Senior Front Office Technical Analyst at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• Absa CIB Markets is currently looking for Senior Front Office Technical Analyst
• One of the key functions of the Senior Front Office Technical Analyst is to ensure that trading PnL is fully substantiated and explained by attributing the PnL into the greeks as well as understanding any new or edit pnl on trade day i.e. T0 and by comparing this to trader flash. This is a daily function across all products traded within Secondary Markets and Treasury (FX, MM, Interest Rate, Equity, Commodity, Credit and Structured Notes). Understanding of financial instruments is paramount.
• This role entail managing a team of analysts.
• The ideal candite should have at least 5 years experience in the relevant role.

Job Description

Key Accountabilities 

• The responsibilities are mainly around the production, substantiation, reporting (to Front Office) of PnL numbers at the end of the day.
• When required edit or perform trade amends on FO request.
• Owning or having oversight of all inputs into the process of generating accurate PnL numbers. These would include (amongst others)
  • market data
  • valuation models
  • trade to model mapping
  • trade to market data mapping
  • trade life cycle events (amendments, terminations, resets etc)
• Substantiate the PnL by understanding the trader’s strategy as well as the risk factors that drive the PnL.
• Take part in NAPA (New Product Approval) where all new products are presented and discussed. Ensure that Front Arena is ready to handle new business.
• Perform ad hoc tasks as and when needed by the business
• Resolving queries from Front Office, Product Control, Post Trade Services, Market Risk etc. around any aspect of the transactions management.
• Play a key role in designing, building and implementing a robust and well controlled process for the generation and reporting of PnL and attribution and accurate keeping of records. This will require you to work closely with Front Office, PCG and IT.
• Ensure that the trades are valued correctly in line with CSA agreements with various clients and counterparties. Develop and maintain the controls to monitor deviations and facilitate remediation where necessary.
• Develop, test and deploy new market data or the change in market data to the firm’s systems and keep the record of all pertinent information. 
• Develop / manage relations with key clients (Front Office, PC, Post Trade Services and Market Risk) 
• Lead and mentor members of the team in their career paths

Education and Experience Required

• Tertiary Education
• Quantitative (Fin Maths / Maths / Statistics / Comp Sc etc) or Accounting degree
• Postgraduate would be an advantage
• CFA / FRM would be an advantage.

Competencies: 

• Solid understanding of most / all asset classes (Equity, Commodity, Fixed Income, FX, Credit and MM) – this should include knowledge of how markets work and also how to value instruments traded in these asset classes. Candidate should also understand the risk factors that drive the PnL in above asset classes and be able to apply this in order to explain or substantiate the numbers to Front Office
• Ideally this knowledge would have been gained whilst working in a treasury or risk environment as opposed to just being of a theoretical nature
• Advanced computer literacy (Excel / Access / strong VBA a bonus)
• Good system skills (in-depth experience working with treasury or risk system)
• Multi tasking

Other Competencies:  (Maximum of 8 competencies)

• Appetite for change
• Self Confidence
• Ability to communicate effectively at all levels
• Ability to work under pressure
• Ability to coordinate activities across various departments
• Ability to work accurately and independently
• Ability to maintain and build good working relationships
• Team Player
• Ability to adapt to a changing working environment and changing deadlines
• Pro active approach to training and mentoring the more inexperienced members of the team.

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)