Business Unit:

Global Operations

Reporting To:

Senior Sales Data Operations Manager

Shift:

EMEA/UK (Mar-Nov 1:30 pm – 10:30 pm IST / Nov-Mar 2:30 pm – 11:30 pm IST) (India)

About Russell Investments, Mumbai:

Russell Investments is a leading outsourced financial partner and global investment solutions firm providing a wide range of investment capabilities to institutional investors, financial intermediaries, and individual investors around the world. Building on an 87-year legacy of continuous innovation to deliver exceptional value to clients, Russell Investments works every day to improve the financial security of its clients. The firm is the world’s sixth-largest investment adviser, with $1 trillion in assets under advisement (as of June 30, 2022) and $288.3 billion in assets under management (as of March 31, 2023) for clients in 30 countries. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington in the United States, Russell Investments has offices around the world, including London, New York, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai – and has opened a new office in Mumbai, India in June 2023.

Joining the new Mumbai office is an incredible opportunity to work closely with global stakeholders to support the technology and infrastructure that drives the investment and trading processes of a globally recognized asset management firm. Be one of the first to join this new team based out of Goregaon (East) in Mumbai and be a part of creating the foundation and culture for the firm’s growing operations in India. The Mumbai office operates 5-days a week from Monday to Friday with varying shifts to accommodate time zones around the world.

For more information, please visit https://www.russellinvestments.com.

Job Description:

Every day, we seek to improve financial security for people. Joining our team means you will be a part of a passionate and supportive team that believes what we do matters to our clients and investors. As a Data Operations Analyst, you will be responsible for processes related to sourcing data and aggregating, cleansing, and enriching the data obtained from multiple sources related to our US and Canadian retail businesses. This work assists our sales organization with understanding our customers’ transactions and holdings within various mutual fund and separate account products; provides insight into those transactions and holdings; and aids sales engagement and business decision-making. You will also be responsible for proactively troubleshooting and providing diagnostics to improve data quality accuracy as well as providing access to our reporting on source data before it is transformed in loading into sales business platforms. The associate will also be responsible for reviewing invoices and processes related to payments to the intermediaries who are providing services under previously reviewed and approved contracts.

Years of Experience

• 5 plus years of working with 40-Act mutual funds with experience in sales data reporting, transaction data and/or payment processing including at least 2 years of programming application experience.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business, or equivalent required

Responsibilities

• This position involves working with other teams within and outside of Transfer Agent Services to complete a range of routine, project-based and ad-hoc deliverables for Russell’s fund products.
• Evaluate and document policies, procedures and internal controls related to various aspects of the sales data operations and financial intermediary payment processes.
• Work directly with external service and data providers, external auditors and multiple groups within Russell to support a wide range of financial projects in support of the funds.
• Preparation and review of internal reports, sub-schedules and calculations which support the overall financial statement process for traditional funds.
• Receive and process intermediary invoices and related payments, ensuring that invoices and payments adhere to contractual terms and that payments are made within established timelines.
• Provide intermediary operational oversight and complete reviews related to intermediary operational processes and intermediary compliance with related contract terms, the Funds’ offering documents, and related regulations. These responsibilities include ongoing administration of the intermediary oversight program, interaction with intermediary partners related to operational compliance.
• Organize and maintain a large number of intermediary contracts using a document repository. These responsibilities include ongoing maintenance of new contracts, ad hoc requests to provide current agreements.
• Facilitate the resolution of data quality issues and data usage.
• Manage data vendor applications and processes including territory management, trade research, and resolution.
• Leverage strong problem solving, data analysis, and manipulation skills to analyse, cleanse, and monitor large amounts of data across multiple systems and business units.
• Reconcile data to “book of record” including the Funds for mutual fund related transactions. Additionally, reconcile internal systems to the source data.
• Perform periodic reporting using source data sets.

In addition to the primary responsibilities listed above team members also:

• Keep appropriate systems and records complete and accurate – reflecting current relationship and contract status with each intermediary.
• Complete analysis and reporting to senior Russell Investment management and the Funds’ board.
• Create and maintain documented processes and procedures for work performed by the team. Adjust or redesign processes and procedures as needed to accommodate changes within the environment.
• Provide process and/or technical improvement insights in areas of expertise to improve team efficiencies, with a primary focus on providing scale to the business and quality processing for intermediaries and the Funds.

Candidate Requirements

• Working knowledge of the relationships and interactions between investment managers and administrators/custodians/transfer agents. Evaluate and document policies, procedures and internal controls related to various aspects of the data operations and financial intermediary payment processes.

• Knowledge and understanding of Excel, SQL, VBA, Python and/or other programming languages
• Ability to create, refine and maintain policies and desk procedures related to the Funds’ processes. Experience with 38a-1 requirements and Sarbanes-Oxley testing.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience with business systems/processes: CRM, BI, Excel, SQL and other business applications.
• Demonstrated experience with contract management.
• Demonstrated experience, skills, and aptitude for the use of data analysis and query tools with the ability to perform data extracts and detailed and comprehensive analysis on complex data sets.
• Understanding of the intermediary financial operations environment (broker dealer, bank and/or insurance company) supporting sales to retail customers.
• Understanding of process management and related process improvement techniques (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma, process mapping).
• Has the ability to understand and appropriately apply principles, procedures, requirements, regulations, and policies related to contract management, oversight, and payment processes.
• Evaluates problems via systems thinking, sees downstream affects, identifies future implications across a process to help prioritize solutions.

Core Values

• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. Ability to communicate effectively on behalf of Fund Administration Management with Vendors, Auditors, business units and other key stakeholders.
• Proven ability to work both independently and as part of a highly functioning team, open to new ideas and disciplines.
• Ability to work efficiently under pressure with minimal supervision to meet cyclical regulatory and internal deadlines; demonstrated ability to organize and prioritize multiple assignments.
• Demonstrate an ability to analyse complex issues, research solutions, prioritize workload and bring regulatory testing issues to resolution.
• Very strong tools-based knowledge including Excel, Access and other applicable applications in a LAN based environment.
• Have a mindset of improving processes with data and workflow automation.
• Ability to communicate complex technical details to all levels of management.
• Must be proficient in MS Office and manage large volumes of email correspondence.
• Ability to act with discretion and maintain complete confidentiality.
• Dedicated to the firm’s values of non-negotiable integrity, valuing our people, exceeding client expectations, and embracing intellectual curiosity and rigor.