Trade & Cash Operations Analyst

Stanford Management Company (SMC), the University’s investment office, invests the Merged Pool, which includes substantially all of the University’s investable endowment assets.  The investment portfolio is designed with the dual goals of preserving the purchasing power of the Endowment for future generations of Stanford students and scholars and enabling a robust annual disbursement to the University’s operating budget.  SMC primarily relies on carefully chosen external partners to select individual securities, allowing Stanford to benefit from specialized knowledge in asset classes that reward superior active management.

SMC is seeking an organized and detail-oriented Trade & Cash Operations Analyst who will report to the Manager, Trade & Cash Operations. This position is critical for facilitating securities transactions and cash movements while providing key investment information to the SMC investment team. The ideal candidate will demonstrate high productivity, meticulous attention to detail, and strong problem-solving skills, with proven experience in equity and fixed income security settlement and cash flow management.

CORE DUTIES*:

• Provide constituents with relevant, accurate, and consistent information for investment oversight and decision making.

  • Provide effective, relevant, and focused management reports and dashboards, and ad-hoc analyses as needed.

  • Produce cash forecast for daily asset allocation reporting, explaining key fluctuations and changes for use by the Investment Team.

  • Prepare fund movements for authorization including internal cash transfers, wire set-up, and investment funding. Resolve issues, recognize exceptions and recommend solutions. 

  • Facilitate securities transactions, complex securities, settlements, and reconciliations.

  • Maintain the integrity of accounting and investment data for Merged Pool investments.

  • Monitor all investment approvals and activity, accurately record activity, and serve as the primary interface with internal and external parties.

  • Collect data and perform research on details of transactions. Ensure work complies with complex internal policies and external regulations which may require interpretation.

  • Work as a member of a project team and contribute to change management strategy through communication and collaboration with others.

  • Serve as a first line resource to brokers and custodian bank; identify and resolve issues.

  • Interface with key internal and external stakeholders, including exhibiting a strong customer service orientation.

*Other duties may also be assigned

The expected pay range for this position is $92,000 - $120,000 per annum. 

Core Duties:

• Calculate performance and perform structured analysis of results for marketable and non-marketable investments.

• Provide effective, relevant, and focused financial management reports and dashboards. Identify and investigate discrepancies and underlying issues in reporting; recognize exceptions, develop solutions that may require policy changes or development of new reports and/or dashboards.

• Provide portfolio and asset allocation reporting. Run, maintain, reconcile, review, combine, analyze and validate financial data sets, utilizing financial databases and key financial information from multiple systems including Solovis, Bloomberg, and others.

• Prepare fund movements for authorization including internal cash transfers, wire set-up, and investment funding. Resolve issues, recognize exceptions and recommend solutions.

• Process, record, and perform recurring investment accounting activities and maintain integrity of accounting and investment data for Merged Pool and School & Department Funds investments.

• Collect data and perform research on details of transactions. Ensure work complies with complex internal policies and external regulations which may require interpretation.

• Onboard new investments, ensuring that all investments are accurately set up in custodian’s and Stanford’s systems. Deposit key investment manager materials on internal data storage system.

• Prepare, track, and process investment valuations, transactions, and corporate actions. Ensure related documentation is completed and archived. Prepare reconciliations to custodian records.

• Work as a member of a project team and contribute to change management strategy through communication and collaboration with others.

• Serve as a first line resource to brokers and custodian bank; identify and resolve issues.

• Interface with key internal and external stakeholders, including exhibiting a strong customer service orientation.

Minimum Education and Experience

Associate’s degree or combination of education and work experience.

Bachelor’s degree and two years of relevant experience, or a combination of education and relevant work experience.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Experience with a variety of investment types (public and private).

• Understanding of and ability to apply accounting skills and concepts. Knowledge of and experience with accounting systems.

• Proficiency in business applications, such as Microsoft Office suite, especially Excel.

• Experience in financial modeling and business intelligence applications to produce analysis and presentations.

• High degree of accuracy, strong attention to detail, and efficient execution of responsibilities

• Robust organizational skills and ability to prioritize workload, set deadlines independently, and complete tasks in a timely and efficient manner.

• Strong communication skills, including ability to prepare materials for and clearly and effectively communicate information to internal and external audiences, client groups, and management.