Trade Operations Analyst

$110,000 - $140,000/Yr

Cascade Asset Management - Kirkland, WA

Full-time - Mid Level

Kirkland, WA

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

About the position

The Trade Operations Analyst at Cascade Asset Management Company plays a crucial role in the Investment Operations Department, responsible for the successful execution of day-to-day operations for a global, multi-billion dollar investment portfolio. This position involves managing a diverse range of asset types and ensuring the timely and accurate processing of transactions, cash management, trade confirmations, and reconciliations. The role offers opportunities for diversified learning and collaboration within a dynamic team environment.

Responsibilities

• Reconcile cash positions, conducting investigative research with custodians.
• Ensure seamless confirmation and settlement of trade activities with counterparties and custodians, leveraging systems such as Blackrock's Aladdin, CTM, Acadia, and other industry tools.
• Validate, confirm, and instruct daily margin call activity related to derivatives and other relevant investment activity.
• Interface directly with the trading desk, legal, and other internal/external teams to facilitate issue resolution.
• Complete timely new account and market request activities within internal and external systems.
• Effectuate changes from corporate or class actions, validating, communicating, and processing updates to systems.
• Identify, research, and resolve breaks identified in trade, valuation, and position reconciliation.
• Mentor junior staff, facilitating operational excellence and helping foster a culture of continuous learning.
• Assess risk associated with key issues and escalate accordingly to management.
• Develop and implement training and educational materials for new hires on core responsibilities; participate in knowledge sharing and learning opportunities.
• Support the definition, collection, and reporting of operational metrics tied to data quality and operational excellence.
• Collaborate on critical initiatives, process improvement roadmaps, and innovative ideas to improve service delivery and standards.
• Provide project support in collaboration with other teams.

Requirements

• 3-5 years of financial services or securities experience required, preferably within a middle or back-office investment operations role.
• Undergraduate degree preferably in finance, accounting, economics or related field; CFA a plus.
• Proficiency in Excel required.
• Familiarity with SQL and Power BI or similar software, preferred.
• Experience using Aladdin system preferred with demonstrated ability to learn new applications/systems quickly.
• Proficient understanding of fixed income, equity, Foreign Exchange Market, derivatives, and collateral management.
• Able to present ideas and plans clearly, using available resources, in order to foster understanding across a multitude of stakeholders at various seniority levels.
• Driven by process efficiencies and system improvement; approaches day-to-day operational data optimization with passion.
• Applies statistical and graphical techniques to raw data to discover useful information.
• Clearly drafts documents, reports, and presentation materials.
• Demonstrated understanding of the project management lifecycle.
• Possesses a keen eye for details, superlative accuracy, with a no-tolerance approach for data inaccuracy.
• Ability to multitask and balances priorities against ambiguity.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills with an empathic style, improving partnership and cross-group collaboration skills.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with project management methodologies.
• Knowledge of additional financial software tools.

Benefits

• Paid parental leave
• AD&D insurance
• Paid holidays
• Disability insurance
• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• Family leave
• Parental leave
• Vision insurance
• 401(k) matching