R HIGHLY NEGOTIABLE PLUS ANNUAL PERFORMANCE BONUS
Our client was founded in 2007 and is a fund of funds manager. It is a private equity firm specializing in mezzanine debt, growth capital, buyouts, PIPE’s, greenfields, brownfields, mezzanine. They believe independent deployment of private equity capital will be the catalyst for inclusive growth to build a better and stronger South Africa. Their vision is to build leading world class businesses using South African skills and resources. They are looking to partner with institutions and businesses to build a brighter vision. After building up years of specialist investment experience in their niche sector, establishing a strong track record over a number of funds and investing through the global financial crisis of 2008, they remain ready to write the next chapter in their incredible journey. They are a proudly South African organisation that’s passionate about making a lasting positive impact on society. They believe that sound environmental, social and governance (ESG) management practices can foster successful financial performance and build business resilience over the long-term. They promote clear and consistent ESG management practices across their portfolio, to create value for their investors and uphold the integrity of the capital deployed. To manage their portfolio risk efficiently and strategically, they have created their own proprietary risk management system. This system is powered by market-leading technology on-boarding private equity data they obtained through their extensive network of various participants within South Africa’s private equity sector.
They now seek a business systems & process engineering manager to join their team. You will report to the CFO.
JOB DESCRIPTION WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO:
- You will be required to be an experienced business systems & process engineering manager own the administration function and to lead the automation, optimisation and digital transformation of the investment operations and fund administration processes;
- You will be responsible for analysing, redesigning and systemising the end-to-end operational ecosystem supporting the private markets investment business, including fund accounting, cash flow management, reconciliations, reporting, audit support, investor servicing, compliance and data management;
- You will be required to work closely with the centralised finance function as well as the investment team and external service providers, including the fund administrators, to create a highly automated operating environment where routine activities are executed through integrated systems and workflows, requiring only limited human review and oversight;
- You will be required to establish a scalable, institutional-quality operating platform that delivers accurate, timely information and seamlessly supports operations, investor reporting, audit, compliance requirements and portfolio monitoring;
- Business process analysis & re-engineering:
- You will be required to map and document all operational processes across investment operations and fund administration;
- You will be required to identify process inefficiencies, bottlenecks, duplicate data capture and manual activities;
- You will be required to design and implement operating models focused on automation and scalability;
- You will be required to establish standard operating procedures and process governance frameworks;
- You will be required to define and implement control environments that maintain data integrity while reducing manual intervention;
- Fund accounting & operations functioning and automation:
- You will be required to ensure task completion and lead automation initiatives across:
- NAV reconciliation:
- You will be responsible for monthly reconciliation of administrator NAV reports;
- You will be responsible for automated validation and exception reporting;
- You will be responsible for integrated workflow management and sign-off controls;
- Capital calls & distributions:
- You will be responsible for automated extraction and capture of notices;
- You will be responsible for cash flow forecasting and workflow approval processes;
- You will be responsible for automated updating of portfolio cash flow databases;
- Portfolio data management:
- You will be required to create a centralised investment operations data warehouse;
- You will be responsible for automate the data collection for information across underlying portfolio companies, co-investments and funds;
- You will be required to ensure data integrity across all systems;
- Reporting automation:
- You will be required to design and build end-to-end reporting processes that:
- Eliminate manual reporting compilation;
- Automatically consolidate information from the administrators and internal systems;
- Produce quarterly investor reports with minimal intervention;
- Deliver portfolio analytics and performance dashboards;
- Systems architecture & integration:
- You will be required to evaluate and select appropriate technology solutions;
- You will be required to integrate external administrator data sources with internal systems;
- You will be required to build automated workflows across multiple platforms;
- You will be required to manage data governance, security and access controls;
- You will be required to develop a scalable architecture supporting future growth;
- You will be responsible for ensuring the efficient and accurate functioning of the administration function. Within the first 12 – 24 months, you will be expected to deliver:
- Operational excellence:
- Significant reduction in manual processing;
- Automated reconciliation workflows;
- Automated capital call and distribution processing;
- Digital audit-ready operating environment;
- Reporting transformation:
- Automated quarterly reporting capability;
- Integrated management information dashboards;
- Improved reporting accuracy and timeliness;
- Data strategy:
- Single, trusted investment operations data platform;
- Reduced operational risk;
- Improved transparency and auditability;
- Scalability:
- Operating model capable of supporting growth without proportional headcount increases;
- Operational excellence:
- You will be required to create an operating environment where fund accounting, fund administration, reporting and compliance processes are largely system-driven and automated, allowing finance and operations staff to focus on oversight, analysis and decision-making rather than manual processing. Human intervention should be limited primarily to review, exception management and final approval.
CORE COMPETENCIES REQUIRED, BUT NOT LIMITED TO:
- You have business process mapping skills;
- You have process re-engineering skills;
- You have workflow automation skills;
- You have systems analysis skills
- You have data management skills;
- You have reporting automation skills;
- You have project management skills;
- You are a highly analytical and structured thinker.
- You have strong problem-solving capability;
- You have a keen eye for detail while maintaining a strategic perspective;
- You are commercially minded with a continuous improvement mindset;
- You have comfortable challenging existing practices;
- You are a self-starter with strong execution capability;
- You have excellent communication (verbal and written) skills in English or capable of engaging both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
CORE QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:
- You have a minimum of 5 years current, relevant experience in process engineering, systems analysis, business analysis, or operational transformation;
- You have experience within financial services, asset management, private markets, fund administration or investment operations;
- You have demonstrated success implementing workflow automation and business transformation projects;
- You have a strong understanding of data architecture and systems integration;
- You have experience with reporting and business intelligence platforms;
- You have private equity industry experience;
- You have exposure to fund accounting processes;
- You have experience working with fund administrators;
- You have database management knowledge;
- You have knowledge of process automation technologies, AI-assisted workflows and document management systems.
Great new role. Small but hugely successful team – smart people / great offering – keen to see your expert skills put to great use.