Senior Project Manager, Client Implementation - Front Office Solutions

CORPORATE PROFILE

About Northern Trust: Northern Trust provides innovative financial services and guidance to corporations, institutions and affluent families and individuals globally. With over 130 years of financial experience and nearly 20,000 partners, we serve the world's most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Working with Us: As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company that is committed to strengthening the communities we serve!

We recognize the value of inclusion and diversity in culture, in thought, and in experience, which is why we are honored to receive the following awards in 2021:

• Gender Equality Index Member, Bloomberg

• Top Financial & Banking Company, Black EOE Journal, Hispanic Network Magazine, Professional WOMAN'S Magazine

We'd love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of America's best banks and most sustainable companies! Build your career with us and apply today.

FRONT OFFICE SOLUTIONS PROFILE

Front Office Solutions is a new strategic business for Northern Trust, which provides a holistic digital+ service offering for some of the most sophisticated institutional investors across the globe, including foundations, endowments, pension funds, corporations, insurance companies, central banks and sovereign wealth funds. As asset owners engage in more complex, data-driven investment approaches to asset allocation, their operational needs and demands for high quality data have skyrocketed. Front Office Solutions provides a holistic, full-service, multi-asset solution that aims to empower in-house investment teams and support their important mission by providing a more comprehensive set of operational services and analytics including portfolio management, investment decision support, operational risk management, CRM / document management and workflow tools.

DESCRIPTION

As Front Office Solutions continues to grow and attract complex asset owners with complex requirements, onboarding of new clients will be integral to growing the business efficiently and establishing a positive relationship with new clients. The Client Implementation function is responsible for onboarding new clients to the FOS platform (Parilux) and converting data sets from existing fund administrators or clients. The Implementation team liaises with the rest of the business to improve efficiency, effectiveness and productivity to ensure a smooth transition from sales to client implementation to business-as-usual (BAU). As such, consulting-style skillsets are critical for the Client Implementation team, including project management, business analyst and relationship management skills.

The Project Manager role supports the Client Implementations team in managing new client onboarding and is responsible for developing and managing the project plan, report on status, deliverables, meeting notes and follow ups. The Project Manager role reports into the Business Process Management team and ensures that standard work is developed, implemented and continuously improved for managing the overall client implementation projects and all the workstreams within the implementation. The Project Manager is also responsible for planning for a smooth transition of the client from sales to implementation and to BAU.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Acts as the main point of contact and build relationships with external investment managers, in-house technology partners, operational areas, management and product development during the implementation process.

• Provides leadership and problem solving to the team and partners at a high technical level.

• Manage multiple projects simultaneously from beginning to end.

• Facilitate weekly client meetings including producing agendas, status reporting and document next steps.

• Coordinate and perform system configuration and testing as needed.

• Identify and communicate bespoke client requests and requirements and work with internal business and IT partners to address.

• Work closely with teams across the organization to ensure operational readiness.

• Assist in developing implementation methodology standards, procedures and templates.

• On an ongoing basis, collaborate with teams across the business to ensure client implementation process is up to date and effective.

• Ensure all escalations are identified and communicated to management appropriately.

• Project reporting to Governance Committee and stakeholders.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS

• Seasoned expert with extensive technical and business knowledge and functional expertise.

• Self-starter - Performs independently with limited supervision and coaching. Manages the work of team, peers, stakeholders on multiple projects.

• Coordinates with teams across Front Office Solutions and clients to improve service quality and operating excellence.

• Ability to lead project teams of 2-8 partners.

• Ability to own, lead and deliver multiple issues/initiatives across multiple areas to improve the service delivery, efficiency and relationships.

• Proactively recommends and champions value added efforts to improve overall service quality and promote employee engagement.

• Exceptional influencing skills. Excellent written and oral communication skills.

• Must be a strategic thinker, an effective communicator and facilitator with strong analytical and presentation skills

• Results oriented, takes initiative to identify areas to add value and executes quickly and effectively.

• Highly flexible and adaptable to change.

• Attention to detail and works with a sense of urgency.

• Knowledge and demonstrated experience with Project Management tools, deliverables and reporting.

• Experience identifying key performance indicators, creating dashboards and developing project metrics.

• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

• Experience with Data Analytics tools such as Power BI, and information management tools such as SharePoint, Microsoft Teams.

• Experience with collaboration tools such as Miro, Microsoft Whiteboards.

• Ability to apply operational business practices and coordinate with other closely related areas to improve efficiency.

• Basic understanding of institutional investment industry, including markets and investment instruments.

• Basic understanding of the alternative investment class and performance measurement.

• Basic understanding of investment operational processes, including transactional impacts, cash movements, and accruals.

• Basic understanding of fund accounting / reporting methods, including IBOR, ABOR, and TrueNAV to support complete and accurate data capture.

• Knowledge of performance measurement concepts. Understanding of performance benchmarks and their use.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum of 10 years of relevant / applicable experience, of which at least seven years is on executing complex client implementations initiatives in financial services.

• Project management certification such as PMP, CAPM, CSP is required.

• Solid experience with the full range of communication skills - written and oral.

• B.A. or B.S. degree. Master's degree is required.

• A genuine desire and capability to work in a fast-paced, professional, inclusive environment which requires teamwork, well-honed problem-solving skills, frequent re-prioritization, deadline management, ongoing and comprehensive communication, constant attention to detail, and a commitment to continuous improvement and best practices.