Implementation & Proposal Analyst

Sequoia Financial Group is a growing Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), headquartered in Northeast Ohio, offering financial planning and wealth management services. At Sequoia, we exist with a singular purpose: to enrich lives. Our values define how we behave and guide us through the pursuit of our purpose to enrich lives. At Sequoia, our core values are:

• Integrity.  We act in the best interests of others by providing an honest, consistent experience for our clients and team. 
• Passion. We pursue our full potential, seeking to continually enhance and evolve our ability to serve our clients and team.
• Teamwork. We subordinate our egos to work together for the benefit of our clients. 

Our promise to team members is that you will grow with us. From experienced advisors to new college grads to transitioning principals, every team member will find Sequoia a place to refine their professional mission, move into new opportunities, go deeper, and lead further. We are built to help you build a career here as a long-term contributor in our work to enrich lives for generations.

Summary of the Position

The Implementation & Proposal Analyst is a member of Sequoia's Investment Implementation department and reports to the Investment Implementation Lead. This role is Sequoia's subject matter expert on investment proposals, the owner of how a proposal is built, what it says, and the standard it must meet; it also supports the investment of client assets at onboarding. Together, those are the two points at which the firm's investment strategy is first explained to a client and then made real in their portfolio.

On the proposal side, the analyst translates advisor input into a recommended strategy drawn from Sequoia's investment platform, models tax and transition impact before a proposal is presented, and holds every proposal to a consistent standard. As the subject matter expert, the analyst owns the proposal methodology and technology, continuously evaluates how technology can streamline the process and elevate the deliverable, serves as the reference point for advisors and the Investment Implementation team on what the process can and cannot support, and trains and reviews others who build proposals.

On the implementation side, the analyst plans and executes the transition of newly funded assets into the agreed strategy and confirms that what the client agreed to is what the client owns before the relationship is handed to Investment Operations.

• Reports To: Investment Implementation Lead.
• Direct Reports: None.
• Work Arrangement: Hybrid.
• Travel: Limited

Responsibilities

• Serve as Sequoia's subject matter expert on investment proposals, owning the proposal methodology, standards, and technology, and acting as the reference point for advisors, marketing, compliance and the Investment Implementation team on what the process supports.
• Build investment proposals for prospective and existing client relationships, translating advisor input on client objectives, constraints, and existing holdings into a recommended allocation drawn from the firm's strategies.
• Model the tax and transition impact of a proposed strategy before it is presented, including embedded gains, cost basis, holding periods, concentrated positions, and account-level restrictions.
• Train, support, and review the work of other Investment Implementation team members who build proposals, to ensure a consistent deliverable.
• Maintain proposal templates, analytics and comparison exhibits, and standard disclosure language, coordinating with Compliance on required language and with Marketing on presentation standards.
• Evaluate and adopt technology that strengthens the proposal process, improving accuracy, turnaround, and the quality of the client-facing deliverable.
• Manage the proposal queue against turnaround expectations, keeping advisors informed on status and escalating capacity conflicts and time-sensitive requests to the Investment Implementation Lead.
• Partner with Portfolio Strategists and Investment Research on strategy selection questions, custom or non-standard requests, and proposals that fall outside the published lineup.
• Support onboarding of newly funded relationships, inventorying transferred positions and confirming account structure, strategy assignment, and client-specific restrictions before assets are invested.
• Build and execute transition plans that move client assets into the agreed strategy, sequencing activity with attention to tax consequences, wash sales, holding periods, and settlement timing.
• Place and confirm trades in the firm's trading and rebalancing platform, verifying post-trade that portfolios are aligned to the assigned model or transitioning to target.
• Serve as an operational point of contact for advisors on proposal and onboarding questions, timelines, and status.
• Provide implementation coverage across the broader Investment Implementation team, including SMA and Sentinel workflows, during peak cycles and absences.
• Support proposal and onboarding volume associated with new client relationships and firm acquisitions.
• Identify and drive improvement and automation across proposal and implementation workflows, reducing manual steps and cycle time.
• Document and maintain procedures for proposal and implementation workflows as a current operating record rather than a one-time exercise.
• Maintain compliance with all internal policies and procedures.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Required Skills / Experience

• Bachelor's degree.
• Five or more years of experience in financial services, investment operations, portfolio implementation, investment analysis, or a comparable analytical role.
• Direct experience building investment proposals or client-facing investment presentations in an RIA, wealth management, or asset management setting.
• Working knowledge of asset allocation, portfolio construction, and the mechanics of taxable and tax-deferred accounts.
• Demonstrated ownership of a recurring, deadline-driven process where errors are visible to clients.
• Organized with strong attention to detail and accuracy in a deadline-driven environment.
• Excellent analytical, logical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to present investment concepts clearly to advisors and in client-facing materials.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent requests and prioritize against advisor and client deadlines.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.

Preferred Skills / Experience

• Experience with proposal, analytics, or risk-profiling tools such as Nitrogen, Morningstar Direct, or YCharts.
• Experience with trading and rebalancing platforms such as Tamarac or Orion.
• Familiarity with tax-aware transition analysis and tax-lot management.
• Exposure to separately managed accounts, model marketplaces, or alternative investment vehicles.
• Experience serving as the process owner or subject matter expert for a firm-wide workflow, including training others on it.
• Salesforce experience.
• Progress toward the CFA or CFP designation.

Competencies

• Accuracy and Diligence. Produces consistently precise work in an environment where a single proposal error reaches a client in print, and builds personal checks into routine processes rather than relying on downstream review.
• Communication Discipline. Treats the proposal as a communication control rather than paperwork, and holds language, math, and risk framing to the same standard on every request regardless of who is asking.
• Analytical Judgment. Understands the mechanics behind an allocation and a transition, distinguishes a reasonable result from an anomaly, and knows when to investigate, when to escalate, and when to proceed.
• Ownership and Follow-Through. Carries a relationship from proposal through funding and full investment without losing track of open items, and closes them without prompting.
• Client and Advisor Orientation. Recognizes that the proposal is the first explanation a client receives of the firm's investment strategy, and that onboarding is the moment intent becomes reality.
• Technology and Process Orientation. Sees the proposal process as something to be continuously improved rather than inherited, and uses technology to raise the quality and efficiency of the deliverable over time.
• Collaboration. Works effectively with advisors and across Investment Research, Portfolio Strategists, Investment Operations, Client Service, and Compliance.
• Discretion and Fiduciary Mindset. Handles sensitive client and financial information with confidentiality, and acts in the best interest of clients consistent with Sequoia's obligations as a fiduciary.