Head of ABF Surveillance

At Barings, we are as invested in our associates as we are in our clients. We recognize those who work diligently for us and reward them for personal and professional integrity, communication skills, distinct competencies and expertise in specific strategies, ability to collaborate as a team member and true dedication to the interests of our clients.

We thank you for your interest in joining the Barings team, and invite you to explore our current employment opportunities.

Job Title: Head of ABF Surveillance

Business Title: Senior Director or Managing Director

Business Unit: Asset Based Finance

Locations: Charlotte, NC or New York, NY

Job Summary

Barings is seeking a senior surveillance professional to lead the surveillance capability for its Asset Based Finance (ABF) platform. This individual will own the end-to-end framework for monitoring transaction, collateral, counterparty, and servicing performance across public and private ABF strategies. The role will ensure that surveillance is consistent, timely, well-documented, and supported by scalable data, reporting, and operating processes.

The role will partner closely with investment, portfolio management, finance, legal, technology, operations, valuation, and risk stakeholders to translate transaction-level performance into clear portfolio insights and recommended actions. The successful candidate will combine deep structured-credit and asset-level surveillance expertise with the ability to build a high-quality, technology-enabled surveillance function as the platform grows.

Primary Responsibilities

Surveillance Function Leadership & Governance

- Lead the ABF surveillance function and define its mandate, operating model, coverage standards, priorities, service levels, and interaction with investment and control partners.
- Establish a consistent surveillance framework across the ABF portfolio, including coverage frequency, data requirements, review standards, watchlists, escalation protocols, documentation, and follow-through.
- Build and develop the surveillance team, setting clear accountabilities, analytical standards, quality controls, and professional-development expectations.
- Oversee the review and escalation of deteriorating exposures, structural pressure points, breaches, amendments, restructurings, servicer matters, and other material transaction events.
- Create a disciplined feedback loop from observed asset and transaction performance to investment teams, informing underwriting assumptions, structuring considerations, documentation terms, and ongoing portfolio management.

Portfolio, Deal & Collateral Surveillance

- Oversee transaction-level surveillance across residential, consumer, commercial asset finance, specialty finance, and whole-loan investments, including collateral performance, triggers, covenants, waterfalls, credit enhancement, liquidity, and tranche behavior.
- Direct recurring analysis of delinquencies, defaults, losses, recoveries, prepayments, concentrations, vintage and cohort performance, servicer trends, and other asset-level indicators, connecting results to deal structures and original underwriting assumptions.
- Ensure timely identification, investigation, documentation, and escalation of performance outliers, data-quality issues, covenant or trigger breaches, servicing concerns, and deviations from expected performance.
- Synthesize transaction-level findings into portfolio themes, trend analysis, scenario considerations, and actionable insights for investment, portfolio management, valuation, and governance discussions.

Surveillance Operations, Data & Controls

- Own the end-to-end surveillance calendar, recurring deliverables, data intake, exception management, review controls, recordkeeping, and management reporting.
- Design scalable workflows for trustee, servicer, administrator, borrower, and third-party data, with clear standards for validation, reconciliation, completeness, timeliness, and issue resolution.
- Partner with technology and data teams to automate data ingestion, calculations, testing, alerts, dashboards, and reporting while maintaining transparent data lineage and appropriate review controls.
- Define and monitor service and quality metrics for the surveillance function, including coverage, timeliness, data quality, open exceptions, watchlist movement, escalation status, and remediation progress.

Reporting, Committees & Cross-Functional Partnership

- Lead surveillance reporting for portfolio reviews, valuation discussions, watchlist meetings, investment forums, and other senior governance committees.
- Present concise, evidence-based views on transaction performance, emerging trends, downside scenarios, surveillance exceptions, and recommended follow-up actions.
- Coordinate closely with investment and portfolio teams while maintaining consistent surveillance standards, objective analysis, clear documentation, and defined escalation ownership.
- Represent the surveillance function in interactions with servicers, trustees, administrators, borrowers, data vendors, auditors, and other external parties, as appropriate.

Qualifications

- 12+ years of relevant experience in structured credit, securitizations, asset-backed finance, specialty finance, asset management, or a closely related field; experience may come from asset managers, banks, rating agencies, servicers, trustees, administrators, or structured-finance platforms.
- Deep understanding of ABS and related structures, including collateral reporting, cash-flow waterfalls, triggers, covenants, credit enhancement, tranche behavior, servicing mechanics, and transaction documentation.
- Demonstrated experience leading or materially contributing to a surveillance, portfolio monitoring, asset management, servicing oversight, or comparable function, with the ability to establish governance and operating discipline.
- Strong analytical judgment and experience identifying, investigating, documenting, and escalating performance deterioration, data exceptions, structural issues, and servicing concerns across complex or less standardized assets.
- Experience designing scalable surveillance processes, management reporting, data controls, dashboards, exception workflows, and technology-enabled monitoring tools.
- Proven ability to lead and develop a team and influence senior stakeholders across investment, portfolio management, operations, technology, and control functions.
- Executive-level written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate detailed transaction and collateral analysis into clear implications, priorities, and actions.
- Advanced Excel capabilities; experience with Intex, Bloomberg, SQL, Python, Power BI, or comparable surveillance, structured-finance, and data tools is advantageous.
- Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree, CFA, FRM, or other relevant credential is a plus.

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Base Salary Range: $200,000-250,000 and additional incentive compensation.

Requisite Skills
Asset Backed Financing, Asset-Backed Securities (ABS), Portfolio Monitoring, Surveillance

Additional Skills

Barings is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer; Minority/Female/Age/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity/Individual with Disability/Protected Veteran. We welcome all persons to apply.

Barings offers a comprehensive benefits package including:

CORE BENEFITS & WELLNESS

- Medical (including Virtual Care), Prescription, Dental, and Vision Coverage
- Fitness Center Reimbursement Program (Including Online Memberships)
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Fertility Benefits

FINANCIAL WELL-BEING

- Highly competitive 401(k) Plan with Company Match
- Health Savings Account (HSA) with Company Contributions
- Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) - Health Care & Dependent Care
- Retirement Health Reimbursement Account

LIFE INSURANCE

- Basic and Supplemental Life Insurance
- Spouse and Child Life Insurance

TIME OFF, DISABILITY AND LEAVE OF ABSENCE

- Paid Vacation, Sick Days and Annual Holidays
- Paid Leave of Absences (Maternity Leave, Parental Leave, Caregiver Leave, Bereavement Time)
- Short and Long Term Disability Plans
- Paid Volunteer Time

OTHER BENEFITS

- Education Assistance Program
- Charitable Matching Gifts Program
- Commuter Reimbursement Program
- Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement Program