Senior Investment Operations Specialist - 12 month contract

Company:

Mercer

Description:

What can you expect:

Mercer’s Investment Management business, Investment Solutions International (IS), is seeking a highly motivated and detail-oriented professional to join our Operations team.  The ideal candidate will have a strong and diverse background across Funds/Asset Management with 8+years of experience within an Asset Manager or Administrator and a solid understanding of core Fund/Investment Operations, including Fund Accounting, Middle Office and Transfer Agency. The role focuses on ensuring the accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of Mercer’s Fund Expenses and Client Fee Processing as well as the effective oversight of Regulatory Reporting processes. While prior experience in a regulatory reporting or fund expense’s role is desirable, it is not essential. Strong fund accounting skills and technical knowledge of European investment products are required.

What can you expect:

Mercer is one of the fastest growing investment solutions entities globally, with a rapidly expanding client base and continued strong growth anticipated. Our fund range was launched in Europe in September 2006 and currently consists of c.140 Irish domiciled funds across 5 legal structures. In addition to the ability to provide bespoke solutions to large, sophisticated clients these funds provide building blocks to support Mercer’s wider range of investment and risk management solutions targeting the institutional marketplace.  Assets Under Management (AUM) at a local level is approx. $200bn and $700bn at a global level.

The Operations Unit is responsible for the on-boarding of new clients into the funds, launching new funds, client and fund rebalancing, management of underlying investment manager changes, NAV and valuation oversight, fund expenses, regulatory & tax oversight, management of third party service providers, operational infrastructure changes, development and maintenance of relationships with both internal and external clients and adherence to strict risk controls.

This role will sit within Regulatory Reporting with primary focus on Fund Expenses & Invoicing together with some regulatory oversight responsibilities. This is a high-performing group responsible for oversight of all regulatory reporting (e.g., MiFID II, AIFMD, MMFR) fund expenses, and tax obligations for Mercer’s fund range. This includes managing key service providers and overseeing reporting to Mercer.

This is a high-visibility role responsible for delivering accurate, timely regulatory & fund expenses reporting across a large diverse Irish Funds range. The successful candidate will take ownership of key reporting processes, work closely with internal and external stakeholders and contribute to ongoing data and reporting transformation initiatives. You will manage the delivery of business-as-usual (BAU) and team projects as required, become a subject matter expert, and use your initiative to navigate complex queries as well as actively contributing to enhanced operational processes and controls initiatives.

We will count on you to:

• Quickly develop in-depth knowledge of Mercer’s fund structures and portfolio solutions.
• Own, drive and deliver your work within your remit and lead by example.
• Work collaboratively with offshore teams to ensure delivery of high quality output ensuring high levels of governance and oversight.   
• Train and develop junior members of the team as needed.
• Have a strong risk focus with emphasis on building processes that are efficient but controlled.
• Be able to research investment regulations and fund structures, interpret key points as they apply to the Mercer IS business and summarise in a clear and succinct manner to aid project deliverables.
• Lead change and process enhancement projects for the team as required.
• Support team manager with key strategic initiatives as required.
• Support the onboarding and oversight of service providers as required.  (SLR, SLA, risk assessments etc).
• Actively contribute to automation and process improvements, including enhanced data validation and management processes.
• Support the advancement of our Operating Model as we adapt to the needs of new client types.

What you need to have:

• 6+ years experience in Asset Management, fund administration or investment operations with strong Fund Accounting and academic background (Business/Accounting/Finance/Economics).
• Strong analytical mindset with ability to interpret large datasets and manage data quality.
• Proficiency with data tools (Excel, SQL or similar) required, and data management solutioning exposure desirable.
• Experience in regulatory reporting/compliance and or fund expense