Tardis Group – Jonathan Turner – Director of Equities, Economics and Strategy

Australia is seeing a significant shift in the way superannuation funds manage their investments. While previously it was the asset managers who managed portfolios on their behalf, increasingly it is the superannuation funds who are bringing that work in-house, particularly for their Australian equities portfolios.  

The migration has changed the employment landscape for equities, economics and strategy professionals in Australia, according to Tardis Group Equities Headhunter of more than a decade, Sydney-based Jonathan Turner.

‘Superannuation assets are becoming very large and that growth is only going to continue - we are still in the early stages of internalising investment management,’ he said.

‘They are internalising some of their investment management - work they’d previously allocate to asset management companies, they are now managing in-house.

‘Equity research analysts are moving from the banks where they were part of the effort to sell stocks, to the superannuation funds and asset managers where they are now part of the buying.’

That movement has seen a spike in demand for sales people who have relationships with portfolio managers in the super funds.

‘Change is happening across the industry, asset management companies are needing to re-shape their offerings, so what we are seeing is a large migration around the market,’ Jonathan said.

There’s also been significant demand for Quantitative Traders this year – people who can devise trading strategies and also have computer programming skills.

‘We find quite a lot of university graduates now come equipped with programming skills and they look to gain experience on a trading desk,’ he said.

‘It is very difficult to find experienced traders who can also programme trading systems – that’s a highly-prized combination – those who have a successful track record of making money and can write code for the strategies, those candidate profiles are highly sought after and rare.’

Right now, the top five roles that Jonathan is finding demand for are:

Jonathan says that recruiters are busier than they have been for a long time in institutional equities in Sydney, with plenty of opportunities in the sector.

There have been well-publicised mass movements and major players have been exiting the market so many of the institutional equity brokers are taking an opportunistic view and snapping up talent.

There is also the continuing push towards boosting diversity in the sector, particularly in the banks, where Jonathan says there’s now concerted effort, not just ‘lip service’.

All of those factors create employment openings and a good challenge for Jonathan Turner at Tardis Group, who is proud of his growing collection of ‘thank you’ notes from clients and candidates.

‘I absolutely love it when I can facilitate a great hire,’ he said.

‘It’s just a big high five when you find that person who fits really well with a company and its people, solves a problem and helps take the business forward.’

Jonathan grew up in Newcastle in the UK, he studied a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and then a Masters in Strategic Human Resource Management at Nottingham Trent University. He matches candidates with roles across Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

He is married and Dad to four young children. He has been with Tardis Group since 2005.

If you are looking for a new challenge and would be open to a confidential discussion about your career progression, please do not hesitate to contact Jonathan Turner directly on jonathan.turner@tardis-group.com / Mob: +61 416 082 783.