Investment Stewardship Specialist

About Northern Trust
Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.

Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world's most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world's most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

In this newly created role, as an
Investment Stewardship Specialist
you will be responsible for supporting and executing our evolving active ownership activities. The successful candidate for this role will demonstrate a strong understanding of key governance trends and financially material sustainability topics, applicable to investment outcomes across global markets, with a primary focus on issuers in Australia and APAC.

The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to sector and industry specific research and engagement in collaboration with other partners in the broader investment practice. The candidate should demonstrate an understanding of proxy voting and engagement cycles and be willing to attend industry events to gain insights into best practices, which can contribute to their work within the Stewardship Team.

Duties
Engagement and Voting

• Lead and manage engagement with companies on a variety of topics focused on enterprise value creation, corporate governance and financially material sustainability factors that impact client investment outcomes.
• Ahead of any engagement conduct thorough company specific research, to identity and set objectives for the topics relevant to the specific company.
• Monitoring progress towards engagement milestones/outcomes, maintaining accurate records.
• Collaborate with internal teams to produce timely research and marketing materials on topics related to corporate governance and corporate sustainability.
• Contribute to advancing the integration of our stewardship program and our investment decision-making processes, and increasing collaboration with fundamental research analysts, to add their insights to our engagements and proxy voting decisions.
• Act as a primary point of contact for firms wishing to meet on corporate governance, corporate sustainability, and voting related issues.
• Analyse shareholder meeting agendas and related materials to ensure votes are submitted timeously and accurately in accordance with NTAM's proxy voting guidelines.
• Support the firm's Proxy Committee by providing research and recommendations on industry trends and contribute to the ongoing refinement of NTAM's proxy voting guidelines.
• Gain an understanding of investment and shareholder issues gathered through research and contact with a variety of market participants to support position papers and contribute to public policy consultations.

Clients

• Provide support for the Australian institutional and wealth management businesses by attending client meetings and supporting responses to RFPs and other capabilities inquiries.
• Contribute to newsletters and other external facing mediums with case studies and market analysis.
• Contribute to our annual stewardship report and support other corporate level reporting relating to the firm's stewardship activities.

Internal/External Partnering

• Identify, coordinate, and participate in industry events, networking opportunities, and educational forums relating to stewardship.
• Monitor global regulatory developments and engage with relevant industry bodies, as required.
• Contribute to responses to public policy consultations – i.e. regulators, government, notable industry bodies.
• Support internal partner education on stewardship and engagement topics.
• Share best practice in engagement techniques with investment teams, deepening their understanding of global challenges in relation to sustainability and stewardship, and assisting in their identification of material risks and opportunities.

Knowledge/Skills

• Curiosity and a desire to understand developments within the financial services industry, including emerging processes and technologies in the field of investment stewardship.
• Strong understanding of financially material corporate governance and corporate sustainability issues and how they relate to investment.
• Ability to interpret and explain complex business and financial topics, making these relevant for clients, companies and other market participants.
• Strong knowledge of stewardship best practice.
• Excellent written and verbal communication / presentation skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills, the ability to influence and inspire internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to ingest information from multiple sources, attending to detail, synthesising key points and demonstrating sound judgment in forming opinions and recommendations.
• Inclusive, collegiate attitude, strong partnership skills, a team player, that can also work independently.
• Initiative, self-management, time-management and personal discipline are vital, as is the ability to work to short deadlines and under pressure.

Experience

• At least five years' experience in a relevant or complementary field, preferably at a global corporation, asset manager or asset owner.
• Bachelor's degree required.
• Certification, training in regard to ESG matters useful (FSA, CFA ESG Certification), or willingness to study towards.
• Prior experience in corporate governance or stewardship, corporate sustainability, or supply chain sustainability.
• An understanding of integrating governance or sustainability into investment process or corporate operations.
• Fundamental investment research experience would be useful, with CFA or equivalent preferable.
• Proven track record of successfully engaging with senior executives and directors.

Working With Us
As a Northern Trust partner, greater achievements await. You will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture in an organization where financial strength and stability is an asset that emboldens us to explore new ideas.

Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to assisting the communities we serve Join a workplace with a greater purpose.

We'd love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of the world's most admired and sustainable companies Build your career with us and apply today. #MadeForGreater

Reasonable accommodation
Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at

We hope you're excited about the role and the opportunity to work with us. We value an inclusive workplace and understand flexibility means different things to different people.

Apply today and talk to us about your flexible working requirements and together we can achieve greater.