Head of Trade and Position Oversight

This job is with St. James's Place, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.

The Investment Operations Division keeps clients' assets safe by mitigating risk and overseeing fund administrator, custodian and manager activity. They are committed to safely delivering SJP's Investment Approach, meeting regulatory obligations and upholding our clients' trust in the Partnership. By enabling investment teams, they support SJP's growth and excellent client outcomes.

The Head of Trade & Position Oversight leads a middle office oversight function in support of the Investments division. The Trade & Position Oversight team will oversee a broad range of complex and regulatory-driven oversight functions, such as cross-product trade capture, pre and post trade settlement activities, derivative and collateral lifecycle management, overdraft and cash management monitoring, asset servicing, regulatory transaction reporting and the oversight of investment guidelines monitoring.

What you’ll be doing:

• Designing, prioritising and implementing critical middle office change initiatives & regulatory projects.
• Ensuring appropriate systems and controls are in place to monitor and mitigate all middle office related risks that impact NAV and unit pricing along with investment risk management.
• Managing and escalating (as appropriate) risks for middle office functions, ensuring full compliance with SJP's regulatory responsibilities and Group risk management procedures.
• Actively representing the Trade & Position Oversight function in internal and external governance forums.
• Cultivating effective partnerships with a broad range of business stakeholders, service providers and regulatory or industry bodies.
• Providing daily oversight of key regulatory requirements, escalating and remediating errors or omissions as appropriate.
• Setting and overseeing policies, procedures, and processes for all middle office operations related activity and monitoring and enforcing compliance with those standards and arrangements.
• Developing middle office team members in regulatory knowledge and maintain a reporting and management framework that demonstrates regulatory expectations are being met.
• Deputising for the Investment Operations Director, as required.
• Supporting the Investment Operations Director in the oversight of third-party service providers and managers with an emphasis on ensuring accurate, complete and compliant reporting and operationally efficient pre- and post-trade activities.

Who we’re looking for:

A confident leader who will design and implement middle office oversight processes with robust daily controls to oversee the trading and operational activities of investment managers, custodians and service providers.

Essential Criteria

• Strong leadership skills, with experience managing a cross product, multi-functional, middle office teams in financial.
• Extensive middle office operations leadership experience within the Asset management industry, including regulatory transaction reporting oversight and with a strong working knowledge of industry operating models.
• Experience of managing third-party product offerings, including selection, due diligence, and ongoing monitoring.
• Extensive people management and team-building experience, with an emphasis on directing, mentoring, and motivating Team members to their fullest potential.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of derivative and collateral management oversight.
• In-depth understanding of regulatory requirements and industry best practices relevant to SJP's investment products including COLL, UK EMIR, UK SFTR and FUND.
• Experience of dealing with the regulator in respect of inquiries, error escalation and remediation.

Special Requirements:

• Required to travel to other offices and service provider offices.
• Will require out of hours work when projects are nearing completion.