Job Type: Permanent
Location: This role could be based in either our Edinburgh, Birmingham or Telford offices with time spent working in the office and at home. We will discuss what is important to you and balancing this with business requirements during the recruitment process.
Salary & Benefits: circa £65,000 FTE (subject to experience) + pro-rated bonus, excellent pension scheme, private medical insurance, 38 days holiday, 12x salary life assurance, career breaks, income protection, 3x volunteering days and much more!
We have an incredible opportunity to join us here at Phoenix Group as a Regulatory Reporting Specialist to join our Middle Office team within the Retirement Solutions and Asset Management (RS&AM) function.
Who are we?
We want to be the best place that any of our 6,600 colleagues have ever worked.
We’re Phoenix Group, we’re a long-term savings and retirement business. We offer a range of products across our market-leading brands, Standard Life, SunLife, Phoenix Life and ReAssure. Around 1 in 5 people in the UK has a pension with us. We’re a FTSE 100 organisation that is tackling key issues such as transitioning our portfolio to net zero by 2050, and we’re not done yet.
Team Context
Middle Office is a key support function for the Retirement Solutions & Asset Management (RS&AM) Front Office. It has wide ranging accountability ensuring operational control of investment activities, supporting the Group and RS&AM governance framework, and delivery of investment reporting.
Role Overview
The role will focus on ensuring that RS&AM are meeting their regulatory responsibility to reporting derivatives and securities financing trades under the EMIR and SFTR guidelines. The role will focus on ensuring trades directly or externally placed will have oversight on a day-to-day basis, providing key operational input and guidance. A key focus will be on ensuring delegated reporting is accurate and timely submissions are made completing the relevant reconciliations/accuracy and pairing and matching reviews to confirm this. The role will require continued build out and development of processes, as well as requiring technical understanding of relevant asset types and fields.
This role will be a core operational SME role regarding EMIR and SFTR reporting, and it will be expected that they help develop the wider regulatory reporting middle office to a proficient level in understanding. They will provide active participation on process improvement and operating model enhancements to achieve industry leading systems and controls across asset and fund classes. In the same SME capacity, participate in functional integration of legacy Phoenix risk carriers across procedures and platforms.
Additionally, the role holder may be asked to help support other areas across the derivatives middle office in confirmation and post trade activities.
Core Responsibilities
1. Regulatory Reporting Oversight – Focus on EMIR and SFTR ensuring all in scope trades, valuations and collateral are reported in a timely and accurate manner.
2. Perform any necessary reconciliations and escalate issues and breaches to resolution with internal Phoenix parties as well as 3rd parties.
3. Provide guidance and analysis on technical aspects of reporting requirements (as defined in Validation and asset specific guidance).
4. Analysis of technical fields to be able to extract and identify reporting errors in Trade Repository reports.
5. Production of MI – Design and implement clear and concise MI to give the business confidence in demonstrating Phoenix are regulatory compliant.
6. Key contact for DTCC and vendors related to regulatory reporting.
7. Oversight of our external fund manager regulatory reporting processes.
8. Regulatory Reporting Oversight – Ensuring that reg reporting operational activities are completed and resolving any outstanding issues.
9. Regulatory Reporting Asset Data – Ensuring that trades are correctly captured in internal systems.
10. Live Cycle management – Performing middle office control on regulatory reportable asset trading.
11. Onboarding new systems – Working with our third-party providers to onboard new system capability and set up internal processes to utilise the tools available.
12. Supporting the business in meeting regulatory requirements
Additional Responsibilities
The role interacts frequently with the following parties:
13. Internal Functions: Markets & Products, Portfolio Implementation, Compliance, AM Manager Oversight, Middle Office, Cash Management, Investment Operations, Risk Management, & InVista Development Team
14. External Parties: External Portfolio Managers, Third Party administrators, Platform (Trade Repository) Service Providers, Custodians, Clearing Brokers & Trading Counterparties.
What we're looking for:
Knowledge and Experience (Essential Criteria)
15. Experience in the financial services industry; experience of managing regulatory reporting processes and detailed and up to date understanding of EMIR reporting regulation.
16. Experience in reporting various Derivative/SFTR product types, lifecycles and collateral models.
17. Regulatory systems and repositories knowledge. Kaizen/DTCC/Unavista.
18. Experience in identifying and resolving reporting breaks directly with counterparties.Experience in producing MI/KPI reporting to demonstrate regulatory compliance.Developing and Enhancing Regulatory Reconciliation tools.
19. Proficient use of MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint and ideally the Aladdin platform.
Desirable
20. Knowledge of the trade lifecycle of derivatives with middle or back-office experience.
21. Functional knowledge of end-to-end investment management technology / operating models, and downstream consumers / value chain
22. Strong knowledge across investment products including complex derivative structures
23. Practical experience with business transformation projects, such as onboarding of investment managers, products (cash and derivatives, potentially structured products) or portfolio restructurings
Skills and Personal Attributes
24. Attention to Detail & Quality: Demonstrates a diligent working style with high standards for accuracy and output quality.
25. Analytical & Financial Acumen: Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, applying holistic financial thinking to complex challenges.
26. Organisational & Project Management: Strong ability to plan, prioritise, and manage projects effectively to meet deadlines.
27. Presentation & Reporting: Skilled in producing well-structured, consistent, and client-focused presentations and management information reports.
28. Adaptability & Vision: Agile and forward-thinking, able to adapt processes in a dynamic and evolving environment.
29. Communication & Collaboration: Strong interpersonal skills, capable of engaging and maintaining effective relationships across diverse stakeholders.
30. Proactive & Results-Oriented: Self-starter with a strong sense of ownership, able to work independently, drive and shape results, and deliver under pressure.
31. Technical Proficiency: Proficient in MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and ideally experienced with the Aladdin platform.
We want to hire the whole version of you.
We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you.
If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best.