Reference Data Associate I- Investment Middle Office Services

Help shape how investment operations run at scale by enabling accurate, timely market and account set-ups. You’ll partner with teams across operations, technology, and external service providers to deliver smooth onboarding and change execution. This role sits at the center of new market access and new fund readiness. If you enjoy ownership, precision, and collaborative problem-solving, you’ll find strong opportunities to grow here. Your work directly improves the client and operational experience.

As an Investment operations onboarding associate in our securities services onboarding team, you coordinate end-to-end custodian, market, broker, and standing instruction set-up and maintenance to support new launches and ongoing changes. You ensure requests are accurately documented, validated, and delivered to downstream teams within agreed timelines and control standards. You help improve straight-through processing outcomes by driving consistent execution, clear communications, and strong operational discipline.

Job responsibilities

- Coordinate end-to-end set-up and maintenance for markets, brokers, custodians, and standing instructions, including new access requests and Day 2 updates
- Capture, log, and track onboarding and change requests in established trackers, maintaining a clear audit trail of documentation and confirmations
- Obtain and validate standing instructions (including cash and foreign exchange standing instructions) and perform required call-backs/validations prior to downstream distribution
- Collect and validate market trading identifiers and maintain reference data records to support accurate downstream processing
- Coordinate completion of market-specific requirements and dependencies across internal teams and external service providers
- Prepare and deliver regular status reporting to agreed stakeholder distribution lists
- Manage communications with custodians and other third parties to resolve set-up queries and exceptions through to closure
- Validate key reference data attributes (e.g., legal entity identifier, bank identifier code, account name, account number) and escalate discrepancies for resolution
- Support readiness activities for new launches, including participation in daily progress forums and maintenance of shared real-time status logs
- Drive timely completion communications to stakeholders once set-ups are confirmed and controls are satisfied
- Identify risks, breaks, and control gaps early, escalate appropriately, and contribute to process improvements that enhance accuracy and efficiency

Required qualifications, capabilities and skills

- 3 years of experience in custody operations, market onboarding, fund operations, static/reference data, and/or standing instruction set-up and maintenance
- Working knowledge of standing instructions, cash accounts, and market trading identifiers
- Working knowledge of SWIFT concepts and Relationship Management Application (RMA) controls
- Experience coordinating with external custodians and internal stakeholders to deliver against defined timelines
- Proven attention to detail and ability to validate reference data (e.g., legal entity identifier, bank identifier code, account details) with strong documentation discipline
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent set-ups with competing deadlines
- Strong written communication skills, with the ability to provide clear status updates and action-oriented follow-ups
- Strong ownership mindset with consistent follow-through from request intake to completion
- Controls-focused approach, including evidence-based validation and maintaining an auditable trail of approvals/confirmations

Preferred qualifications, capabilities and skills

- Experience supporting new fund launches and/or new market access initiatives
- Experience with broker linkages and market-specific onboarding requirements across multiple jurisdictions
- Experience improving straight-through processing outcomes through process standardization and control enhancements
- Familiarity with Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) set-up concepts, proxy voting set-up concepts, and related market infrastructure requirements
- Experience partnering with technology teams to implement operational solutions and reduce manual touchpoints
- Experience producing stakeholder-ready reporting and maintaining real-time progress logs for time-sensitive onboarding deliverables
- Developing experience using AI-powered analytics, workflow automation, or intelligent process tools to drive efficiency gains, reduce manual effort, or improve accuracy in operational processes.