Current Openings at Allan Gray Proprietary Limited

Purpose of the role

• The position is within the Retail Operations division, an area responsible for processing transactions from clients and independent financial advisers, as well as providing administrative support for the firm’s retail investment offering.
• The purpose of the role is to ensure the high service standard at Allan Gray is maintained through building strong client relationships and delivering excellent client service to our clients and independent financial advisers. You will be responsible for ensuring all incoming instructions are responded to and processed and any pending instructions are followed up on. You will report to a team leader, which requires you to work actively within a team but also independently.

Responsibilities

Checking and accurately processing all incoming or pending instructions. These include:

• New business transactions, e.g. opening a new investment account
• Existing business transactions, e.g. where a client adds or withdraws money or makes changes to their investment
• Providing clients and advisers with a superior level of client service through call and email communications, e.g. responding on time and diligently to all requests from clients, advisers and internal business teams
• Maintaining accurate record-keeping on internal systems of all interactions with clients and advisers
• Knowledge of various legislative requirements relating to investment products
• Supporting members of your team and the team leader, e.g. assisting with technical queries, workflow and processes

Job specification

• Relevant business degree and/or job-related experience
• Sound knowledge of the life insurance industry (including pension funds) and/or the unit trust industry would be an advantage
• Key attributes and competencies
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Excellent time management skills
• Excellent problem-solving skills
• Client-focused with strong verbal and written communication skills
• Self-motivated and agile with the ability to function well under pressure
• Intermediate computer literacy skills in Microsoft Word or Excel

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Job Summary

• We are looking for a self-motivated individual to join the Institutional IT team as a test analyst in delivering quality software that will create an exceptional user experience for our end-users. 
• Allan Gray Institutional IT team consists of appr. 65 members, covering a range of skills and responsibilities including Domain Owners, Development Manager, Architect, Business Analysts, Developers (.NET and SQL) and IT Operations. The team operates with four business-aligned domains (Front Office, Middle Office, Fund Operations and Client Servicing). 
• Additionally, the Tech domain and IT Operations teams support the business-aligned domains.
• What you can expect: You will be performing functional and regression testing as well as resolving production defects. 
• Please note: This is a Cape Town based role and you will be required to be in office for a minimum of 3 days / week or as required by your domain. 

Job Responsibilities

• Extracting test requirements for user stories, 
• Designing and creating test cases, 
• Estimating effort for testing tasks, 
• Manual testing of applications, which includes front-end, system integration, regression, and end-to-end as well as exploratory testing, 
• Managing and maintaining manual regression test suites, 
• Product risk mitigation, thereby limiting defects in production, 
• Collaborating closely with developers and business analysts in identifying, logging, and verifying defects in a defect tracking system, 
• Collaborating with other teams in INST IT for integration testing. 
• Assist in production support issues and queries.
• Liaise with IT Ops and other Domains for support to resolve or assist with fixes.
• Continuous improvement initiatives specifically with regard to quality and performance

Skills and Experience Required

• Attention to detail, 
• Data analysis and reporting skills, 
• Good verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills, 
• Ability to  
• Manage own time and get tasks done, 
• Grasp concepts and understand the systems being tested, 
• Deal with complexity, 
• Deal with high variability of work and context switching, 
• Be comfortable with a fair amount of unpredictability in daily tasks.
• Resolve issues and overcome obstacles
• Able to engage with others to gather information

Education

• 5 years test experience 
• Basic SQL skills
• Relevant Business/ Commerce/ IT degree. 
• Testing fundamentals training / Test certification would be advantageous.
• Exposure to Agile methodologies (e.g. SCRUM) would be advantageous
•  

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Job Summary

• The candidate will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the operational tax and corporate action functions. The Institutional Operations Tax Team is responsible for providing internal and external clients with exceptional service and accurate and efficient tax reporting, while the Corporate Actions Team ensures that all corporate actions, including proxy votes, are processed, and submitted timeously and accurately.
• The tax function also provides support, insight and analysis to various internal stakeholders including but not limited to the Corporate Actions Team (relating to understanding and implementing the correct the tax treatment of market events), the Bermuda Operations Team (relating to the tax implications of investments in a wide array of global jurisdictions), Group Tax, Client Reporting and Institutional Client Services (ICS).
• The candidate will work closely with other operational and business areas, including Fund Accounting, Performance, Institutional Client Services, the Investment Team and Trading

Responsibilities

• Ensuring accurate tax provision and compliance 
• Reviewing the completeness and accuracy of client tax liabilities within Institutional   Operations.
• Ensuring that the institutional operations business maintains compliance with all tax reporting, filing and related requirements.
• Ensure that tax submissions are accurately calculated and timeously submitted to the relevant tax authorities.
• Review and analysis of monthly, quarterly and annual tax calculations performed by external service providers for institutional clients (including S24J, Capital Gains Tax, Interest Withholding Tax (IWT) and Dividend Withholding Tax (DWT) calculations).
• Review the assessments of the various Funds in-country tax exposure.
• Ensuring that institutional funds are appropriately registered for tax in applicable foreign foreign jurisdictions, and liaising with in-country tax authorities and specialists to ensure such registration is completed and ongoing filing requirements are adhered to.
• Review of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and Common Reporting Standard (CRS) submissions for applicable clients.
• Responsible for ensuring the correct set up on the accounting system of new interest-bearing instruments.
• Review on the client and portfolio tax implications of all/complex corporate events.
• Review of the tax implications and tax reporting related to CIS income distributions and their appropriate Finswitch classifications
• Ensure that changes to applicable tax legislation (local and foreign) are identified, communicated, considered and any actioned where necessary.
• Lead all institutional tax projects and/or system changes pertaining to tax.
• Ensuring accurate corporate action processing 
• Identifying and assessing the impact of corporate actions on portfolio holdings and valuations and ensure all corporate actions are accurately recorded in the portfolio accounting system
• Understanding of and ensuring that the tax and accounting impact of all corporate actions are all accounted for correctly
• Management of complex corporate events to ensure compliance with internal policies and guidelines, including understanding the tax implications thereof
• Managing proxy voting and elective events and signing off instructions to custodians
• Managing the Tax Reclaims process, the relationship with external vendors and maintaining acceptable completeness checks
• Maintaining and refining the control environment
• Responsible for a clean audit on the ISAE tax controls
• Identifying gaps and areas of improvement in current processes and taking on projects to implement required changes.
• Leading the existing Corporate Actions and Operational Tax team and assisting the Investment Accounting Manager with coordinating and managing daily business-as-usual (BAU) tasks, as well as supporting the development of the specialists within the team
• Playing a pivotal role in reviewing existing processes, validations and reports to ensure that BAU tasks are value-adding, and that the team works in the most efficient manner possible
• Reviewing the current control processes and document the process with particular attention to the area of process improvement and identifying areas of weakness in the current process
• Play a leading role in defining the future model of the corporate actions and operational tax function    
• People Management and Communication
• Building and maintaining effective stakeholder relationships, both internally and externally
• Representing Allan Gray at ASISA and other industry related tax committees
• People management - coaching and developing the team (2-3 direct reports)
• Continuous performance management using competency model
• Being the institutional business champion in respect of corporate action and operational tax projects or system changes pertaining to corporate actions and operational tax
• Coordinating and driving current corporate action and operational tax  initiatives, projects and testing within the team - this includes the communication of progress to senior stakeholders

Competencies

• Proficient in all Microsoft packages 
• Strong numeric ability and a questioning mind
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Strong leadership skills
• A self-starter with the ability to create efficient processes and controls
• Ability to operate independently as well as in a team environment
• Interpersonal and communication skills to build and maintain strong working relationships with relevant stakeholders, both internally and externally, and to defend an opinion with rationale and logic
• Ability to accept responsibility for all tasks done
• Good time management skills, and the ability to manage heavy workloads and multiple tasks – and work flexible hours if required to do so
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Very disciplined and methodical style of working
• Determined, engaged and persistent proactive “can-do” attitude that inspires others to do great work

Education

• Chartered Accountant – Higher Diploma or Honours in Tax will be an advantage; or
• B Com degree or equivalent with at least 5 years of relevant tax, corporate actions, and/or accounting experience
• A minimum of five years of experience in Financial Services (FS articles experience counts)

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Role and Responsibilities

• Setting clear goals, guiding, and motivating team members, facilitating communication, delegating tasks as and when required, and ensuring accountability for results
• Foster a collaborative environment, resolve conflicts, provide feedback, and support the development of team members
• Implements strategies to improve performance and represents the team’s interest to higher management
• Responsible for the maintaining of the main store including the general cleanliness and tidiness of the store
• Optimize space usage in the main store, maintain equipment and ensure compliance with company policies and regulations
• Manage the stock in the main store, including all groceries, cleaning, and stationery stock, received, and issued
• Maintaining stock levels to meet demands without running out of stock or causing delays in delivery times. Seasonal variations, peaks in demand, or any unforeseen circumstances which may disrupt the supply chain and impact customer service must be considered
• Work with the procurement administration officer, ensuring transfer orders are captured and approved before stock is issued
• Ensures that the procurement administration officer posts items that were issued
• Effectively manage the assets and smalls at the external warehouse
• Performs monthly stock checks with the procurement administration officer
• Generate stock usage reports which involves tracking and analysing the consumption of inventory items over a specified period

Required Skills

• Effective team leader possesses qualities such as:
• Clear communication
• Strong organizational skills
• Problem solving and decision-making abilities
• Confidence in their team
• Integrity
• Influence, delegation ability

Qualifications and Experience

• ​​​​​​Matric Certificate
• Competent in excel and word.
• 5 years stock and delivery dispatch experience