Middle Office Strategic Onboarding & Implementation Associate in Edinburgh

We’re looking for a Capital Markets Strategic Onboarding & Implementation Associate with strong experience in investment operations and middle office environments to help us shape better retirements across the UK. In our Middle Office team, you’ll be part of a niche skill set, playing a key role in delivering the effective onboarding of new instruments, counterparties and investment activity across public and private markets.

Job Type: Permanent

Location: This role will be based in either our London, Telford, Birmingham or Edinburgh office (3 days per week in the office), with some time working between the office and home. There will be some travel between our Standard Life offices.

Salary and benefits: From £41,800 (subject to experience) + bonus, excellent pension (pro-rated) scheme, private medical insurance, electric vehicle scheme, 38 days holiday incl. Bank Holidays (pro-rated), plus 12x salary life assurance, career breaks, income protection, 3x volunteering days and much more!

Who are we? We’re Standard Life, a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement savings and income. We champion the belief that everyone’s journey to and through retirement can be better, and for more than 200 years, we’ve been helping our customers plan and prepare for their financial futures.

Middle Office is a key support function for the Retirement Solutions & Asset Management Front Office. It has wide ranging accountability ensuring operational control of investment activities, supporting the Group and AM governance framework, and delivery of investment reporting. The current Credit & Rates and Strategic Onboarding & Implementation Middle Office teams create a multi-asset class Middle Office team. This offers new joiners the chance to learn front to back management of a wider asset set.

The role covers public and private debt/investment reporting, pre and post trade lifecycle management including KYC, KYA and AML Controls and Policies in conjunction with supporting successful Bulk Purchase Annuities and Asset Transfer transactions. The role will also involve coordinating approval of new instruments by ensuring internal capabilities across several functions within Standard Life, offering support and guidance to ensure new instruments can be supported within the existing system architecture.

A key focus of this role will be to ensure accurate and timely capture and reporting of investments through internal systems requiring coordination of activities amongst internal functions and key outsourced service providers. In particular, the role will require experience in trade capture, Asset Transfers, Bulk Purchase Annuities, settlement, lifecycle management, onboarding, AML due diligence, investor and regulatory reporting.

Key Responsibilities

• Support pre and post Trade Life Cycle activities across multiple assets classes.
• Working closely with L1 Compliance, assist with documentation and screening process for KYC/CDD processes during the onboarding process.
• Working closely with the BPA Team and other internal Stakeholders to land high value BPA Transactions within set timeframes and stringent measures.
• Co-ordinate and ownership of asset transfers related to BPA deals, including data validation and coordination of transfer instructions.
• Own the trade capture process for BPA's, Asset transfers and some Private Market transactions into internal reporting systems (InVista and Blackrock Aladdin) and downstream feed to Third Party Administrators (TPA) and Risk systems.
• Review of post trade investment activities amongst internal functions.
• Review of post trade investment activities amongst external parties: External Portfolio Manager’s, HSBC Security Services (TPA), JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, and BlackRock Solutions.
• Ownership of tasks completed within agreed timelines and ability to prioritise changing workloads.
• Build strong, collaborative relationships with other Middle Office functions and key business stakeholders throughout Standard Life.
• Develop an understanding of key functional processes and controls in line with internal policies, good market practice, and regulatory guidelines.
• Contribute to documentation updates and continuous improvements of operational processes.

What are we looking for?

• Asset Management background or Oversight of Asset Management Middle Office Function.
• Demonstrated experience delivering accurate, high‑quality operational or investment support work, with clear ownership of outputs and attention to detail in a fast-paced, regulated, deadline‑driven environment.
• Strong data and analytical capability, evidenced by hands‑on use of Excel at intermediate to advanced level (e.g. formulas, pivot tables, lookups); exposure to Power BI, SQL or VBA is advantageous.
• Experience supporting or contributing to process improvement, including adapting to change, updating documentation, or embedding new ways of working within a team.
• Proven ability to manage personal workload independently, meeting deadlines while working across multiple tasks or priorities, and escalating issues appropriately when required.
• Clear, professional communication skills, with experience working collaboratively with a range of internal teams and/or external counterparties to support operational or investment processes.
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, with evidence of coordinating tasks, tracking actions, or supporting projects in a structured and reliable way.
• Analytical and problem‑solving skills, demonstrated through the ability to investigate issues, assess data or processes, and propose practical solutions within defined controls or frameworks.

We want to hire the whole version of you. We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you. If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best. We’re reviewing applications as they come in, so apply early to avoid missing out.