Operations Analyst - Mesarete Capital in London

About Mesarete:

Mesarete Capital is a London based Emerging Market Credit Investment Manager launched in 2021. We have a team of 26 people, of which five are based in New York and the rest are in our central London office on Golden Square. We are looking for a new team member to join our team in London.

About the role:

Our role is full time office based and the candidate will support the daily operations of the business across middle office and fund accounting with dual reporting into the heads of those areas. You will be expected to quickly integrate into the team and add value straight away.

We are looking for someone with around 5 years experience within operations and will consider candidates from both the buy and sell side but buy side credit product experience is preferred. The right candidate is expected to have a good understanding through experience of the operational risks existing within this type of business, know the workflow, understand how to design and implement good controls and work well as part of a team. A certain level of numeracy and competency with excel and other tech is expected. Attention to detail, a questioning mindset and an ability to coordinate cross departments is key.

Ongoing:

• Key daily point of contact for the Portfolio Managers and wider Investment Team including Analysts on downstream trade workflow. Ensuring proactive, appropriate, and efficient support as it relates to trade execution and operations enabling them to focus on markets.
• Key daily point of contact for the Treasury team including operational support to their collateral and cash management processes.
• Manage day to day BAU processes and workflows within Operations and Fund Accounting and providing effective upward communication and escalation of issues to the heads of these departments.
• We would expect the right candidate to take on increasing responsibility over time particularly in regard to contribute to setting strategic goals for operational efficiency and productivity. This will include work on process improvement projects such as control environments and automation to ensure a stable operating environment and ensure the platform evolves in line with the business and our low-risk appetite and best in class market practice.
• Manage alongside other key stakeholders the day-to-day maintenance and support of our PMS platform including functional updates via hotfixes.
• Help manage external relationships including oversight responsibilities of external providers such as the Funds’ Prime Broker and Administrator.
• Keep process and workflow procedures up to date.
• Handle trade processing downstream to the Funds’ service providers such as the Administrator, Prime Broker(s) and Custodian. This includes managing the full life cycle of trades including affirming OTC Derivatives on various platforms and reviewing cash and position reconciliations.
• Assessment of Corporate Actions with close coordination of the event and elections with Analysts and the Portfolio Managers.
• Approving cash wires.
• Support the area head to ensure accurate shadow NAV accounting on a daily basis and support the monthly review of the administrator prepared NAV and the Valuation Committee process.

Required Skills/Attributes:

• Around 5 years industry experience from the buy or sell side.
• A smart, confident and professional and risk averse approach to all duties and a questioning mindset.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Ability to adapt to change and work well under pressure.
• Pro-active, self-starter.
• Enthusiastic and keen desire to learn.
• Numerate.
• Excel proficiency along with experience of python and SQL is advantageous.