Lead, Controls Assurance

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 to 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.

Explore more information about Bridgewater’s culture on our website here.

About the Security Department

The Security Department’s mission is to protect Bridgewater. We secure the investment engine, which manages assets for global institutional clients, as well as all other business operations. We constantly evolve our cyber, physical, and staff security practices to meet business needs and stay ahead of the changing threat landscape.

About Your Role

The Lead, Controls Assurance role is a senior individual contributor of the Security Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) team at Bridgewater. The GRC team is responsible for Bridgewater’s compliance with security regulations, client obligations, and the practical understanding, communicating, and building of programmatic readiness to respond to the security risks facing the company. You will be response for developing, evaluating, testing, and strengthening the design and operating effectiveness of internal security controls across the organization. This role partners closely with business units, technology partners, risk owners, and audit teams to ensure controls remain fit for purpose and regulatory and compliance obligations are met. You will maintain overall oversight and execution of how the Security department manages the firm’s controls posture, including identification or mitigation of any control deficiencies. Additionally, this role will have a significant focus on controls automation and monitoring to further mature the program.

You Will Drive the Following Responsibilities

• Develop and lead the Controls Assurance Program at Bridgewater.
• Plan and execute control testing plans across operational, security, and technology risk areas.
• Gather and review process documentation, evidence, control narratives, and risk-control matrices for accuracy and completeness.
• Identify control gaps, design weaknesses, and instances of non-compliance, and document findings clearly.
• Partner with process and control owners to remediate issues and track remediation to closure.
• Support audit requests, including evidence gathering and walkthroughs.
• Prepare assurance reports and dashboards summarizing testing results for senior stakeholders.
• Drive continuous improvement of testing methodologies, sampling approaches, control frameworks, and tooling and automation.
• Develop risk reporting, metrics, and summary reporting for executive leadership.
• Stay current on regulatory changes and industry standards that impact the control environment.

Key Responsibilities Further Detailed

• The many facets (policy, standards, implementation, assurance) of a mature security governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) program. Bonus if your knowledge is derived from experience operating in a U.S. and/or global asset management regulatory context.
• SOC 1 / SOC 2 criteria, NIST, CIS, and applicable regulatory frameworks, internal control frameworks, and control self-assessment best practices.
• The design, implementation, and maintenance of a comprehensive IT and security controls program.
• Data analysis tools and techniques used to support control testing.
• Leveraging controls automation platforms to streamline evidence collection, monitoring, and reporting for compliance efforts.
• Audit methodologies, sampling techniques, evidence standards, remediation tracking.
• The evolution of regulatory and compliance requires in the investment management space. Bonus if you’ve had exposure to global regulatory regimes beyond U.S. regulators like the SEC and CFTC.

Key to Success in the Role

• Quickly learn about business processes, how technology is used and controlled, and managing associated security controls and risks.
• Develop and execute strategic visions for a mature Controls program.
• Independently plan and execute testing procedures with minimal oversight.
• Navigate different levels of thinking; capture and incorporate feedback from different audiences.
• Summarize complex ideas and requirements into digestible syntheses that convey core ideas.
• Apply conceptual requirements to a programmatic implementation and a plan of action to get from the current state to the desired state.
• Interpret policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements and apply them practically to real processes.
• Exercise sound professional judgment when assessing control adequacy and risk significance
• Communicate difficult or sensitive findings constructively and diplomatically.
• Adapt quickly to new business areas or regulatory changes.

Minimum Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in an analytical, scientific, liberal arts, or related field.
• 7-10 years of experience in risk management, information security, and/or cybersecurity compliance.
• CISA, CISSP, or related certifications preferred.
• Proven track record in designing and building controls assurance programs.
• Experience in a highly regulated and fast-paced industry, especially financial services, is strongly preferred.
• Thrive in an environment focused on excellence
• Are passionate about the importance of security and prepared to think critically about practical security problems without defaulting to “check the box” thinking
• Have a strong ownership mentality and drive for results.
• Value truth, openness, and pursuing excellence.

Onsite Requirements

The onsite requirement for this role is four days onsite flexing between our NYC and CT offices.

Compensation

The wage range for this role is $225,000 to $375,000 inclusive of base salary and discretionary bonus. The expected base salary for this role is between 70-80% 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 with 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