Sammons Financial Group
Compliance Testing Program Manager
Sammons Financial Group, West Des Moines, Iowa, United States, 50265
What You Can Expect In This Role
Design, implement and operate testing, surveillance and monitoring frameworks focused on compliance with client investment guidelines, Investment Book of Record (IBOR) positions, execution, allocation and valuation logic. Subject matter expert (SME) for translating investment policy language into coded rules, maintaining testing standards and escalating/remediating production exceptions with technology, operations, portfolio management and compliance partners.
What You’ll Do In This Role Investment Guideline Coding and Monitoring
Translate Investment Policy Statements (IPS), client mandates and account‑level restrictions into coded rules and automated checks.
Own the end‑to‑end guideline lifecycle: requirements, coding, unit tests, user acceptance testing (UAT), go‑live, and ongoing monitoring.
Run daily/periodic guideline compliance checks, triage exceptions, perform root‑cause analysis and coordinate remediation.
Document guideline interpretations, mapping rules and escalation/playbooks for persistent issues.
IBOR Position, Cash and Corporate Action Testing
Develop and execute test plans for IBOR calculations, trade capture, positions, cash, foreign exchange (FX) and corporate actions.
Monitor IBOR accuracy vs. custodial/close‑of‑business (COB) feeds and facilitate reconciliations.
Validate end‑to‑end trade lifecycle flows (order → execution → allocation → settlement) through automated and manual testing.
Best Execution and Trade Surveillance
Support best execution monitoring and transaction cost analysis (TCA) processes: validate TCA outputs, monitor execution quality metrics and investigate outliers.
Build and maintain rules to detect anomalous execution patterns or potential best execution breaches.
Produce regular best‑execution and broker‑performance reports for traders, portfolio managers and Compliance.
Allocation and Rebalancing
Test allocation engines and rebalancing logic (model → account mappings, pro‑rata, partial fills, wash rules).
Validate post‑trade allocation accuracy, monitor for allocation mismatches and investigate causes.
Valuation and Net Asset Value (NAV) Testing
Validate pricing / valuation feeds, mark‑to‑market and mark‑to‑model processes.
Design checks to detect valuation overrides, stale pricing or material NAV variances; coordinate pricing vendor investigations.
Testing and Automation
Create and maintain test plans, test cases and automated regression suites for critical systems (IBOR, OMS, PMS, accounting).
Implement monitoring and alerting frameworks (SLA breaches, exception volumes, KPI thresholds).
Leverage scripting/automation (SQL, Python, ETL tooling) to reduce manual effort and improve test coverage.
Controls, Reporting and Audits
Produce daily/weekly/monthly monitoring dashboards, KPI reports and exception trend analysis for senior management and auditors.
Support internal and external audits: provide evidence, run ad‑hoc queries and remediate control gaps.
Maintain comprehensive documentation (runbooks, playbooks, test artifacts, requirement traceability).
What We’re Looking For
Undergraduate degree in Finance, Accounting, Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering or related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience preferred.
8+ years’ experience in investment operations, investment compliance, QA/testing or a related role within an RIA, asset manager, custodian or broker‑dealer environment preferred.
Prior experience specifically coding investment restrictions/rules in a rules engine preferred.
Strong understanding of the investment lifecycle: orders, executions, settlements, positions, cash, corporate actions and NAV/valuation concepts.
Hands‑on experience with IBOR/POBOR concepts and/or portfolio/accounting systems (e.g., BlackRock Aladdin, Charles River, SimCorp, Advent/Geneva/Moxy, or equivalent) — or proven ability to learn enterprise systems quickly.
Practical experience writing test cases, running UAT and implementing automated regression tests.
Technical skills: Comfortable with Excel (advanced), data manipulation and basic extract, transform, load (ETL) concepts.
Excellent problem‑solving skills, attention to detail, and the ability to document and communicate complex technical issues to business and technical stakeholders.
Strong written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills.
Proven ability to work with cross‑functional teams.
Ability to thrive in a fast‑paced environment with competing priorities and deadlines.
Exposure to TCA tools and best execution frameworks preferred.
Familiarity with regulatory expectations for registered investment advisors (RIAs), such as custody, best execution obligations and internal controls.
Experience with monitoring/observability tools (Splunk, Datadog), business intelligence (BI) tools (Tableau/Power BI) and ticketing systems (Jira, ServiceNow), preferred.
May be required to travel to a company office or location other than normal workplace for trainings, meetings, conferences or to support business needs.
Other Requirements
Criminal background check required.
This role will be subject to a SEC compliance program, which can include monitoring personal securities transactions, restrictions on outside business activities, as well as other oversight and restrictions.
What You Can Expect When You Join Sammons Financial Group
Sammons Financial Group offers a competitive benefit package that includes: Health, Dental, Vision, Company Paid Retirement, PTO and Holiday Pay.
Our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a 100% company‑funded retirement plan, so you can save for retirement without contributing a penny of your own paycheck.
Healthy balance between work and personal lives. Friday afternoons off all year long, competitive PTO, and generous number of paid holidays.
Our incentive program for defined goals subject to eligibility and performance. Monetary rewards are based on individual and/or overall company performance.
Colleagues who support one another, model our core values, and drive our healthy, high‑performing culture.
Salary Range Information USD $91,838.00 - USD $191,328.00 /Yr. Range includes data points from multiple labor markets. Specific range is dependent on the labor market where the incumbent will be hired to perform the position. Starting salary is dependent on candidate qualifications and experience. For a narrower salary range specific to your labor market, please inquire.
Work Authorization/Sponsorship At this time, we’re not considering candidates that need any type of immigration sponsorship now or in the future or those needing work authorization for this role (This includes, but is not limited to students on F1‑OPT, F1‑CPT, J‑1, etc.)
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What You’ll Do In This Role Investment Guideline Coding and Monitoring
Translate Investment Policy Statements (IPS), client mandates and account‑level restrictions into coded rules and automated checks.
Own the end‑to‑end guideline lifecycle: requirements, coding, unit tests, user acceptance testing (UAT), go‑live, and ongoing monitoring.
Run daily/periodic guideline compliance checks, triage exceptions, perform root‑cause analysis and coordinate remediation.
Document guideline interpretations, mapping rules and escalation/playbooks for persistent issues.
IBOR Position, Cash and Corporate Action Testing
Develop and execute test plans for IBOR calculations, trade capture, positions, cash, foreign exchange (FX) and corporate actions.
Monitor IBOR accuracy vs. custodial/close‑of‑business (COB) feeds and facilitate reconciliations.
Validate end‑to‑end trade lifecycle flows (order → execution → allocation → settlement) through automated and manual testing.
Best Execution and Trade Surveillance
Support best execution monitoring and transaction cost analysis (TCA) processes: validate TCA outputs, monitor execution quality metrics and investigate outliers.
Build and maintain rules to detect anomalous execution patterns or potential best execution breaches.
Produce regular best‑execution and broker‑performance reports for traders, portfolio managers and Compliance.
Allocation and Rebalancing
Test allocation engines and rebalancing logic (model → account mappings, pro‑rata, partial fills, wash rules).
Validate post‑trade allocation accuracy, monitor for allocation mismatches and investigate causes.
Valuation and Net Asset Value (NAV) Testing
Validate pricing / valuation feeds, mark‑to‑market and mark‑to‑model processes.
Design checks to detect valuation overrides, stale pricing or material NAV variances; coordinate pricing vendor investigations.
Testing and Automation
Create and maintain test plans, test cases and automated regression suites for critical systems (IBOR, OMS, PMS, accounting).
Implement monitoring and alerting frameworks (SLA breaches, exception volumes, KPI thresholds).
Leverage scripting/automation (SQL, Python, ETL tooling) to reduce manual effort and improve test coverage.
Controls, Reporting and Audits
Produce daily/weekly/monthly monitoring dashboards, KPI reports and exception trend analysis for senior management and auditors.
Support internal and external audits: provide evidence, run ad‑hoc queries and remediate control gaps.
Maintain comprehensive documentation (runbooks, playbooks, test artifacts, requirement traceability).
What We’re Looking For
Undergraduate degree in Finance, Accounting, Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering or related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience preferred.
8+ years’ experience in investment operations, investment compliance, QA/testing or a related role within an RIA, asset manager, custodian or broker‑dealer environment preferred.
Prior experience specifically coding investment restrictions/rules in a rules engine preferred.
Strong understanding of the investment lifecycle: orders, executions, settlements, positions, cash, corporate actions and NAV/valuation concepts.
Hands‑on experience with IBOR/POBOR concepts and/or portfolio/accounting systems (e.g., BlackRock Aladdin, Charles River, SimCorp, Advent/Geneva/Moxy, or equivalent) — or proven ability to learn enterprise systems quickly.
Practical experience writing test cases, running UAT and implementing automated regression tests.
Technical skills: Comfortable with Excel (advanced), data manipulation and basic extract, transform, load (ETL) concepts.
Excellent problem‑solving skills, attention to detail, and the ability to document and communicate complex technical issues to business and technical stakeholders.
Strong written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills.
Proven ability to work with cross‑functional teams.
Ability to thrive in a fast‑paced environment with competing priorities and deadlines.
Exposure to TCA tools and best execution frameworks preferred.
Familiarity with regulatory expectations for registered investment advisors (RIAs), such as custody, best execution obligations and internal controls.
Experience with monitoring/observability tools (Splunk, Datadog), business intelligence (BI) tools (Tableau/Power BI) and ticketing systems (Jira, ServiceNow), preferred.
May be required to travel to a company office or location other than normal workplace for trainings, meetings, conferences or to support business needs.
Other Requirements
Criminal background check required.
This role will be subject to a SEC compliance program, which can include monitoring personal securities transactions, restrictions on outside business activities, as well as other oversight and restrictions.
What You Can Expect When You Join Sammons Financial Group
Sammons Financial Group offers a competitive benefit package that includes: Health, Dental, Vision, Company Paid Retirement, PTO and Holiday Pay.
Our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a 100% company‑funded retirement plan, so you can save for retirement without contributing a penny of your own paycheck.
Healthy balance between work and personal lives. Friday afternoons off all year long, competitive PTO, and generous number of paid holidays.
Our incentive program for defined goals subject to eligibility and performance. Monetary rewards are based on individual and/or overall company performance.
Colleagues who support one another, model our core values, and drive our healthy, high‑performing culture.
Salary Range Information USD $91,838.00 - USD $191,328.00 /Yr. Range includes data points from multiple labor markets. Specific range is dependent on the labor market where the incumbent will be hired to perform the position. Starting salary is dependent on candidate qualifications and experience. For a narrower salary range specific to your labor market, please inquire.
Work Authorization/Sponsorship At this time, we’re not considering candidates that need any type of immigration sponsorship now or in the future or those needing work authorization for this role (This includes, but is not limited to students on F1‑OPT, F1‑CPT, J‑1, etc.)
#J-18808-Ljbffr