

The Director will typically be responsible for the supervision of one or more investment analysts and/or administrative staff.

According to Civil Service Commission Rule 109, the duties specified below are representative of the range of duties assigned to this job code/class and are not intended to be an inclusive list.

1. Conducts thorough and ongoing due diligence of existing external investment managers at an expert level and with minimal oversight from the Managing Director. The Director has a keen awareness of changes in a manager’s organization, management team, headline news, and all other aspects that could affect our investment.
2. Responsible for monitoring an external manager’s investment performance and the factors affecting performance, including material differences versus the manager’s underlying benchmark.
3. Conducts complete and thorough due diligence on prospective new managers at an expert level, requiring only limited oversight and supervision from the Managing Director. Responsible for recommending potential new managers for the portfolio to the Managing Director.
4. Responsible for the portfolio construction of a multi-manager asset class including an expert’s level knowledge of the risk exposures within the asset class as well as for each manager’s portfolio.
5. Prepares detailed investment recommendations and reports to the Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer and Retirement Board for review and approval.
6. Senior manager level responsibility for the management, supervision, and development of one or more subordinates.
7. Reviews, evaluates and negotiates key partnership terms and documents. Responsible for complete due diligence on a manager’s offering memorandum, subscription documents, and other materials related to an existing or prospective investment.
8. Responsible for maintaining distributions from external managers, furnishing capital calls to external managers, and other functions related to managing the relationship with external managers.
9. Responsible for the day-to-day relationship with external managers. Full responsibility for representing SFERS with distinction and class to external managers and other stakeholders.

The Director has an expert level ability and skill to analyze and evaluate external investment managers for a particular asset class. The Director also has an expert level ability to evaluate complex portfolios of a single manager and those of a multi-manager program.

The Director has an expert level ability to construct a multi-manager portfolio for an asset class that maximizes expected return and diversifies risk.

Possesses advanced communication skills, both in writing and oral presentations, to the Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer, the Retirement Board, and other stakeholders.

Possesses a strong understanding and ability to interpret monetary and fiscal policy and gauge their impact on financial markets and specific investment portfolios, and is able to contribute to the asset allocation and overall investment strategy for the pension plan as a whole.

The Director has proven skills to motivate, inspire, supervise, and develop other investment professionals assigned to their asset class.

The Director has knowledge of: economics and financial trends of domestic and international markets; indexes for identifying appropriate benchmarks to serve as guide posts in evaluating manager tracking error and overall risk assessment; and personal computers and applicable software products such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Possesses a strong understanding of factors that affect the financial markets such as macroeconomics, financial trends, or behavioral finance, though not necessarily at an expert level.

The Director will have strong capabilities to utilize investment information sources such as, Bloomberg, Albourne, Cambridge, Mercer, Wilshire, Zephyr, Style Research, Risk Metrics, Northern Trust Passport, and other quantitative products & methods.

These minimum qualifications establish the education, training, experience, special skills and/or license(s) which are required for employment in the classification.  Please note, additional qualifications (i.e., special conditions) may apply to a particular position and will be stated on the exam/job announcement.

Education:

Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with major coursework in finance, economics, business administration, accounting, statistics, or similar field.

Experience:

Eight years of investment experience with an investment management firm, pension plan, university, endowment, foundation, corporation, family office, or consulting firm.

License and Certification:

Substitution:

Possession of a graduate degree in Business Administration, Finance, Statistics, Investment Management, Economics or similar field, or possession of the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, may be substituted for an undergraduate degree in a different field than described above.

Three years of investment management experience at a position equivalent to a Director level or higher with an investment management firm, pension plan, university, endowment, foundation, corporation, family office, consulting firm or other investment institution with at least $1 billion in assets, or seven years of such responsibility at a firm of any size, may substituted for an undergraduate degree in a different field than described above.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

ORIGINATION DATE: 10/05/2015

AMENDED DATE:

BUSINESS UNIT(S): COMMN