Finance Associate, Business Planning & Analysis

About Bridgewater 

Bridgewater Associates is a premier asset management firm, focused on delivering unique insight and partnership for the most sophisticated global institutional investors. Our investment process is driven by a tireless pursuit to understand how the world’s markets and economies work – using cutting edge technology to validate and execute on timeless and universal investment principles. 

Founded in 1975, we are a community of independent thinkers who share a commitment for excellence. By fostering a culture of openness, transparency, and inclusion, we strive to unlock the most complex questions in investment strategy, management, and corporate culture. 

Explore more information about Bridgewater on our website here. 

Our Culture 

Our culture is anchored in excellence, meaning constant improvement, and it is deeply tied to our mission. Because markets are objective, competitive, and getting smarter everyday, we need to keep rapidly improving to have any chance of beating them. Truth is our most essential tool for engaging with the markets and constantly improving because once you know what's true about your problems and opportunities, you can determine how to get better. Valuing truth means being transparent about your decision-making and mistakes, giving and receiving feedback with humility, and fighting for the best answers over hierarchy, ego, or self-interest. Operating this way is hard – it's only possible because we build meaning in our work and relationships. This meaning comes from the audacity of the mission, and the joy of working alongside people who make you a better version of yourself. The culture, like Bridgewater itself, is always evolving. In 1997 our founder Ray Dalio wrote down his lessons, starting with a Philosophy Statement which remains our foundation. This later evolved into a set of 300+ Principles. In 2022, when Ray transitioned the company, we re-underwrote several of those principles and evolved others, with a specific focus on Meritocracy. Today the culture sits, alongside our people, as our most important edge. When we get it right, it’s the engine that powers everything else. 

About the Business Planning and Analysis Team

The Business Planning and Analysis team serves as the strategic financial partner to Bridgewater’s business leaders. This team of elite finance professionals ensures that department leaders across BW have a holistic understanding of the financial impact of business decisions by engaging stakeholders on unique real-time analysis of all relevant financial data. The team is responsible for owning the story behind the numbers and using that knowledge to help shape business decisions. The Business Planning and Analysis team also offers a critical, independent perspective; ensuring each dollar maximizes business outcomes and ultimately shareholder value. While each team member primarily partners with a specific business unit, these diverse financial experts often work with teams across the company, gaining unique insights into Bridgewater’s business goals and processes. The team increasingly harnesses AI to deepen analysis, accelerate insight, and push the boundaries of what strategic finance partnership can deliver. 

About Your Role 

The Finance Associate will be a critical driver of Finance’s strategic partnership with Bridgewater’s business leaders. The Finance Associate holds a clear story around the numbers supporting both the strategic projects that shape the business and the management and financial reporting and processes that drive it. Putting together this story requires deep and high-level engagement with leaders across the company to understand business goals, and the independent thinking to engage those business leaders on questions around their metrics. The Finance Associate must operate critical financial processes, safeguard BW’s financial resources to maximize shareholder value, while simultaneously evolve processes to manage risks, improve financial insights and inform business outcomes more effectively. Above all, the role centers on strategic partnership: shaping decisions before they are made and helping leaders deploy resources against their highest-conviction opportunities. 

You will drive the following responsibilities: 

• Partner with business leaders to help identify and shape strategic opportunities
• Pressure-test unit economics, pricing, and capacity before the business commits resources 
• Model compensation plans and help structure deals before they are signed 
• Track capital deployment deal-by-deal from commitment through realization, and use AI to make approvals and controls faster and sharper 
• Own end-to-end partnership between finance and a particular business unit of the company, including continuously evolving the way that finance provides strategic value to the business 
• Drive yearly financial planning process in partnership with senior leaders at the company, including shaping and producing a multi-year budget reflective of business priorities 
• Craft board-level communications on high-ROI investment cases for the company 
• Influence business decisions through proactively driving unique analyses and shaping the forecast; including comprehensive modeling to inform decision-making 
• Take financial analysis to the next level by bringing leadership into their financial narrative – communicating the story around the numbers including running financial conversations, preparing presentations and communications to leadership, and having a seat at the table in financial conversations 
• Serve as an independent financial control, ensuring that each dollar is accounted for and spent wisely

You will be a click for the role if:  

• Want to operate at the heart of one of the world’s leading asset management firms, and are energized by using AI to redefine what finance can do
• Possess an ownership mentality with a track record of driving impact through creative problem solving, and owning solutions from ideation to execution
• Think analytically, logically, and agilely; can quickly iterate in a fast-paced and high-performance environment
• Excel at building relationships across stakeholders, including communicating effectively to senior leadership
• Can balance a high degree of professionalism with independent thinking and a willingness to use data and logic to question the status quo and get to the best outcome

Minimum Qualifications:  

• 1–4 years of analytical experience in a field such as corporate finance, FP&A, accounting, investment banking, management consulting, business planning, etc.
• Demonstrated experience building financial models, scenario analyses, and structured recommendations to support business decision-making
• Advanced proficiency with the core tools of modern finance, including expert-level Excel, plus hands-on experience using AI tools and large language models to raise the speed and quality of analysis
• Strong ownership mindset with the ability to take initiative, solve problems creatively, and carry work from idea through execution
• High analytical horsepower with the ability to adapt quickly in a fast-paced, high-performance environment
• Exceptional communication skills, including the ability to partner with senior leaders, ask sharp questions, and build trust through clarity and sound reasoning
• Comfort challenging assumptions thoughtfully and bringing data-driven perspectives to discussions
• Interest in leveraging technology and staying current on AI and automation trends to improve efficiency and decision-making
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, ensuring timely, high-quality deliverables
• Bachelor’s degree with a strong academic record

Physical Requirements  

This role requires a 4-day onsite requirement alternating between our NYC and Westport campuses.   

Compensation

The expected total compensation for this position is $120,000 - $180,000 inclusive of base salary and discretionary bonus. The expected base salary for this role is between 80-90% of this wage range.

Why Choose Bridgewater? 

It takes all types to make Bridgewater great. We seek a diverse group of innovative thinkers and push them to engage in rigorous and thoughtful inquiry. We develop people through an honest examination of their abilities and performance, enabling personal growth and professional development. We strive to provide you opportunities that will challenge you and unlock your potential. 

One of our core priorities at Bridgewater is to enable our employees to build a great life and career, and we believe our benefits are an important extension of that philosophy. As such, currently Bridgewater offers a competitive suite of benefits. Explore more information about Bridgewater’s benefits on our website here.   

Bridgewater reserves the right to change its current benefits program at any time, in a manner that is consistent with applicable federal and state regulations. This job description is not a contract and confers no contractual rights, privileges, or benefits on any applicant or potential applicant. Bridgewater has the right to change any and all terms of this job description, including, but not limited to, job responsibilities, qualifications and benefits. Nothing in this job description constitutes an offer or guarantee of employment. Please note that we do not provide immigration sponsorship for this position. 

Bridgewater Associates, LP is an Equal Opportunity Employer