Investment Analyst

COMPANY OVERVIEW:

Palisades Group is an alternative asset manager in the global residential credit markets having managed more than $35.8 billion of loans, real estate, and fixed income securities since its 2012 inception. It employs a top-down asset allocation approach across residential whole loans, real estate, opportunistic credit, and fixed income markets in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. The Firm provides clients with a control-oriented management style anchored in asset level risk management, loss mitigation, and value-add strategies.

As of June 30, 2024, Palisades manages mortgage, real estate and fixed income assets that amount to over $18.2 billion in notional balance through a series of separate accounts and discretionary investment funds for globally recognized asset managers, private equity, family office, bank, broker dealer and insurance companies.

Palisades offers individuals an exciting and challenging career in a collegial and collaborative environment. We aim to recruit and retain talented individuals who have demonstrated integrity and intellectual curiosity. We seek individuals who are willing to speak up, constantly striving to improve processes, genuinely excited to tackle complex challenges, technically proficient, transparent, collaborative, highly organized, capable of managing multiple tasks simultaneously, detail-oriented with a focus on both form and substance and driven to fulfilling their commitments.

POSITION SUMMARY:

Palisades is seeking an Investment Analyst to join its growing and dynamic team in Austin, Texas, or Evanston/Chicago, Illinois.

The Analyst’s primary job responsibility will be to support the Transaction Management Team in building and enhancing proprietary investment models, pricing residential mortgage pools, liaising with counterparties for purchases and sales, executing purchase and sale transactions, and creating performance and investor reports and other ad-hoc analysis as needed.

This is a small team, and any candidate must be a team-player, able and willing to work on cross-over projects, able to pick up complex concepts and communicate effectively to both internal and external constituents. The position will allow the candidate to work collaboratively across the Company’s cross-functional teams (Data Research & Reporting, Trading & Analytics, Asset Management, Capital Markets, Transaction Management, and Collateral Management) and to learn from the firm’s industry leading professionals. The ideal candidate will be intellectually curious, a self-starter, have a strong attention to detail, and be able to work under time sensitive deadlines. Excellent written and verbal communication skills are required.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• Learn and maintain proprietary mortgage database through data collection, cleansing, and upload through ETL processes and otherwise.
• Learning, maintaining, and enhancing proprietary investment and pricing models.
• Prepare reports and/or presentations for investors, vendors/ loan servicers, and internal constituencies.
• Coordinate due diligence performed by the Company’s due diligence vendors on asset purchases and sales to ensure timely review and adequate resolution of investor’s/counterparty’s conditions and exceptions.
• Prepare and manage delivery of loan files, ensure the completeness of due diligence materials, and address all related inquiries.
• Coordinate the execution of trade confirmations and bailee letters to ensure timely shipment of collateral files to the investor’s/counterparty’s custodian.
• Review due diligence results against risk factors, trade stips, and mitigating factors (if applicable) and document and discuss findings with the Transaction Manager.
• Tie-out final funding population with investors and facilitate the settlement process including the repricing of the trade, execution of closing documentation, reviewing the funding schedule for accuracy, compiling mortgage loan schedule data, and communicating/confirming settlement funds to treasury department.
• Follow policies and procedures and complete administrative tasks correctly and in a timely manner.

EXPERIENCE, QUALIFICATIONS, AND SKILLS:

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or Economics from a top undergraduate program.
• Experience: 0-2 years in residential loan market ideally with experience in capital markets, hedge fund, or asset management preferred. The Company will consider a recent undergraduate with a strong academic background.
• Proven record of or ability to create spreadsheet-based reports, tools, and analyses. Advanced knowledge of MS Excel and VBA; experience with MS Access, Tableau, SQL, and R is a plus.
• The candidate must be a team player, able to manage multiple projects while maintaining extreme focus, able to pick up complex concepts, and communicate effectively to both internal and external constituents.
• Ability to deal with advanced problems involving multiple facets and variables in standardized or specialty situations.
• The candidate must be highly motivated and work with minimal supervision but also work well with teams.
• Exceptional verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills with the ability to apply common sense to carry out instructions and instruct others, train personnel, write reports, correspondence, and procedures, and speak clearly to customers, employees, vendors, and counterparties.
• Experience with whole loan servicing and loss mitigation workflow is a plus.
• The successful candidate must have excellent organizational skills and be able to meet the demands and deadlines that are a part of this position.  Attention to detail is a must.
• An energetic person who thrives on responsibility and decision-making will be sought.

BENEFITS:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan matching
• Charitable giving employee matching program
• Continuing education and professional certification expense reimbursement
• Wellness stipend (monthly)
• 13 paid holidays
• 3 weeks of PTO
• Friday hours
• Summer Friday hours
• Friday team lunches

Palisades is committed to maintaining a positive and collaborative work environment that is safe and respectful of others; our shared success depends on it. Accordingly, we do not tolerate workplace discrimination, violence, or harassment.

We are proud to create a diverse environment and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. 

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.