A portfolio manager working in Scotland and with around eight years of experience could earn up to £190,000 (€221,000), according to research into the country’s financial services sector.
A chief investment officer with the same length of service, meanwhile, could be on £180,000-£240,000.
The figures are contained in a salary guide and report focusing on Scotland’s financial services industry that describes fund management as being the most resilient type of business in the country’s financial sector.
A portfolio manager with eight years’ experience in private equity would typically be on less than their public markets counterpart, with an annual salary of £95,000 to £125,000. (The public-markets manager’s salary would span from £130,000 to £190,000.)
Core-Asset Consulting, a headhunter that produced the research, said Scotland’s “battle-scarred” fund management sector – which has an estimated £800 billion of assets under management and 100,000 people in employment – had weathered the Covid-19 pandemic better than any other area in the country’s financial services sector, partly due to “preceding years of adversity, which drove adoption of technology and recognition of the importance of offering employees a better work-life balance”.
Betsy Williamson, founder of Core-Asset, said: “For five years larger fund management firms had been in cost-cutting mode. Ironically, redundancies had turned from a constant flow into just a slow drip when the pandemic hit.
“However, those experiences meant investment houses had already started to move towards flexible working, with a recognition of the importance of culture and work-life balance to attract a more diverse employee base.”
Fund firms were also addressing “one of the most critical factors” facing the industry: attracting, retaining and hiring more female candidates into traditionally male-dominated fields, said Williamson. This meant flexible working hours, holiday allowances, maternity and paternity benefits packages were being recognised.
“Covid propelled the investment industry forward in the acceptance of non-office-based working in a way that no policy, government or corporate had been able to do until that point. This focus on health and wellbeing is going to be essential. We have seen candidates willing to take a lower salary if it is deemed there was a good company culture.”
The salary figures (published in Core-Asset’s ‘Industry Trends and Salary Guide’ report), also showed chief operating officers’ salaries were at £180,000-£210,000; research analysts were on £32,000 to £140,000 depending on length of service; and ESG analysts or managers would be on typically £90,000 to £140,000 with eight years or more of experience.
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