Reference Data Operations Analyst

Reference Data Operations Analyst - Job Description

Overview - with a Leading Asset Management Firm

The Reference Data Operations Analyst will play a key role in ensuring the accuracy, integrity, and availability of reference data that supports trading, risk management, and operational functions across the firm.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive high‑quality reference data across trading, risk, and operations through robust data quality processes and controls.
• Develop expertise in interpreting corporate actions and understanding their impact on the firm and trading activities.
• Support Risk and Financial Engineering teams by modeling reference data used in analytical workflows.
• Create and maintain security master data for a wide range of products, including Equities, Fixed Income, Interest Rate Swaps, Credit Default Swaps, Listed Options, Forwards, and complex/exotic derivatives (such as FRAs, FVAs, Digital Options, Contingent Options, and Worst‑of Options).
• Support firmwide stakeholders on reference data elements (Account Master, Broker Master, Charge Management tools, etc.) to enable trading, settlements, and reporting.
• Collaborate with external vendors to source data as needed.
• Partner with IT development teams to enhance processes and build tools that streamline daily operations.
• Address trader inquiries related to positions and P&L displayed in firm systems.
• Coordinate with the firm's Operations outsourcer on corporate action and security master issues.

Qualifications & Requirements

The ideal candidate will demonstrate:

• A high degree of curiosity and initiative, with a proven track record of identifying and implementing improvements to security master processes.
• Strong ownership and organizational skills, with the ability to meet both daily deadlines and ad‑hoc requests.
• Effective communication skills to ensure clear handoffs and escalations across team members.
• A passion for analyzing, researching, and resolving data issues using a variety of tools.
• An outgoing, collaborative working style that enables effective partnership across risk, compliance, technology, and front‑to‑back office teams.

Education, Training & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Finance or Economics.
• Minimum 3 years of relevant experience required, including:
  • Extensive data entry and maintenance of static/reference data, with a primary focus on security master data.
  • At least 3 years maintaining security master data for Equities, Fixed Income, Options, CDS, and IRS products.
  • At least 3 years resolving data quality exceptions and performing reconciliations.
• Technical & Analytical Skills:
  • Minimum 1 year of experience using JIRA or similar issue‑tracking systems.
  • Proficient in Excel (minimum 3 years), including VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, COUNT functions, SEARCH, and Pivot Tables for managing and analyzing large datasets.
  • At least 1 year of SQL experience working with financial data; ability to run SEARCH, JOIN, ORDER BY, and GROUP BY queries on large databases.
  • Proficiency with Bloomberg Terminal, including researching data points, pulling data into Excel, and understanding automation tools relevant to security master processes.