Director - Investments

• Work as an extension of the UK/US team to conduct operational due diligence risk assessments of investment managers using Mercer Sentinel s framework incorporating house views as appropriate
• Understanding of investment manager middle and back office operations, fund administration, portfolio accounting, custody, regulatory compliance and other relevant industry experience
• Maintaining knowledge of operational risk frameworks across the Mercer universe of asset classes, including equity and fixed income, hedge funds, private equity, private debt, real estate and infrastructure
• Liaise with investment managers to collate information, coordinate on-site visits and schedules
• Review responses and documentation provided by investment managers for the risk assessment and author research notes in advance of the meeting of the onsite team to support the onshore team
• Support virtual investment manager on-site visits through the preparation of pre-meeting notes, note taking in the meeting and producing high quality draft written reports after the meeting
• Challenging and improving operational processes for Mercer s ODD framework
• Contribute to Mercer Sentinel s intellectual capital through market research and process innovation
• Contribute towards Mercer Sentinel s other products including but not limited to Surveys and Operational Reviews; support onshore team s efforts towards key projects or activities including business development among others.
• Update and maintain pertinent tools/database with relevant information including research publications and coordinate with asset managers for requisite data and for scheduling research calls; prepare and distribute Ratings Committee (RC) minutes from the weekly RC call.
• Project management, work allocation, real-time capacity management, peer review, process training and development of team members
• Lead and manage end-to-end operations and ensure the seamless delivery of reports/projects.
• Liaison with stakeholders to build relationship for service delivery management.
• Play anchor role for all strategic projects and provide directions to the team.
• Prepare and manage KPIs and handle escalations.
• Lead efforts for people engagement, knowledge development initiatives for the team, and ensure adherence to compliance policy and organizational imperatives.
• Driving Process Improvement Initiatives and delivering results in line with Business Priorities
• Demonstrate subject matter expertise in leading the ODD vertical
• Maintain updated investment due diligence notes, meeting notes and recommendations in proprietary database
• Ensuring storage and organizing data on a central database

What you need to have:

• A Masters degree in economics, finance or other business-related areas with a high level of written content
• Professional qualification (Actuarial, ACA, ACCA, CFA or equivalent) - preferential requisite
• 12+ Years of experience with operational due diligence investment management, operations, fund management or investment consulting
• Previous experience in operational risk analysis, fund administration, and or financial / portfolio accounting would be beneficial
• Thorough knowledge of Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Takes ownership for work, always ensuring standards and deadlines are met and keeping others informed and up-to-date
• Works well under pressure, with the ability to prioritise and manage multiple tasks, stakeholders and deliverables simultaneously; candidate may be expected to attend calls with US based asset managers couple days in a week; responsibilities may stretch to taking calls with asset managers in other geographies including Pacific, UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia depending on the business requirements.
• Excellent organisational and time management skills
• Openly shares information and own expertise with colleagues
• Possess excellent team working skills in a global/remote working environment