Job Description

Who Are We: Buttonwood Due Diligence - a boutique company located in beautiful Littleton, Colorado.

What We Do: Buttonwood got its start 21 years ago performing third-party, independent investment research and due diligence on alternative investments, mainly for the independent broker dealer community. Fast forward to today and the work we perform has expanded to include the core due diligence services we’ve always provided as well as other investment related services, including education, training, testing, fund structure consulting and more. We’ve also expanded our user base as well, expanding beyond broker dealers to include registered investment advisors, asset managers (Sponsors) and family offices.

• So what the heck is an alternative investment? Basically, it’s any investment that’s not an equity (stocks), debt (bonds) or insurance product.   

While we review and evaluate the full gamut of alternative investment programs, most of the work we perform is focused on real estate, energy and a whole host of other diverse pursuits that generically fall under the banner of private equity.

What’s the Role: Alternative Investment Analyst . This is an analyst role ideally suited to someone earlier in their career. That doesn’t mean we won’t welcome more experienced applicants; we just likely won’t be paying you the highly experienced salary that you deserve. In addition, this position will ideally be filled by an employee able to work full-time in our offices in Littleton, Colorado. As such, preference will be given to local candidates.

Primary Duties:

In the early days of your tenure here you’ll likely do some, or all of the following: 

• Reviewing and evaluating both public and privately offered alternative investment programs;
• Drafting investment committee reports (4-6 pages on average) designed to highlight and present the most notable aspects of each investment offering; 
• Building tests for each investment program for use by Broker Dealer representatives and RIA financial advisors;
• Aggregating and evaluating investment-related information into custom databases covering notable industry metrics; and
• Laundry duties, light floor scrubbing, and window cleaning. Just Kidding! None of that garbage, pun intended, although we will ask you to put your dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

As you progress and grow, your role will expand to include the following: 

• Reviewing and evaluating both public and privately offered alternative investment offerings and then drafting investment research reports (30-50 pages) that convey key details including findings, conclusions, context, analysis, etc.;  
• Asset manager (think General Partner) evaluation and review engagements with attention paid to reviewing and evaluating asset manager operations, processes, capabilities, etc.;   
• Developing expertise regarding industry trends and regulations and their potential impact on Buttonwood, its clients, and the broader investing public;   
• Attending industry events (i.e., Buttonwood’s conferences, ADISA, IPA, etc.) on a limited basis. This will likely include 1-2 events per year (each event is usually about 3 days away from home); and  
• Other roles and responsibilities to be determined. Buttonwood will continue to evolve and innovate, and as such, the role of everyone here will continue to evolve as well.

Preferred Qualifications: This part of the typical job posting is always lame because we know well the pain of thinking something could be a great fit, only to read the qualifications and feel dejected, but trust us, this is not a fun role for someone without a basic set of understanding and skills applicable to the role. That being said, the qualifications to follow are guidelines, we have the flexibility to consider people who maybe fall a bit outside of “preferred qualifications.”

• Undergraduate degree in finance, economics, statistics, accounting or similar  
• Financial services and/or legal experience with securities offerings, alternative investments, or similar areas.  
• Familiarity with alternative investments, topics and trends.  
• Demonstrable communication, relationship, and team skills.  This is just fancy speak for are you a decent person who is able to interact constructively with others without collapsing in on yourself like a dying star.  
• Significant degree of self-motivation, direction, and integrity. We’ll give you work to do, but we have our own work to do so there won’t be someone holding you accountable every hour. We need to trust that you’re not just staring at memes in your office.  
• CFA, CFE or CAIA designation a plus but not required.  
• A basic understanding of, and/or interest in data science would be nice, but not required. 
• Ability to travel within the U.S. may be required on a limited basis to conduct asset manager reviews and attend industry events. 

So What Do You Get: Buttonwood offers benefits including:

• Salary: $60,000-$80,000 depending on fit and experience 
• Health insurance coverage (after probationary period) 
• Retirement plan contributions (after required vesting period) 
• Generous paid time off 
• Relaxed work environment 

Buttonwood is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any applicant for employment or employee on the basis of race, color, religious creed, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other classification protected by applicable discrimination laws.  

Application and Additional Information

To be considered for this opportunity, please reach out. At a minimum we’d like to see your resume but if you also want to send a cover letter that’s great, but here’s the deal, please don’t do the usual “I’m applying for the blah blah blah job…followed by some quasi-insulting exercise where AI took qualifications from our job posting and created a list of why you’re perfect. AI is great, but we value creativity and original thought. To be clear though, there is no “cover letter” requirement. Feel free to just send a resume, that’s totally fine. Please send the resume, and “cover letter” if you choose to include one to Steve Ogrin : sogrin@buttonwoodllc.net (yeah, I’ve been here so long I have a .net address). As for timing, we’ll consider candidates for about a month and then hope to have someone hired a few weeks later.

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