Product Specialist, Charles River Development, Officer

Company Profile

Charles River provides an end-to-end solution to automate front and middle office investment management functions across asset classes on a single platform. Delivered as a hosted service, the solution improves data quality and investment professional productivity, controls risk and lowers technology costs. Charles River serves more than 350 investment firms in over 40 countries in the institutional asset and fund management, private wealth, alternative investments, insurance, banking, and pension markets. Charles River was acquired by State Street in October 2018.

Background

Strong candidates are generally experienced in:

• Providing business/functional support for investment management or trading systems
• Handling complex and challenging application problems

Responsibilities

• Working in a team providing application support for the Charles River IMS via e‑mail, telephone and WebEx.
• Identifying client requirements, devising solutions, defining product enhancement requests and suggesting workarounds where applicable.
• Continually deepening your product, business and industry knowledge through role exposure, keeping up to date with new features, relevant internal training sessions and personal development (e.g. CISI certifications funded by Charles River).
• Making astute use of all available resources to progress investigations: self‑expertise, system documentation, knowledgebase, product specialists, implementation consultants, product engineers.
• Providing best practice guidance, solution design, and instructions to clients and colleagues.
• Taking responsibility for both technical and functional investigations.
• Proactive management of client cases to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction.
• Managing client expectations.
• Appropriately escalating significant issues to line manager.
• Liaising with the product engineering team to detail software enhancement requests and document potential defects.

Skills, Experience & Qualifications Required

Business/Personal Essential

• University degree. Preferably in Business/Financial/Economics discipline. Potentially Computer Science/Engineering.
• Exposure to and knowledge of the investment industry from a buy‑side perspective – largely financial instruments and workflows.
• Knowledge of major players and trends are a bonus.
• Drive to progress personal knowledge.
• Experienced in dealing with users or clients from both a business and technical perspective.
• Ability to perform under pressure and prioritise tasks appropriately.
• Excellent communication skills – verbal and written.
• Self‑motivated and able to demonstrate initiative.
• A desire to own issues to resolution.
• Enjoys complex problem solving and investigation.

Highly Desirable

• Experience with Order Management Systems (OMS).
• Previous application support experience within the Front Office/buy‑side.
• Financial certification (CFA L1 or higher, IMC, Claritas Investment Certificate, CISI Investment Operations Certificate, …).
• General understanding of financial services technologies including integration, development, and data management.
• Exposure to supporting SaaS delivery model.
• Fluency in a second European language.

Technical Essential

• Experience with relational databases preferably Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle.
• Minimum of beginner‑level proficiency in SQL.

Desirable

• Intermediate to advanced‑level proficiency in SQL.
• Experience in tackling complex application problems.
• Past exposure to any scripting or coding language e.g. Java, C#, Python, Perl, C++, VBA.

About State Street

State Street is one of the largest custodian banks, asset managers and asset intelligence companies in the world. From technology to product innovation we’re making our mark on the financial services industry. For more than two centuries, we’ve been helping our clients safeguard and steward the investments of millions of people. We provide investment servicing, data & analytics, investment research & trading and investment management to institutional clients.

Work, Live and Grow. We make all efforts to create a great work environment. Our benefits packages are competitive and comprehensive. Details vary in locations, but you may expect generous medical care, insurance and savings plans among other perks. You’ll have access to a flexible Work Program to help you match your needs. And our wealth of development programs and educational support will help you reach your full potential.

Inclusion, Diversity and Social Responsibility. We truly believe our employees’ diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives are a powerful contributor to creating an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive and reach their maximum potential while adding value to both our organization and our clients. We warmly welcome the candidates of diverse origin, background, ability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and personality. Another fundamental value at State Street is active engagement with our communities around the world, both as a partner and a leader. You will have tools to help balance your professional and personal life, paid volunteer days, matching gift program and access to employee networks that help you stay connected to what matters to you.

State Street is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we consider all qualified applicants for all positions without regard to race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, age, disability, genetic information, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, citizenship, marital status, domestic partnership or civil union status, familial status, military and veteran status, and other characteristics protected by applicable law.