# Structured Credit Executive Search ### Executive Search Structured credit is where credit meets engineering. The product covers everything from rated CLO tranches and CMBS bonds to private bilateral risk-transfer trades, CFOs, synthetic portfolios, and bespoke tranched exposures. Some of it trades in the open market. A lot of it doesn’t. The people who do this work — structurers, portfolio managers, traders, quantitative strategists, relative-value investors — are a small, highly technical community, and we’ve been placing them for thirty years. Structured credit sits inside the broader $13 trillion-plus U.S. structured finance market (SIFMA; Guggenheim, 2024). The product did well through both the 2008 financial crisis (after a painful mid-crisis reset) and the 2020 COVID dislocation. Performance drew a broader investor base — insurance balance sheets, rated-note funds, CLO ETFs — and the seats expanded with it (Moody’s, 2026). We run structured credit as a dedicated practice inside our broader alternative credit search platform. ## What Is Structured Credit Executive Search? Structured credit is a technical specialty. Senior professionals evaluate tranching mechanics, credit enhancement, rating-agency stress methodologies, correlation assumptions, recovery rates, and how a portfolio will actually behave under different scenarios. A lot of structured credit talent also crosses into adjacent specialties — leveraged loans, asset-based finance, CLO equity, risk-transfer. We test for that cross-product fluency. The talent pool is smaller than corporate credit. Platform economics differ sharply between a bank structured credit trading desk, a dedicated tranched-exposure hedge fund, a CLO issuer, and an insurance balance sheet running a structured credit book. ## Structured Credit Strategies We Cover - **CLOs and CLO equity** — broadly syndicated loan, middle-market, and private credit CLOs (covered in depth at our [CLO practice](https://abfglobalsearch.com/strategies/clo/)) - **Securitized bond trading and investing** — ABS, RMBS, CMBS, CLO debt tranches (our [securitized products practice](https://abfglobalsearch.com/strategies/securitized-products/) covers this in depth) - **Private structured credit** — bilateral risk-transfer trades, bespoke tranched portfolios, private ABF tranching - **Collateralised Fund Obligations (CFOs)** — rated securitizations of fund interests, a fast-growing segment driven by insurance demand - **Synthetic structured credit** — CDS-based tranched exposures, correlation books, regulatory capital relief trades - **Structured credit opportunities funds** — multi-strategy funds investing across CLO equity, CMBS, RMBS, and private ABF tranches - **Rated-note feeder structures and insurance-wrapped vehicles** — insurance-optimized wrappers around structured exposures - **Regulatory capital relief (SRT) and significant risk transfer** — bank-to-investor risk-transfer structures growing in both U.S. and Europe ## Who Hires Structured Credit Professionals? - **Alternative asset managers** running dedicated structured credit and multi-strategy credit funds - **Hedge funds and credit-opportunities funds** — long/short, relative-value, tranched exposures, correlation trades - **Banks** — structured credit trading, structuring, and capital solutions desks - **Insurance companies** — building internal structured credit investment and risk-transfer teams - **Pension and sovereign wealth funds** — direct investors and primary LPs - **Private equity-backed structured credit platforms** — acquiring or building franchises - **Rating agencies** — senior analysts covering structured credit ## Roles We Fill - Heads of Structured Credit / Heads of Credit Solutions - Structured credit portfolio managers - Structurers — CLO, ABF, CFO, risk-transfer - Traders — cash and synthetic structured credit - Credit analysts with structured product coverage - Quantitative strategists — correlation, tranche modeling, rating agency methodology - Capital markets and capital solutions professionals - Investor relations and product specialists - Middle office and valuation leads ## Why ABF Global Search **We know the product.** Structured credit has its own language — tranche thickness, attachment points, detachment points, correlation, WAS, WARF, OC/IC tests, synthetic CDS spreads, rating agency stress methodology. We test for fluency. **Deep relationships.** Our network runs through structured credit PMs, structurers, traders, and quant strategists at banks, alternative managers, insurers, and hedge funds. **Cross-product context.** Structured credit talent overlaps with CLOs, securitized products, asset-based finance, and leveraged loans. **Pace.** Structured credit hiring windows are short, especially around fund launches and new-product build-outs. ## Frequently Asked Questions **What’s the difference between structured credit and securitized products?** They overlap. Securitized products typically means the tradeable bond universe — ABS, RMBS, CMBS, CLO debt. Structured credit is broader — it includes the tradeable bonds plus private bilateral structures, CLO equity, risk-transfer trades, CFOs, and synthetic exposures. Senior professionals often work across both. **What’s hiring most right now?** As of early 2026, CFOs (driven by insurance regulatory capital demand), regulatory capital relief / SRT trades, private credit CLOs, and CLO ETFs / rated-note wrappers are all active. The insurance balance sheet build-out of structured credit teams has been a major hiring theme. **Can you build an entire structured credit platform?** Yes. Head of structured credit through PMs, structurers, traders, analysts, and quants. **How do you source candidates?** Relationships. Structured credit is a small community. The best people move through direct conversations. ## Looking for Top Alternative Credit Talent? Whether you’re launching a new structured credit platform, adding a senior PM, building a CFO structuring team, or staffing a risk-transfer desk, we can help. Bill Ebinger Founder, ABF Global Search bill@abfglobalsearch.com 917-719-6413 ## Citations - SIFMA — https://www.sifma.org/ - Moody’s — _Global Structured Finance Outlook 2026_ — https://www.moodys.com/web/en/us/insights/credit-risk/outlooks/global-structured-finance-2026.html - Moody’s — _Global Leveraged Finance and CLOs Outlook 2026_ — https://www.moodys.com/web/en/us/insights/credit-risk/outlooks/global-leveraged-finance-and-clos.html - Guggenheim Investments — _The ABCs of Asset-Based Finance_, 2025 - Guggenheim Investments — _Understanding Collateralized Loan Obligations_, Q4 2024 - Structured Credit Investor — https://www.structuredcreditinvestor.com/ - Creditflux — https://www.creditflux.com/