Team Lead - Front Office Solutions

Northern Trust provides innovative financial services and guidance to corporations, institutions and affluent families and individuals globally. With over 130 years of financial experience and nearly 20,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Working with us: As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company that is committed to strengthening the communities we serve!

We recognize the value of inclusion and diversity in culture, in thought, and in experience, which is why we are honored to receive the following awards in 2021:

• Gender Equality Index Member, Bloomberg
• Top Financial & Banking Company, Black EOE Journal, Hispanic Network Magazine, Professional WOMAN'S Magazine

We’d love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of America’s best banks and most sustainable companies! Build your career with us and apply today.

Position Description

This Front Office Solutions is a new strategic business for Northern Trust, which provides a holistic digital+ service offering for some of the most sophisticated institutional investors across the globe, including foundations, endowments, pension funds, corporations, insurance companies, central banks and sovereign wealth funds. As asset owners engage in more complex, data-driven investment approaches to asset allocation, their operational needs and demands for high quality data have skyrocketed. Front Office Solutions provides a holistic, full-service, multi-asset solution that aims to empower in-house investment teams and support their important mission by providing a more comprehensive set of operational services and analytics including portfolio management, investment decision support, operational risk management, CRM/document management and workflow tools.

The Team Lead, reporting to the Manager, will supervise a team of partners responsible for providing a set of dedicated clients with the holistic investment data sets they need to fulfil their various stakeholder requirements as well as identifying solutions for data analysis and reporting challenges which will arise in this ever-changing, dynamic investment environment. This role is designed to be hands-on to better support clients and their direct utilization of the Parilux toolset. The Parilux toolset is at the center of the products and services delivered by FOS. The Team Lead needs to have a thorough understanding of the Parilux toolset and a deep and current knowledge of fund accounting, operations, performance measurement and analytics, and alternatives (private equity and hedge funds) to properly use the toolset and to interpret and report on all toolset output.

Primary Responsibilities

• Responsible for leading and supporting team members in the execution of their daily workflow.
• Responsible for on-going and end of year performance reviews of team members. Team members reporting to the Team Lead include Senior Consultants, Consultants, and Senior Analysts.
• Coordinates new Client onboarding for the assigned team. Supports in the translation of Client requirements and guiding enhanced processes through FOS’s technology and services.
• Assists in establishing a comprehensive project management framework for all facets of the onboarding process and into business-as-usual (“BAU”) operations. This framework will serve as the basis for the relationship’s ongoing operating rhythm.
• Supports the Manager in defining all BAU processes to support all facets of each client’s specific reporting framework(s) – IBOR, TrueNAV, ABOR, CBOR, etc. Responsible for identifying supporting tools and technology to manage BAU and optimize efficiency and the control environment.
• Responsible for reviewing all reconciliation and review of the Client control environment.
• Responsible for the development and ongoing maintenance of Client operating documentation and for ensuring Client documentation is current, applicable, fully reviewed with the Client and signed off on by the Client (and internally) on a periodic basis.
• Responsible for Client training – web-based and onsite. Responsible for any training materials and reference materials required by the Client. This may require development of customized training materials depending on the client’s use of and configuration in the Parilux tool; client investment data; and/or client reporting.
• Responsible for managing all Client reporting – whether facilitated through FOS or otherwise.
• Responsible for understanding and managing to Client’s regulatory requirements and communicating those needs to the larger FOS team to support FOS research and analysis.
• Responsible for educating direct reports and providing specific, analytic guidance and support to team members when interpreting complex system calculations.
• Uses judgment to identify, troubleshoot and resolve day-to-day technical and operational problems.
• Guided by policies and procedures, impacts the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of own team and its contribution to the department.
• Responsible for special projects as assigned.

Required Knowledge & Skills

• Experience working with complex asset owners including Endowments, Foundations, Family Offices, OCIOs, Pension Funds, Sovereign Wealth Funds, and institutional asset managers.
• Strong understanding of institutional investment industry, including markets, instruments, funds and fund structures, trading, etc.
• Deep knowledge of alternative assets and related operational processes (hedge funds, private equity). Demonstrated understanding of private equity transactional impacts on the reporting of unfunded commitments, market value, cost, and other metrics typically associated with private equity (TVPI, DPI, PIC, etc.).
• Experience managing an investment operations team.
• Deep understanding of investment operational processes, transactional impacts, cash movement, accruals, and valuation methodologies.
• Deep understanding of accounting/reporting methods, including IBOR, ABOR, and TrueNAV to support complete and accurate data capture.
• Knowledge of performance measurement concepts and standards including GIPS Standards.
• Understanding of benchmarks and benchmark calculation methodologies across multiple asset classes, including blended and custom benchmarks.
• Prior work experience requiring considerable organizational, planning, and prioritization skills; project management experience.
• Prior experience with multi-asset class portfolio management software.
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio), with particular emphasis on Excel.
• Applies operational business practices and coordinates with other closely related areas to improve efficiency.
• Explains information, conveys performance expectations and handles sensitive issues.

Professional Experience/Qualifications

• A minimum of 7 years of institutional investment industry experience in the following fields:

1. Performance Measurement & Investment Data Analytics (attribution, liquidity, and exposures)
2. Alternative asset operations
3. Investment Operations (analytics, reporting, fund or investment accounting)
4. Fund accounting
5. Financial reporting
6. Accounting

• Investment account data reconciliation – accounting and performance
• Solid experience with the full range of communication skills – written and oral.
• Experience using VBA, Python or other programming language to format large data sets preferred.
• B.A. or B.S. degree.
• Advanced credentials – CFA, CAIA, MBA, or CPA preferred.