Associate Fixed-Income Principal Trader

About Our Company

We’re a diversified financial services leader with more than $1.5 trillion in assets under management, administration and advisement as of year-end 2024. Our team of 22,000 people across 19 countries, serves more than 3.5 million individual, small business and institutional clients. We are a longstanding leader in financial planning and advice, a global asset manager and an insurer. Our unwavering focus on our clients and strong financial foundation connects each of our unique businesses – Ameriprise Financial, Columbia Threadneedle Investments and RiverSource Insurance and Annuities. Here, we foster meaningful careers, invest in the future, and make a difference for clients, institutions and communities around the world.

Job Description

Licensed fixed-income trader on a principal trading desk, initially assigned to municipal securities. The role consistently commits firm capital, holds and positions inventory, and makes independent buying, selling, pricing, hedging, and risk-reward decisions across an assigned scope within established capital and risk limits. It owns assigned inventory and desk deliverables with limited day-to-day direction, supports senior inventory books, and converts market, advisor, and dealer information into actions affecting profitability and risk. It remains below a Junior Trader’s broader product authority, capital responsibility, and exception autonomy.

Key Responsbilities

- Owns end-to-end execution and resolution of assigned principal fixed-income transactions within established authority, capital, and risk limits, including independent buying and selling decisions for inventory positions.
- Executes in assigned and senior trader inventory books as needed, applying judgment to pricing and execution while escalating unusual or higher-risk matters.
- Owns assigned inventory positioning, bid coverage, pricing analysis, and trade-review deliverables with limited day-to-day direction.
- Evaluates relative value, competitive offerings, supply and demand, market movements, aging, concentration, and DV01 exposure to improve turnover, profitability, and disciplined capital use.
- Applies experienced fixed-income knowledge and developing municipal expertise to determine why bonds are priced relative to alternatives across credit, structure, call, liquidity, maturity, and market technicals.
- Converts economic, regulatory, dealer, and order-flow developments into actionable trading and inventory recommendations.
- Applies market, liquidity, credit, concentration, operational, and inventory-risk controls to positions for which the role commits firm capital.
- Establishes hedge positions within delegated authority, including short U.S. Treasury positions for assigned activity or on behalf of senior traders; supports book-level DV01, aging, and concentration reporting; and understands mark-ups/mark-downs, special trade coding, and regulatory reporting.
- Owns risk assessment for assigned decisions across market, liquidity, credit, concentration, operational, and inventory exposures.
- Establishes or recommends U.S. Treasury hedge positions, evaluates risk-reward tradeoffs, monitors book-level DV01, aging, and concentration, and applies mark-up/mark-down, special-coding, and regulatory-reporting requirements.
- Owns analysis of advisor behavior, order flow, inventory turnover, and market trends and converts those insights into distribution and inventory actions.
- Explains complex concepts to advisors, gains cooperation from internal partners, and develops dealer relationships whose quality and activity directly affect execution opportunities and desk profitability.
- Owns assigned desk-development and operating-improvement deliverables, including transfer of knowledge from unusual market and risk scenarios.
- Demonstrates sustained independent judgment and results required for consideration for broader trading authority; progression is earned and not guaranteed.

Required Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Accounting, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
- Series 7 and Series 63 licenses must be active at hire.
- Experienced fixed-income knowledge and demonstrated ability to explain why bonds are priced relative to competitive alternatives.
- Strong pricing, relative-value, inventory, hedging, and risk judgment using supply and demand, aging, concentration, DV01, and market information.
- Acts independently on routine buy/sell, inventory-positioning, and risk-reward decisions within delegated authority; escalates complex or higher-risk judgments.
- Explains difficult concepts to advisors and builds dealer relationships that support execution, future business, and desk profitability.
- Applies principal-trading controls, including mark-ups/mark-downs, special coding, hedging, and regulatory reporting.
- Commercial mindset, professionalism, accountability, initiative, and composure under pressure; full-time Minneapolis office presence.

Preferred Qualifications

- Typically 5–7 years of transferable experience, including relevant financial-services, fixed-income, capital-markets, trading-support, operations, wealth-management, public-finance, investment, or related experience.
- Municipal-securities, principal-trading, inventory-management, or retail fixed-income distribution experience.
- Experience in externally comparable roles such as Associate Fixed Income Trader, Fixed Income Trader I, Municipal Trading Associate, or similar controlled-authority trading roles.
- Experience interpreting credit, pricing, yield, market technicals, advisor activity, inventory turnover, and market-data or trading-platform outputs.

Visa Sponsorship

Applicants must have a valid work authorization that does not now, or in the future, require visa sponsorship for employment in the United States (e.g., H-1B, F-1 CPT, F-1 OPT, TN).

In-Office Collaboration

We are a client-centric, relationship-based business. Working together, in-person, is foundational to how we achieve results. By fostering a culture of face-to-face collaboration, idea sharing, productivity and personal connection, we deliver for our stakeholders — clients, advisors, employees and shareholders. Our employees work in the office at least four (4) days per week, with flexibility to work from home one (1) day per week. Some roles may require additional in-office time or different in-office expectations, and specific requirements will be discussed during the hiring process.

Base Pay Salary

The estimated base salary for this role is $81,700 – $112,300 per year. We have a pay-for-performance compensation philosophy. Your initial total compensation may vary based on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and geographical work location. In addition, most of our roles are eligible for variable pay in the form of bonus, commissions, and/or long-term incentives depending on the role. We also have a competitive and comprehensive benefits program that supports all aspects of your health and well-being, including but not limited to vacation time, sick time, 401(k), and health, dental and life insurances.

Full-Time/Part-Time
Full time

Exempt/Non-Exempt
Exempt

Job Family Group
Business Support & Operations

Line of Business
CLEAR Clearing

Ameriprise Financial is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, military status, veteran status, genetic information, citizenship, disability status, marital status, family status or any other basis prohibited by law.

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for individuals with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, speak to your recruiter to discuss how we can support you.