Product Operations Specialist - Reference Data

Job Purpose

The primary purpose of this position is to research, analyze, interpret, transform and present reference data for Equity and Funds securities across global markets, while supporting the Index team by providing reference data with precision. The focus of this position is to perform this work with documents written in English.

The incumbent must successfully complete a 8-to-12-week training program that centers on building enough subject matter expertise and the utilization of the database(s) of record such that the incumbent can independently analyze legal and financial documents associated with Equity and Fund securities . During training, the incumbent must master all of the subject matter and will be required to pass a series of quizzes and tests as well achieve the accuracy and timeliness metrics that were established for trainees.

The training curriculum for Data Analyst contains high level overviews of the complex structures worked on by more senior personnel as well as reference data client use cases so that the incumbent can differentiate between legal and financial language that is relevant to and required by our client base versus jargon describing information that is not required and, so that the incumbent can identify new financing techniques that come to market. The incumbent must then apply this foundation of knowledge via a logical sequence of decision-making events to determine relevancy of said information to our clients for any of their use cases and if deemed relevant, determine the appropriate next steps to ensure high client satisfaction levels. 

The Equity and Funds asset class consists significantly large volumes of active securities and the reference data provided by ICE Data Services for said securities is used by our clients to make trading decisions, settle trades, make investment decisions, manage portfolios, analyze risk, create security master files, create client statements and conduct other back-office functions. Our reference data is also used by internal stakeholders such as the Evaluated Pricing, Index and Analytics groups said reference data plays an integral role in determining evaluated prices, determining whether or not a security should be added to or deleted from an index or indices, the weighted average of a security within an index and, performing a series of analytical calculations that are used both internally within ICE and externally by these stakeholder’s clientele.

Responsibilities

• Analyze, interpret, collate, and transform reference data for multi structure/events/sub processes with high complexity in either the primary market or the secondary market (but not both) provided in a variety of legal and financial documents, third party reports and vendor information, while ensuring that the reference data provided in ICE’s products and services accurate, comprehensive and in a timely manner, namely best in class.
• Demonstrate familiarity with reference data products to support client challenges and resolve data problems.
• Build core competencies in the maintenance of reference data captured in alternate databases used to produce products.
• Independently perform all assigned business processes completely and accurately.
• Conduct user acceptance testing of new enhancements and bug fixes made to the database(s) of record.
• Craft external facing responses for those clients that submitted customer inquiries containing a meaningful, well-thought out, well-constructed answer that includes a restatement of the challenge or question, the analysis completed to satisfy the request and where appropriate, the methodology used to determine the solution when researching and resolving client inquiries.
• Identifies trends and causation of inaccurate and/or incomplete data including but not limited to staying current with regulatory initiatives, new financing techniques used by the marketplace and organizations that impact coverage and completeness.
• Create simple excel and macro functions to organize, analyze, convert, and create reference data.
• Demonstrate extensive knowledge and understanding of policies and procedures and work with training team to augment best practices as changes in the marketplace evolve.
• Applies problem-solving skills to identify and help to resolve data quality issues and/or work-flow inefficiencies and process improvements resulting in increased accuracy levels, time to market and productivity.
• Participate in root cause analysis efforts to identify system data issues and participate in creating process improvements. Resolve complex data challenges and time critical sensitive projects.
• Create charts, graphs, and presentations for leadership teams.
• Communicate with and influence market participants including underwriters, issuers, trust administrators and exchanges through phone and email correspondence to procure required reference data content, resolve data discrepancies and gain an understanding of undefined terms.
• Make sound, subjective decisions when interpreting legal and financial information by utilizing subject matter expertise to infer, deduce and ultimately draw the correct conclusions. Mentor junior employees provide guidance; serve as subject matter experts.

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required
• 5+ years corporate level experience, or 2+ years direct experience
• Ability to work in a fast paced, high pressured, fluid environment
• Ability to distill large amounts of varied information into specific takeaways
• Excellent attention to detail and high degree of demonstrated decision-making and problem-solving skills
• Strong analytical skills
• Eagerness to learn and collaborate with others
• Strong excel skills required