Principal Strategies

Nomura are looking for a Principal Strategies to join their Global Markets Business Services team to support the day to day business, regulatory compliance and new product faciliationto a wide range of trading desks located in London and New York.

Business overview

Principal Strategies group - A London based trading group with the mandate to trade a wide variety of products on a principal basis including, Equity, Credit, Fixed Income and FX. Each portfolio manager typically focuses on one asset class or strategy

GMHQ - The GMHQ trading desks mandate is to provide a macro level hedging strategy for the firm's activities in EMEA. This includes both Equity and Fixed Income products traded in a variety of locations on a daily basis

Operational control:

• Resolution of all reconciliation queries from reconciliation teams in Mumbai
• On shore escalation point for any aged reconciliation item or aged settlement fail
• Daily NFPS (Japanese trading entity) trade analysis to ensure that all trades entered into the entity comply with Japanese regulations
• Query management and resolution for other Corporate functions: Product control, IT, Tax etc
• Daily and weekly operational metrics review.
• Sales Credits issues & queriesProduct management/Business support:
• Daily management of all trades under the JPM swap model; Ensuring all brokers have given up all trades before EOD can commence
• Monthly processing of the JPM swap resets - Agreeing cashflows and swap performance with the JPM client reps
• Processing of all product life cycle events: Corporate Actions, Expiries, Novations, product rolls etc
• Intraday resolution of product related risk issues as raised by the Front Office
• Trading system spill queue monitoring
• Initial point of contact for all Operational queries raised by the trading desk and Business management
• Production of the daily Flash PNL for GMHQ and Principal Strategies businessRole description:
• Start of Day risk management: You will be responsible for escalating any issues that arise overnight to the team supervisor relating to control failures, unallocated bookings, significant reconciliation breaks and settlement failures
• EOD Flash pnl and risk production. After market close you will be responsible for producing the Flash PNL for both desks. This is a complex process and over time you will build an in depth understanding of both the positions in the portfolio and how they price in the various trading systems
• EOD swap processing. Reconciling all executed trades to ensure that brokers have given up trades on behalf of Nomura and then running the end of day process for the JPM Equity Swap
• Intraday issue resolution. You will be required to effectively and efficiently resolve any operational queries received from the various trading desks
• Operational Risk. On a weekly basis prepare and present to the Front Office via the FOS (Front Office supervision) framework all significant key risk indicators. This includes a detailed analysis of all trade cancel and amends.
• On a weekly basis review and analyse all key Operational metrics impacting the desks products and then present these in the weekly operational Risk management challenge meeting and to the head of the division
• Intraday trading position checks - Ensuring that all bookings made by the GMHQ trading group are reconciled to broker confirmations and that the risk is correctly booked and positions are pricing correctly
• You will be expected to build an excellent working relationship with the Middle Office team in Powai, India with daily interaction to ensure that between the London and Powai teams all tasks are covered and any items requiring onshore escalation are given the correct visibility to the business and senior Operations management
• You will be expected to build an excellent working relationship with the JPM Prime Brokerage team to ensure that all operational aspects of the swap and associated give ups are handled correctly and all trades allocated at the close of business each day
• You will be responsible for delivering on the teams intraday deliverables; specifically, ensure all stakeholder queries and issues are resolved in a timely fashion, task lists are signed off and procedures are kept up to date, over time you will be required to build an excellent working relationship with Business management and key members of the other Corporate functions

Key objectives critical to success:

• Proven ability to manage a complex workload within a Middle Office or trade support environment
• Flawless execution of Derivative product life cycle events: Corporate Actions and Expiries
• Ability to multitask and prioritise your workload accordingly so operational risk is minimised
• Ability to understand an ever changing regulatory landscape and articulate to senior GMBS managers and the business
• Ability to deliver multiple tactical and strategic projects for multiple stakeholders
• Ability to build sustainable working relationships with the Front Office and other Operational stakeholders.

Skills, experience, qualifications and knowledge required

• Excellent Derivatives operational processing knowledge, specifically relating to Equity swaps would be a significant advantage
• An understanding of how Prime Brokerage works and how hedge funds utilise this model
• Thorough theoretical understanding of one of Equity Derivatives, Fixed Income or FX Derivatives. These are the core products that the team support
• Demonstrable knowledge of the operational flows of at least one of the above asset classes
• Proven ability to identify and deliver process enhancements within a Middle Office or other relevant team environment