Funds Operations - Financial Reporting Senior Associate

The Fund Operations Team

Arrowstreet is the investment adviser to, and promoter of, a number of pooled investment funds, each of which is managed according to one of our offered investment strategies and designed to take into consideration the domicile and regulatory characteristics of the investors. The Funds Group within Arrowstreet is a team of experienced professionals responsible for managing the formation, development and oversight of the Arrowstreet Sponsored Funds, including complex regulatory and operational needs of these products. The Fund Operations team is a group within the Funds Group.

The Fund Operations team manages the oversight of our sponsored funds on an ongoing basis, and is responsible for ensuring successful and timely completion of all associated deliverables and initiatives. The Fund Operations team oversees the relationships with the administrators, custodians, prime brokers, auditors and tax service providers of our sponsored funds, and is responsible for developing and overseeing the operational procedures and reporting on behalf of the funds. This function is critical to our overall investment management processes. The individuals on this team work directly with members of many teams throughout the firm, including client relationship management (CRM), portfolio management and investment services, legal and compliance, and finance. This role and its responsibilities present an excellent opportunity to gain exposure to, and expertise in, critical fund-related matters of the investment management business.

The Role

The individual filling this position will work on a sub-group of the Fund Operations team, primarily dedicated to the oversight of the audit process as it relates to the Arrowstreet sponsored funds, and the oversight of the audited financial statement production process for the funds. This individual will work closely with two other team members, as well as key internal stake holders within the broader Funds Operations team, and externally with the fund administrators, auditors, trustees, and directors.

Key responsibilities

• Assist in the day-to-day responsibilities and projects of the team. Manage projects and deliverables and work to implement enhancements to increase throughput, achieve greater automation and greater economies of scale relating to the funds audit and financial statement processes.
• Collaborate with internal teams to successfully complete deliverables. Contribute to the enhancement of workflows and hand-offs across teams to collectively improve our procedures.
• Contribute to designing, maintaining, and owning operational workflows in an efficient and automated manner. Develop checks, procedures, and calendars of deliverables and collaborate with internal and external teams to enhance and automate processes.
• Contribute to developing and maintaining operational workflows in an efficient and automated manner in order to properly monitor and oversee the many fund service providers.
• Contribute to projects and automation initiatives to enhance both the fund operations and fund governance processes. Assist in developing business requirements and collaborate with internal teams to institute new tools, systems and reporting capabilities. Identify and propose best practices for existing controls and checks.

The ideal candidate will

• Have direct work experience in the asset management industry with robust knowledge of financial reporting or auditing.
• Have experience working with service providers and familiarity with audit engagements and financial statement production.
• Possess strong problem solving and critical thinking skills with demonstrated ability to productively collaborate across teams to complete deliverables.
• Possess a strong operational and accounting background with demonstrated ability to implement procedures and institute checks to ensure quality of work.
• Demonstrate excellent organizational, time management and verbal/written communication skills
• Demonstrate a history of continuous process improvement or implementation of initiatives that improve efficiency.
• Possess strong data management skills, including, proficiency with Microsoft Excel, with the demonstrated ability to work with data.
• Thrive in a fast-paced environment, has the ability to work dynamically on multiple tasks/projects at one time while seeing each through to resolution.
• Work productively, both independently and in a team environment.
• Demonstrate the ability to work on assignments and projects with minimal supervision while proactively providing updates, facilitating reviews of progress and delivering to deadlines.
• Has experience working with both internal and external stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree is a requirement; Accounting or Finance concentration is preferred.
• Ideal range of 4-7 years of relevant experience in the financial services or asset management industry.
• Possesses a strong financial reporting, audit and/or accounting background with a demonstrated focus on procedures and continuous process improvement.
• Analytical and structured thinking, with a keen interest in how things work.
• Willingness to investigate issues and follow through to resolution.
• Microsoft Excel skills and proficiency with large volume of data, including data quality reviews is required.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to work with business and IT teams and be able to clearly articulate data problems and resolutions.

We maintain a friendly, team-oriented environment and place a high value on professionalism, attitude and initiative.