Derivative Analyst, Sydney recruitment

Company overview

Markit is a leading, global financial information services company with over 2,300 employees.  The company provides independent data, valuations 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 marketplace. For more information, please see www.markit.com

Department overview

The TOTEM service, founded in 1997, provides the major market makers in OTC derivatives with definitive consensus market prices. More than 50 of the leading banks, trading houses and other investment professionals use the TOTEM service as the key independent check of their trading book valuations. The service encompasses the equity, interest rate, currency, commodity, credit and bond markets, providing comprehensive matrices of vanilla prices and a wide selection of exotic products. In recent years Markit TOTEM launched cross-asset class daily valuation service which requires additional operational support in Sydney.

Position summary

The successful candidate will be working as part of a small Sydney team and quickly become responsible for many of the operational aspects of the analysis of vanilla equity derivative pricing data for the Daily Equity Volatility service. There will also be exposure to the daily valuation services in other asset classes and exposure to more exotic derivative instruments. Although the main responsibilities will be based around the operational side of the business the successful candidate with be expected to have a significant amount of client liaison and should be able to demonstrate experience, confidence and professionalism in this aspect of the role.

This position is at the Associate level. The base salary will be competitive and the individual will participate in the company’s discretionary bonus scheme. The benefits are of a market standard ensuring that total compensation will be competitive.

Duties accountabilities

The role will have two areas of focus with the successful candidate becoming responsible for the analysis of equity index and single stock option data to ensure the Equities Daily Volatility service is produced to a high degree of accuracy and in a timely manner. There will also be the responsibility to support the existing Sydney team in the production of the monthly TOTEM valuation service covering Equity and Interest Rate vanilla and exotic derivative products. Finally there may also be some exposure to Commodity and FX derivatives as the business expands.  

The successful candidate will gain exposure to a variety of different derivative products and must be flexible in their approach to ensure all areas of the TOTEM monthly and daily services run smoothly. The position is located in Sydney CBD although the position will involve international travel throughout the major financial centers in Asia. This role reports locally to Ross Allen, Head of Totem Equity Derivatives for the Asia-Pacific Region.

Education and experience

• Possess an undergraduate degree, ideally finance related

• Have a high level of proficiency in MS Excel and Access

• Be able to understand (and ideally program) in either SQL, VBA and Oracle

Commercial awareness

• Have a working knowledge and understanding of derivative products, preferably 6 months experience working with Equity Derivatives.

Personal impact

• Be able to combine high-level analytical skills with knowledge of the equity derivatives market

• Be detail-oriented and thorough

• Be a self-starter and able to demonstrate the ability to take ownership of projects from inception to completion.

Communication

• Be effective in communicating internally – both with the product teams in Sydney and globally

• Be able to establish and maintain solid and professional client relationships with clients based around the Asia-Pacific region.

• English as a first language

• Additional Japanese, Korean or Mandarin language skills not a requirement but would be viewed advantageously

Teamwork

• Be able to support and work within a team under strict time pressures

• Be flexible with work hours