Associate, Accounting Operations

Key Accountabilities and Main Responsibilities:

Strategic Focus:

• Support the Accounting Operations Team to ensure alignment with the company's mission, strategy, and objectives.
• Enhance standardisation of business processes to drive operational performance.
• Regular review of work practices/procedures to identify opportunities to improve quality or productivity.
• Implement projects that provide value-added services and reduce operational risk to facilitate client retention and profitable growth.

Operational Management:

• Develop and implement changes to policies and procedures to ensure service quality standards and adherence to regulatory requirements.
• Ensure timeliness and accuracy of account payable entries, bank reconciliations, and system processing.
• Prepare and review transactions through banking platforms.
• Prepare and review reports, investigating exceptions or flagged activities.
• Resolve or escalate issues and risks raised by the team for internal and client reporting.
• Perform procedural updates for accounting operations processes.
• Collaborate with internal functions like Operations, Business Support, and others for operational inquiries or internal system enhancements.
• Partner with external parties such as Banks, Custodians, and act as client accounting representation when needed.
• Implement organisational and technological change affecting the team.
• Deliver new business processes for beneficial improvements.
• Emphasise the importance of client relationships across the team.
• Enhance knowledge and skills within the Accounting Operations Team.
• Support training, coaching, and best practices sharing within the team.
• Foster an environment of openness and information sharing in team meetings.

Governance & Risk:

• Ensure all operations comply with legislative requirements and company policies.
• Critically appraise internal practices to achieve best practice standards across the team.

Experience & Personal Attributes:

Experience:

• 2+ years of experience in ORSO or pension funds payments, bank reconciliations, and accounts.
• Strong understanding of pension administration, legislation, and regulations.
• Strong understanding of accounting concepts (accounting standards) and reporting issues, including unit pricing.
• Experience with banking platforms, SWIFT, and payment processing (local and global).

Personal Attributes:

• General knowledge and understanding of business-wide processes.
• Proactive with problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Organised and methodical approach to work.
• Ability to make objective assessments and provide recommendations.
• Ability to discuss processes with clients or internal department managers.
• Continuous improvement in departmental processes.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision and under pressure.
• Strong computer skills (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and General Ledger knowledge (PeopleSoft preferred).
• Knowledge of aaspire or similar administration systems is highly regarded.