Overall purpose of Job

Leading a team of 8-10 within Operations, this role reports to the Chief Operating Officer of a successful Hedge Fund. The role will be responsible for ensuring the team provides accurate and consistent support to the business and involves overseeing transaction processing and ensuring all transactions are reconciled with the Administrator and Prime Brokers. The main stakeholders within the business are the traders.

 

The successful incumbent will be capable of working independently but will have support for escalating more complex queries to the Chief Operating Officer. The successful incumbent will have proven experience managing Operations teams specialising in derivatives, bond settlements and / or futures. The candidates may come from either a bank or preferably another Hedge Fund.

 

This is an exciting opportunity to work with a leading Hedge Fund in a role with real autonomy and opportunity to work alongside the front office teams and to have ownership of a functional area that has a direct impact on the business. The Operations function liaises with brokers and administrators to provide operational support for key business stakeholders and clients. Functions include daily trade confirmation and communication, settlement and fails management, cash reconciliation and reporting, client on-boarding and the overall management of related operational issues.

 

Duties and Responsibilities

·        Managing the existing Operations team who support existing funds. To be the central escalation point for the Operations Managers, product control, traders and external service providers.

·        Ensure that all operational activities of the team are well organised, undertaken accurately and in a timely manner.

·        Ability to work with peers to deliver strategic enhancements to support any new funds or business requirements and to manage change with the COO.

·        Ensure professional management of relationships with external and internal parties. Proactively seeking feedback to continually improve relationships and the department’s performance.

·        Create a well controlled support environment, anticipating any issues that may adversely affect the ability to meet deadlines or cause errors, and take action to prevent the risk of occurrences

·        Maintain the continued high morale and motivation of existing operations staff through management practices. Ensure that the ongoing needs of the team are matched by appropriate staff development. This entails all associated people management activities to ensure that staff have effective client focus, including staff training, conducting performance reviews and recruitment interviewing.

·        Undertake the regular review of the processes and systems to recommend and implement appropriate change, instilling a culture of continuous improvement.

·        Keep abreast of market and regulatory changes in regard to products and the Operational impacts.

·        Ensuring team have booked all trades into Kondo+ on a timely basis

·        Ensure production of daily risk reports

·        Liaise with the administrator and investigate deal issues as required and to ensure the satisfactory clearance of such issues

·        To understand the overall Deal Booking process and the roles placed on the Administrator and the Prime Brokers.

·        To reconcile the margin requirement with the Prime Brokers on a daily basis, and complete the required information to confirm the transfer of funds.

·        Ensure the Operations team have checked the Wire transfer forms provided from the administrator

·        To authorise Wire transfers as permitted under the Authorised Signature Policy

·        To maintain statistics relating to the operational performance of the team – this includes deal volumes, brokerage, error rates

To assist the COO with Investment Management Company matters as required

 

Education and Skills

·        Demonstrable track record within Operations preferably in a Hedge Fund, but may be from an investment bank.

·        Knowledge of Derivatives, Bond Settlements and Futures workflow management

·        Previous experience of managing a team of 5 – 10 (or more) people.

·        Ability to cultivate relationships both internally and externally to support the business requirements.

·        A strong leader who is adept at both man management and project management.

·        A fast thinking and analytical individual who has a proven record of developing teams.

·        Very experienced in a similar role and used to dealing with high volumes

·        Numerate

·        Excellent interpersonal and communications skills with the ability to work well with other members of the division

·        Quick decision making skills and willingness to assume responsibility and take ownership of tasks assigned.

·        Ability to work under pressure and in a team

·        Good knowledge of the Approved Products and their use in the modern environment.

Exposure to Sungard Front Arena, and Bloomberg is an advantage