AVP, Investment Operations - New Business & Nonstandard Transactions

The Assistant Vice President, Investment Operations – New Business & Nonstandard Transactions, is a senior individual contributor responsible for independently leading the operational assessment, onboarding, and stabilization of complex investments and transactions that fall outside established structures or standard workflows. Applying deep investment operations expertise and judgment, the role develops solutions for highly complex or undefined operational issues and coordinates cross-functional execution across new reinsurance transactions, SPV structures, sidecars, bespoke investments, and other non-standard activity

The role will independently assess non-standard features early in the investment process and lead the operational response from pre-trade assessment through settlement and ongoing administration. The AVP will work closely with the Front Office, Portfolio Managers, Investment Operations, Treasury Operations, Investment Accounting, Finance, Technology, Risk, Legal, and external service providers to define processing requirements, ownership, data flows, approvals, and escalation paths.

This individual will establish practical controls and procedures for each transaction, confirm operational readiness before execution, and transfer repeatable activities into business-as-usual operations. The role requires deep investment operations knowledge, sound judgment, good analytical skills, strong collaboration and influencing skills and the ability to convert complex transaction terms into clear operating processes.

This role will be based in our Jersey City, NJ office on a hybrid basis.

What You Will Do:

Transaction Identification and Assessment

• Partner with the Front Office and portfolio managers to identify transactions with non-standard structures, terms, settlement requirements, cash flows, accounting treatment, or data needs.
• Review transaction documents, term sheets, cash flow mechanics, lifecycle events, and service-provider capabilities to determine the operational impact of a proposed investment.
• Assess whether existing systems, controls, service agreements, and operating procedures can support the transaction and document any required exceptions or enhancements.
• Identify operational risks, dependencies, and unresolved decisions before execution and influence cross-functional stakeholders to establish ownership, resolve open decisions, and agree required actions, including clearly defined and tracked ‘day 2’ items.
• Influence cross-functional stakeholders to establish ownership, resolve open decisions, and agree required actions before execution.

Onboarding and Operational Readiness

• Serve as the primary Investment Operations point of contact for new reinsurance transactions, coordinating pre-close and closing activities. These include coordination of account structure and set up with Banks, service providers (Clearwater), internal portfolios and compliance readiness.
• Lead the operational onboarding of asset-transfer transactions, including security and account setup, pricing readiness, asset loading, reconciliation, and transfer coordination across internal teams, cedents, trustees, custodians, and service providers. Resolve complex exceptions and ensure operational readiness before closing.
• Serve as the Investment Operations point person for all special transactions raised through the Structured Transaction Working Group.
• Develop and manage the operational onboarding plan for each non-standard transaction, including milestones, dependencies, owners, testing, approvals, and readiness criteria.
• Coordinate account, security, counterparty, cash, settlement, valuation, accounting, and reporting setup across internal systems and external providers.
• Define the required data inputs and outputs and confirm that transaction information is captured accurately across the investment book of record, accounting platform and reporting infrastructure. Coordinate with other functional areas to ensure proper treatment e.g. treasury processes and Investment Accounting/general ledger.
• Lead operational readiness reviews and confirm that processing instructions, funding arrangements, controls, reconciliations, and escalation procedures are in place before closing or settlement. Design and implement new procedures for transactions that do not fit normal processing and controls.
• Maintain a clear record of open items, decisions, approvals, and residual risks throughout the onboarding process.

Transaction Processing and Lifecycle Management

• Lead the stabilization of newly onboarded transactions through an appropriate stabilization period and resolve issues before transitioning recurring activities to the responsible operations team.
• Ensure that future lifecycle events, including funding obligations, rate resets, amendments, restructurings, paydowns, distributions, collateral activity, and maturity events, have defined owners and procedures.
• Establish and oversee appropriate metrics to monitor processing and maintenance of non-standard transactions.
• Provide senior operational oversight and, where required, directly support the booking, settlement, cash movement, confirmation, and accounting of non-standard transactions.
• Coordinate transaction activity across portfolio management, Treasury Operations, Investment Accounting, Finance, custodians, banks, administrators, and other service providers.
• Validate transaction, position, cash, income, valuation, and accounting data across relevant systems and investigate inconsistencies.

Controls and Procedures

• Document standard operating procedures, process maps, control evidence, tolerances, escalation thresholds, and handoffs for new or modified processes.
• Ensure that temporary manual controls are documented, approved, monitored, and replaced with sustainable processes when appropriate.
• Work with control partners to confirm that new activities are incorporated into the relevant risk and control frameworks.
• Train operations colleagues on new procedures and confirm that the receiving team is prepared to perform and evidence the required controls.

Cross Functional Coordination

• Serve as the central operational coordinator for non-standard transactions and maintain clear accountability across participating functions.
• Translate investment terms and portfolio-management requirements into actionable operational, treasury, accounting, data, and technology requirements.
• Facilitate working sessions, document decisions, manage dependencies, and ensure that issues are assigned to accountable owners.
• Communicate readiness status, material risks, and required decisions clearly to stakeholders and senior management.
• Build effective relationships with external managers, administrators, custodians, banks, accounting agents, and other providers involved in transaction execution and support.

Issue Management and Improvement

• Investigate processing breaks and control failures, determine root causes, and coordinate corrective action.
• Distinguish one-time transaction exceptions from recurring process gaps and ensure repeatable solutions are developed where appropriate.
• Ensure operational improvement initiatives arising from non-standard transactions and drive actions through completion are appropriately escalated and prioritized.
• Identify opportunities to automate data capture, validation, reconciliation, workflow, and reporting activities.
• Use operating metrics and post-implementation reviews to identify recurring issues and improve future onboarding and processing.

What You Will Have:

• Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics, business, information systems, or a related field.
• Seven or more years of experience in investment operations, middle-office operations, investment accounting, treasury operations, or a related asset-management environment.
• Experience supporting complex, private, structured, bespoke, or infrequently traded investments and translating transaction terms into operational requirements.
• Deep knowledge of investment operations and the ability to apply that expertise to complex, bespoke, and undefined transaction structures.
• Strong understanding of the investment transaction lifecycle, including onboarding, trade capture, settlement, cash movements, reconciliations, and lifecycle events.
• Demonstrated ability to independently lead complex, cross-functional projects or processes with minimal oversight.
• Demonstrated ability to influence operational decisions across functions and seniority levels without direct authority.
• Experience designing controls and writing clear operating procedures.
• Experience working with custodians, banks, administrators, accounting agents, or other investment service providers.
• Experience in an insurance or reinsurance investment environment, including an understanding of liability-driven investing and insurer accounting or reporting requirements, is preferred.
• Working knowledge of investment systems, accounting platforms, data flows, interfaces, and testing methodologies.

Core Capabilities:

• Structured problem-solving skills and the ability to decompose complex transactions into clear requirements, owners, controls, and procedures.
• Strong judgment and willingness to escalate when operational readiness, data quality, or control requirements have not been met.
• Clear written and verbal communication with technical, operational, accounting, and investment stakeholders.
• Close attention to detail combined with an understanding of the broader investment and financial reporting impact.
• Practical delivery mindset and commitment to building processes that can be repeated, controlled, and transferred to business-as-usual teams.

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