Associate/Assistant Vice President,8 Month Maternity Cover, Product Services, Counterparty Valuations recruitment

Company overview

Markit is a leading, global financial information services company with over 2,300 employees. The company provides independent data, valuations, risk analytics and trade processing across all asset classes in order to enhance transparency, reduce risk and improve operational efficiency. Its client base includes the most significant institutional participants in the financial market place. For more information, please see www.markit.com.

Department

Portfolio Valuations

Department overview

Markit Portfolio Valuations (PV) provides a fully outsourced service to buy-side participants in the cash and derivative markets that require independent asset valuations. Markit Portfolio Valuations provides an efficient operational framework that includes a full audit trail and quality control performed by our analysts in London, New York and Singapore.

Alongside independent valuations, Markit collects counterparty position and valuation data from market-making banks for distribution to buy-side clients. This intermediation service also covers both cash instruments and OTC derivatives and introduces significant operational efficiency to the relationship between the bank and buy-side communities.

The combination of independent and counterparty valuations in a single on-line platform allows clients to perform their portfolio workflow in a convenient, timely and accurate manner.

Position summary

Increasing client numbers and trade volumes mean that the Product Services team within PV team has an open role supporting the distribution of counterparty valuations.

The candidate will work with existing and new buy side clients, typically the fund managers, hedge funds and fund administrators, and will:

-Need to develop a good understanding of the buy side processes and requirements in order to provide a comprehensive service

-Be responsible for communicating client queries and requirements internally and externally (to banks).

-Contribute towards specifying, testing and deploying improvements to existing operational systems.

The candidate will also need to have a working level understanding of the data parsing technology used to accelerate the adoption of the platform by bank contributors.

Progression into other functions within PV may be available for a recruit when he or she has gained enough knowledge of the business.

Duties accountabilities

• Operate the process of on-boarding new client accounts and maintaining existing relationships, including prompt communication and escalation of any issues. A high level of service for all external parties is required.

• Work with new and existing clients to increase the quality, quantity and breadth of data flowing into the platform. This involves regular calls or meetings, managing trials, and coordinating software releases.

• Responsibility of on boarding of key client accounts and ongoing management of client relationships. This includes providing client demos, managing trials and related on boarding/client support activities.

• Proactively identify and deliver improvements to operational process and system enhancements

• Partner closely with related functions including other regional teams, developers, QA and sales.

Business competencies

Education and experience

• Graduate or equivalent in a financial or numerical discipline.

• Experience in client services role or relationship management within buy side firms or bank operations is preferred. Evidence of good progression within and between roles is expected.

• Investment bank operations experience is an advantage

Commercial awareness

• General knowledge of financial markets, OTC derivatives and securities.

• Understanding of the structure of institutional finance community and the role of Markit within this community.

• Interest in supporting and promoting efficient, scalable and profitable processes with the right balance between automation and human accountability.

Technical skills

• A good knowledge of standard office software, notably Excel, is expected.

Personal competencies

Personal impact

• A strong focus on client service and delivery.

• Ability to work independently, take ownership and improve processes to create efficiency.

• Flexible and able to adapt to changing situations, with strong problem solving skills

• Ability to work under time pressure and to strict daily deadlines

Communication

• Able to communicate effectively across all levels with clients, internal partners and senior management, both verbally and in writing.

Teamwork

• Able to work effectively as part of a global team, and partner closely with other regional operations teams, technology teams, QA and sales teams