Consultant - Front Office Solutions

Consultant – Front Office Solutions

Front Office Solutions

Front Office Solutions is a new strategic business for Northern Trust that provides a holistic digital+ service offering for some of the most sophisticated institutional investors across the globe, including foundations, endowments, pension funds, corporations, insurance companies, and sovereign wealth funds. As asset owners engage in more complex, data-driven investment approaches to asset allocation, their operational needs and demands for high quality data have skyrocketed. Front Office Solutions provides a holistic, full-service, multi-asset solution that aims to empower in-house investment teams and support their important mission by providing a more comprehensive set of operational services and analytics including portfolio management, investment decision support, operational risk management, CRM/document management and workflow tools.

Job Description

The Consultant will be responsible for investment data administration and providing clients with the holistic data sets which they need to fulfil their various stakeholder requirements. Researching and identifying solutions for data challenges for institutional clients.

The key responsibilities of the role include:

• Acts as daily point of contact for operational client queries including accounting and general operational queries.
• Acts as point of initial review for all investment data. Includes review of (but not limited to):
• Investment transactions
• Investment valuations
• Manager estimates
• Plan income / Expense items
• Plan contributions / Spending withdrawals
• Underlying manager exposure data
• Benchmark data
• Responsible for supporting data management with respect to transactional impacts on accounting, realized gain/loss, cost, etc.
• Responsible for secondary review of all investment reconciliations. Includes reconciliation of cash, positions, performance, transactions, alternative investment metrics (unfunded commitment, etc.)
• Serves as secondary reviewer of investment and composite performance calculations, including timeweighted return and IRR calculations.
• Supports client onboarding including initial client discovery sessions, project planning, setting client expectations and facilitating continuous client updates throughout the onboarding process.
• Assists in training new FOS partners in the accounting and operational space.
• Participates in ongoing process improvement discussions.

Required Knowledge & Skills:

• Experience working with complex asset owners in one or more of the following fields:
• Performance measurement (attribution, liquidity, and exposures)
• Alternative asset or private equity operations
• Investment operations (fund or investment accounting)
• Experience working with complex asset owners including Endowments, Foundations, Family Offices, OCIOs, Pension Funds, Sovereign Wealth Funds, and institutional asset managers.
• Demonstrated understanding of private equity transactional impacts on unfunded commitments, market value, cost, and other metrics typically associated with private equity (TVPI,DPI, PIC, etc.).
• Understanding of accounting/reporting methods, including IBOR, ABOR, TrueNAV, to support complete and accurate data capture.
• Knowledge of performance measurement concepts and standards across multiple asset classes including GIPS Standards, blended and custom benchmarks.
• Understanding of instances when issues need to be escalated to a supervisor.
• Advanced understanding of Microsoft Suite (Excel, Word, SharePoint), with particular emphasis on Excel.
• Ability to prioritize, multi-task, and perform effectively under deadlines.

The successful candidate will benefit from having:

• Experience using VBA, Python or other programming language to format large data sets.
• Prior experience with multi-asset class portfolio management software.
• Client servicing experience, comfortable communicating directly with clients and client advocacy.

Qualifications:

• College or University degree; 5+ years of experience.
• Completion (or progress towards) of advanced credentials (CFA, CAIA, CIPM, CPA, MBA) preferred.
• Genuine desire and capability to work in a fast-paced, professional, inclusive environment which requires teamwork, well-honed problem-solving skills, frequent re-prioritization, deadline management, ongoing and comprehensive communication, constant attention to detail, and a commitment to continuous improvement and best practices.

About Northern Trust:

Northern Trust provides innovative financial services and guidance to corporations, institutions and affluent families and individuals globally. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 20,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Working with Us:

As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company that is committed to strengthening the communities we serve!

We’d love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of America’s best banks and most sustainable companies! Build your career with us and apply today.

For further information, and to apply, please visit our website via the “Apply” button below.