Team Lead, Portfolio Accounting

The Position

The Portfolio Accounting team is responsible for the reconciliation and investment accounting activities for all Harris accounts including mutual funds, limited partnerships, institutional and private wealth accounts. Primary functions include daily cash and position reconciliations, cash flow processing and forecasting, daily NAV oversight for the Oakmark Funds and recording of daily account activity. The team will be outsourcing some of these high-volume functions to a third party in the future. As this transition happens, the team's focus will shift to oversight and control of these functions.

This position requires daily interaction with a variety of internal teams including Portfolio Implementation, Performance Analytics, Account Services, Client Services, and other operations teams. Communications will also include external parties such as custodians, vendors, consultants, and clients.

The Portfolio Accounting Team Lead serves as the subject matter expert on the team’s core responsibilities and is the first point of escalation for all day-to-day operations. They must have a control-oriented mindset, be resourceful, and have a high degree of integrity. They must also be able to effectively multitask while thinking critically and maintaining strong attention to detail. Specifically, the Team Lead is expected to oversee the team’s production-related workflows with little guidance, independently assist other team members in resolving issues in a timely manner, and effectively communicate with, and escalate to, the manager of the team. The Team Lead is also expected to help in developing other team members.

This position requires daily interaction with a variety of internal teams including Portfolio Implementation, Performance Analytics, Account Services, Client Services, and other operations teams. Key stakeholders also include external parties such as custodians, vendors, consultants, and clients.

Responsibilities

• Oversee day-to-day operations of Portfolio Accounting team to ensure that work is completed, and deadlines are met.
• Perform supervisory reviews and quality control checks. Identify potential risk items through these reviews and escalate appropriately.
• Ensure team’s understanding of departmental procedures and processes via on-going training. This includes the preparation of a detailed training syllabus, coordinating training schedules/sessions, evaluating and updating procedures when necessary, and ensuring successful onboarding of new employees.
• Serve as the subject matter expert and escalation point for the team.
• Quickly gain comprehensive understanding of all functions on the team and be able to provide coverage when the team is short-handed.
• Help build and sustain highly performing team through performance management, mentoring and coaching.
• Proactively identify and pursue process improvements to enhance internal controls and increase efficiency.
• Provide project management support for firm designated initiatives for which Portfolio Accounting Department is a stakeholder.
• Serve as the team’s representative in the Incident Remediation Group.
• Effectively coordinate with other teams across the firm on the onboarding and offboarding of institutional and private client accounts.
• Structure and lead weekly team meeting.
• Assist the manager in effectively allocating work among team members.

Qualifications

Required

• Minimum of eight years of relevant experience within a financial services firm and/or top tier accounting firm
• Strong working knowledge of operations and/or accounting functions within an investment management (and preferably mutual fund) organization
• Excellent leadership skills and ability to support and maintain highly performing team
• Demonstrated ability to assess risk and escalate appropriately and effectively
• Ability to exercise independent judgment, to think critically and solve complex problems in a timely manner
• High degree of integrity, accountability, resourcefulness, and reliability
• Intellectual curiosity and eagerness to learn
• Proven ability to work in a fast paces environment with a high level of flexibility, accuracy, and attention to detail.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively, with a positive and professional attitude
• Bachelor’s degree in business related discipline, preferably finance or accounting
• Highly skilled in Microsoft Office products

Preferred

• Experience with trading systems, performance management and accounting systems, Bloomberg, and a CRM platform
• Prior team or project leadership experience
• Experience providing oversight to outsourced functions