Securities Lending UK Product Development recruitment
BlackRock is one of the world’s preeminent asset management firms and a premier provider of global investment management, risk management and advisory services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors around the world. BlackRock offers a range of solutions — from rigorous fundamental and quantitative active management approaches aimed at maximizing outperformance to highly efficient indexing strategies designed to gain broad exposure to the world’s capital markets. Our clients can access our investment solutions through a variety of product structures, including individual and institutional separate accounts, mutual funds and other pooled investment vehicles, and the industry-leading iShares® ETFs.
Business Unit Overview:
Building on BlackRock’s reputation as a world leader in the equity finance market, the Securities Lending team delivers added value to our asset management services by lending equity and fixed income securities. Securities Lending allows investors to maximize their portfolio returns without affecting their strategic asset allocation. In this fast paced and dynamic environment, we pioneer the use of technology and sophisticated models to achieve standard-setting results. BlackRock’s investment philosophy is founded on managing all dimensions of performance: a consistent focus on controlling risk, return cost.
Job Purpose/Background:
This Securities Lending Product Development role is part of the Global Product Development Team and COO function, reporting directly into the Global Head of Product Development. The candidate will be responsible for managing a team of product managers who deal with multiple facets of the product management process, including driving new product and product expansion initiatives (e.g. new markets, new lending models, borrower and lending fund expansion, etc.), as well as ongoing management of the existing product (e.g. ensuring the ongoing optimal use of lendable inventory across global books). The candidate will own the tracking, prioritization and reporting of global business initiatives and ensure alignment with the project pipeline and IT list. They will work closely with their peer in the SF office to remain informed and aligned globally, and to determine the appropriate allocation of resources for all global initiatives. Additionally, they are responsible for managing a multitude of relationships, both internal and external to the business and the firm (e.g. SL Strategy, Trading and Product Services, Legal, Compliance, RQA, Product Tax, Custodians, Third Party Providers, etc.), representing the Securities Lending business and product.
Key Responsibilities:
- Ensure success of initiatives and existing products by enforcing team product and project management disciplines and controls processes
- Ensure all procedures are regularly reviewed, updated and records retained for audit purposes (e.g. fund launches/tax rate changes)
- Ensure the global initiatives log and pipeline remain up to date and accurately track all information
- Own bi-weekly reporting of prioritized initiatives and progress updates to the broader Securities Lending business
- Lead own, and provide oversight to, various sized product and supply expansion initiatives from research phase to implementation for the Global Securities Lending business in support of revenue and strategic targets
- Participate in project working groups for the various initiatives offering support and challenging decisions being made around changes to/expansion of existing business model. Support team at project oversight/ steering committees where required
- Oversee regional tax, legal, compliance work queue and prioritization process in line with global strategy
- Provide coaching and support to Product Managers to keep projects on track and accelerate delivery where needed to ensure deadlines are met
- Work closely with Global PD manager to stay aligned with business priorities, direction from SL ExCo and OpCo and resource assignment
- Partner with global counterparts of other Global Securities Lending Teams, including Trading, Product Services, Client Investment Strategy, Accounting and Technology to establish effective working relationships and ensure stakeholder and SME engagement/alignment on initiatives
- Partner with the global PD manager to recruit, hire continually develop a team of top performing Product Managers
- Be accessible to team and support them by removing roadblocks, influencing key stakeholders/sponsors and making quick decisions
- Develop understanding of Securities Lending regulatory, legal, tax and compliance requirements to ensure adherence within team processes (e.g. fund launch, thresholds management, agent lender disclosure, etc.)
- Build and leverage relationships across the firm and externally to represent and advocate for the Securities Lending product
Knowledge/Experience:
- Securities Lending experience beneficial
- Experience in managing and leading a team required
- Experience in the financial industry and experience in project or change management or relevant similar experience (e.g. product management, business analysis, etc.)
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to articulate complex concepts simply, and to stakeholders at many levels across the organization
- Highly developed negotiation and influencing skills
- Detail-oriented with strong analytical and problem-solving skills
- Proactive idea generator and impeccable follow-through
- Proven experience building and maintaining strong client and service provider oversight relationships
Skills/Qualifications:
- BA/BS degree in Finance or related discipline
- Advanced degree or certifications (MBA, CFA, etc.) of benefit
- Project management qualification (PRINCE2, PMI etc) of benefit
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office
Competencies:
- Strong sense of personal ownership and accountability – for self and team
- Ability to engage, motivate lead a highly functioning team to deliver remarkable results