Alpha Portfolio Services - Vice President

Who we are looking for
The Alpha Portfolio Services team is responsible for ensuring the Investment book of records is accurately maintained and ensuring accurate client portfolios are reflected on State Street platforms.
The role will build and lead the functional support to deliver best-in-class functional support, client service and problem resolution for the Charles River IMS application in partnership with implementations, technology, data, front, middle and back office teams, as well as contracted third-party vendors.
Our team is:

• Passionate about innovation
• Knowledgeable about global portfolio management, trading, compliance and analytics across asset classes
• Committed to a streamlined client experience
• Dedicated to helping our clients make easier and more informed investment decisions to optimize returns and manage risk.

Why this role is important to us
State Street Alpha is the first front-to-back asset servicing platform for institutional and wealth management firms. Alpha brings together real-time data and asset intelligence across the investment lifecycle to help them make better decisions and deliver growth for our clients. The team you will be joining is responsible for providing seamless service to Alpha Clients for the full spectrum of needs from operational, technical, data and service questions to incident response related to the Alpha platform.

What you will be responsible for
As an Alpha Portfolio Services lead you will:

• Collaborate with the implementation team to build, test, and roll-out the new service functions.
• Manage and lead support associates to deliver best-in-class support using frameworks for service consistency, streamlining operational processes for resolving inquiries/issues with a sense of urgency, and ensuring work is documented for data quality and process transparency.
• Proactively communicate with the client and executive team to manage client/stakeholder expectations, provide updates on high priority issue resolutions and timelines, and identify improvement opportunities for product and service performance.

Managerial Responsibilities:

• Ensure that your team has clear understanding of their reporting lines, authority levels, scope of responsibilities (including those delegated to them and those they delegate), objectives, training and competency requirements plus progress is reviewed regularly in line with Company policy, and are regulatory registered where appropriate for their role Develop effective working relationships and communications with staff and ensure that staff are motivated, developed and supported.
• Establish and monitor systems of control, delegated authority and escalation procedures so that the business complies with internal policies and external regulations and can be managed effectively Adhere to the delegation and oversight (management information and escalation) framework in the performance of daily tasks. This includes taking proactive action to ensure there is adequate production of management information that is fits for purpose, and issues are raised as appropriate
• Establish and monitor an effective delegation framework to ensure that tasks are performed by staff members with appropriate capacity and authority level (based on knowledge, skills and competence).
• Establish and monitor an effective oversight framework to ensure that issues are appropriately identified, escalated and resolved. This includes: a) ensuring that appropriate management information is received, considered and challenged as appropriate at intervals proportionate to the risks; and b) that staff members have clear understanding of the escalation path/principles
• Establish and nurture a culture of 'Risk Excellence' within the team, encourage an environment of openness that welcomes effective challenge and supports open discussion.
• Ensure that you make reasonable decisions by exercising reasonable care when considering information available to you. This includes taking proactive action to ensure that the information you have is suitable and adequate. Establish and nurture a culture of individual ownership of tasks to embed a clear individual sense of accountability into staff members' behaviour in performing their roles.

What we value
These skills will help you succeed in this role

• Deep working knowledge of financial instruments and the investment lifecycle, including Equity, Fixed Income, Derivatives and Combinations.
• Proven ability to lead a high performing functional support team with experience effectively building processes, hiring, coaching, supervising, and evaluating team members
• Exceptional relationship and collaboration skills in order to cultivate and grow relationships and partner/influence others to deliver best-in-class service.
• Strong communication and presentation skills including for executive audiences
• Strong prioritization and strategic decision-making skills , with the ability to manage multiple and competing priorities
• Client-service mindset
• Process and efficiency oriented

Education & Preferred Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience, including 2+ years of experience in a supervisory/people management role
• Bachelor's/Master's degree in Finance, Economics, or other relevant area
• CFA, CIMA, CIIA, or CFS certifications, preferred
• Familiarity with industry software providers to promote platform interoperability (i.e., Bloomberg PORT, CRD, BRS Aladdin, SimCorp Dimension, Factset, Fidessa Minerva, Eze Software, etc.), preferred
• Experience with Salesforce Service Cloud and/or JIRA, a plus