What is the investment banking hierarchy?

The investment banking hierarchy is a ladder of five ranks: analyst, associate, vice president, director (or senior vice president, at the firms that have it) and managing director. Each rank has its own entry point, its own kind of work and a typical span of years, and the same titles are used at nearly every firm, with local variations. This page lays the ladder out; each rank has its own article.

The ranks

Rank	Hired or promoted from	Typical time in the rank
Analyst	College graduates	2 to 3 years
Associate	Third-year analysts, MBAs, law graduates, other industries	3.5 to 5 years
Vice president	Experienced associates, other industries	4 to 10 years
Director or senior vice president	Vice presidents, at the firms that have the rank	Not given
Managing director	Experienced vice presidents, other industries	Not given

Source: The positions table in the textbook cited below; the director row is from its footnote, which gives no years, and the table gives none for managing directors.

The analystWhat does an investment banking analyst do?An investment banking analyst builds the models and presentation pages behind every deal, works long weeks, and usually moves on after two or three years.Jobs and ranks · revised 28 September 2026 · 835 words · 5 sources · 4 min is hired from college and does the models, the research and the presentation pages, in a programme of two or three years[1Source 1David P. Stowell, Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2017), ch. 10: the division, p. 222; the positions, p. 223; each rank, pp. 223–225.]. The associateWhat does an investment banking associate do?An investment banking associate runs the day-to-day of a deal: checking the analysts’ models, owning the presentations and making the numbers tell a story.Jobs and ranks · revised 28 September 2026 · 682 words · 4 sources · 3 min comes from business school or is promoted from the analyst class, manages the details of the deal and owns the presentations[1Source 1David P. Stowell, Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2017), ch. 10: the division, p. 222; the positions, p. 223; each rank, pp. 223–225.]. The vice presidentWhat does a vice president in investment banking do?A vice president in investment banking runs deals day to day, manages the associates and analysts on them, and is the client’s main line to the team.Jobs and ranks · revised 28 September 2026 · 651 words · 4 sources · 3 min runs deals, manages the juniors and talks to the client[1Source 1David P. Stowell, Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2017), ch. 10: the division, p. 222; the positions, p. 223; each rank, pp. 223–225.]. The directorWhat does a director in investment banking do?A director or senior vice president in investment banking sits between VP and managing director, runs deals at a high level and starts to win business.Jobs and ranks · revised 28 September 2026 · 614 words · 4 sources · 3 min, where the rank exists, manages at a high level and starts to be judged on business won[2Source 2Michael E. S. Frankel and Larry H. Forman, Mergers and Acquisitions Basics: The Key Steps of Acquisitions, Divestitures, and Investments, 2nd ed. (Wiley, 2017), “Advisor Staff”, pp. 45–46.]. The managing directorWhat does a managing director in investment banking do?A managing director in investment banking owns the client relationships, wins the deals and is measured on the revenue they bring in each year.Jobs and ranks · revised 28 September 2026 · 671 words · 4 sources · 3 min owns the client relationships and carries a revenue target[1Source 1David P. Stowell, Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2017), ch. 10: the division, p. 222; the positions, p. 223; each rank, pp. 223–225.]. A guide for clients summarises the whole shape: junior staff do the guts of the work, mid-level staff manage the projects, and the most senior people bring in the business, a structure it says applies to auditors and consultants as much as to banks[2Source 2Michael E. S. Frankel and Larry H. Forman, Mergers and Acquisitions Basics: The Key Steps of Acquisitions, Divestitures, and Investments, 2nd ed. (Wiley, 2017), “Advisor Staff”, pp. 45–46.].

What changes on the way up

Read down the table and the work changes in one direction: from producing to owning. Analysts and associates produce the analysis and the pages; vice presidents own the deal; directors and managing directors own the client. The ethnographic account describes the deal team as one or two analysts, an associate, a vice president, sometimes a senior vice president or director, and a managing director, and shows the traffic between the layers, drafts going up for comments and coming back for revision, as one of the main reasons for the juniors’ hours[3Source 3Karen Ho, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Duke University Press, 2009), ch. 2, “The White-Collar Sweatshop”, pp. 85–87.]. The deal team articleWhat is a deal team in investment banking?A deal team is the group of bankers assigned to one transaction, analyst to managing director, plus the lawyers, accountants and client staff around them.Words of the trade · revised 28 September 2026 · 725 words · 8 sources · 4 min describes who does what on a live transaction.

Titles that differ

The five-rank ladder is the one the US textbook gives, but titles vary between firms and countries. One guide to the industry lists graduate trainee, business analyst and analyst at the entry level; senior analyst, associate, senior associate, manager and senior manager in the middle; associate director, vice-president, director, senior vice-president and executive director above that; then managing director, division director, senior managing director, partner managing director, and a top layer of vice-chairmen, chairmen and presidents[4Source 4Philippe Espinasse, IPO: A Global Guide, 3rd ed. (Hong Kong University Press, 2018), §1.6, the ranks and their equivalents (Table 2).]. The same guide notes that “director” and “executive director” do not mean a seat on the board, and that promotion at each step usually takes one to three years, longer between associate and the vice president level[4Source 4Philippe Espinasse, IPO: A Global Guide, 3rd ed. (Hong Kong University Press, 2018), §1.6, the ranks and their equivalents (Table 2).]. The textbook’s table carries the same caveat in a footnote: some banks add a director or senior vice president rung between vice president and managing director, and some do not[1Source 1David P. Stowell, Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2017), ch. 10: the division, p. 222; the positions, p. 223; each rank, pp. 223–225.].

How people move through it

Entry is at two points, analyst from college and associate from business school, with a few lateral hires above that for people with a needed skill; otherwise the senior ranks are filled by promotion or by hires from other banks[1Source 1David P. Stowell, Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2017), ch. 10: the division, p. 222; the positions, p. 223; each rank, pp. 223–225.]. The division works as a meritocracy with a cull: every year the weakest performers, between roughly five and fifteen percent depending on the year and the firm, leave by their own choice or the firm’s[1Source 1David P. Stowell, Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2017), ch. 10: the division, p. 222; the positions, p. 223; each rank, pp. 223–225.]. Analysts are the exception in that most leave by design at the end of the programme, for business school or other jobs, and a fifth to a half, depending on the year and the firm, are kept and promoted[1Source 1David P. Stowell, Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2017), ch. 10: the division, p. 222; the positions, p. 223; each rank, pp. 223–225.]. Above that, the ethnography reports, most bankers never reach managing director, because the deciding criterion is bringing in deals and the rank guards its own numbers[3Source 3Karen Ho, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Duke University Press, 2009), ch. 2, “The White-Collar Sweatshop”, pp. 85–87.].

Frequently asked questions

What are the ranks in investment banking, in order?

Analyst, associate, vice president, then director or senior vice president at the firms that have that rung, then managing director; some firms add partner, vice-chairman or chairman titles above that[1Source 1David P. Stowell, Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2017), ch. 10: the division, p. 222; the positions, p. 223; each rank, pp. 223–225.][4Source 4Philippe Espinasse, IPO: A Global Guide, 3rd ed. (Hong Kong University Press, 2018), §1.6, the ranks and their equivalents (Table 2).].

How many years does it take to reach managing director?

Roughly a decade or more from the start: two or three years as an analyst, three and a half to five as an associate, and four to ten as a vice president or director before the promotion[1Source 1David P. Stowell, Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2017), ch. 10: the division, p. 222; the positions, p. 223; each rank, pp. 223–225.].

Is vice president a senior job in investment banking?

It is the middle of the ladder, not the top. Vice presidents run deals and manage juniors, but one or two ranks sit above them, and the guide to the industry notes that even the director and executive director titles above it do not mean a seat on the board[1Source 1David P. Stowell, Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2017), ch. 10: the division, p. 222; the positions, p. 223; each rank, pp. 223–225.][4Source 4Philippe Espinasse, IPO: A Global Guide, 3rd ed. (Hong Kong University Press, 2018), §1.6, the ranks and their equivalents (Table 2).].

@misc{xlsxdev-2026-investment-banking-hierarchy,
  author       = {{xlsx.dev}},
  title        = {{What is the investment banking hierarchy?}},
  howpublished = {xlsx.dev Wiki},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = sep,
  url          = {https://xlsx.dev/wiki/investment-banking-hierarchy}
}