Associate

About the Role

Associate - Equity and Special Solutions Operations at Morgan Stanley. This role provides hands-on operational support to the Equity and Special Solutions investment teams, including Exchange Funds, within the Public Markets Middle Office. The position supports Portfolio Managers and Trading teams by ensuring daily portfolio readiness, trade processing, cash and position oversight, reconciliations, contributions and redemptions, tax-lot and in-kind activity, corporate actions, and timely resolution of operational exceptions.

Key Responsibilities

• Daily Investment Team Support:
• Provide day-to-day operational support to Equity and Special Solutions strategies across funds, mandates, and accounts, including Exchange Funds.
• Monitor portfolio cash, positions, trade activity, pricing and valuation flags, settlement status, corporate actions, and other exceptions to support accurate start-of-day and end-of-day readiness.
• Support front-to-back equity trade flows, including trade capture, allocations, confirmations, settlement instructions, failed trades, broker and standing settlement instruction issues, and related exception management.
• Respond promptly to Portfolio Manager and Trading queries, providing status updates, ownership, expected resolution timing, and escalation.
• Maintain transparent trackers for open breaks, aging items, follow-ups, dependencies, and required actions.
• Exchange Funds and Special Solutions Operations:
• Support Exchange Fund subscriptions and contributions, including coordination of contributed securities, eligibility and restriction checks, valuation inputs, tax-lot data, custody movements, and completion of required operational documentation.
• Support redemption and distribution workflows, including cash and in-kind activity, security selection inputs, tax-lot accounting and release, transfer instructions, settlement monitoring, and reconciliation of resulting portfolio activity.
• Coordinate with Portfolio Management, Trading, Tax, Legal, Compliance, Fund Accounting, Custodians, and transfer agents to resolve data or processing exceptions and meet transaction timelines.
• Monitor portfolio diversification, concentration, liquidity, restricted-security, and other operational considerations relevant to Exchange Funds and bespoke Equity solutions, escalating potential issues.
• Assist with new account, vehicle, and mandate onboarding, including operational readiness reviews, reference data, account setup, testing, controls, procedures, and go-live support.
• Reconciliations, Corporate Actions, and Trade Lifecycle:
• Perform and support daily cash, position, transaction, and tax-lot reconciliations across internal books, custodians, accounting records, and other relevant platforms.
• Investigate breaks, stale items, and discrepancies; identify root causes; coordinate corrective action; and drive items to timely closure.
• Support equity lifecycle events, including dividends, splits, mergers, tenders, rights, warrants, proxies, voluntary elections, IPOs and new issues, and stock loan or short-coverage exceptions.
• Monitor settlement activity and corporate action deadlines, escalating material risks, aging items, missed elections, or issues that could affect portfolio accuracy, trading, valuation, performance, risk, or client reporting.
• Controls, Incident Management, and Process Improvement:
• Complete established daily control checks accurately and within required timelines, maintaining appropriate evidence and escalating control exceptions promptly.
• Support incident triage, root cause analysis, remediation tracking, and clear communication for significant breaks, settlement failures, corporate action exceptions, or other operational events.
• Prepare and maintain operational metrics, break reports, aged-item trackers, incident updates, and management reporting.
• Identify recurring manual processes, data-quality issues, control gaps, and exception themes; propose practical opportunities for simplification, automation, AI-enabled workflow support, and enhanced reporting.
• Document procedures, checklists, and playbooks and contribute to testing and implementation of platform, vendor, market, regulatory, and operating-model changes.
• Teamwork and Stakeholder Management:
• Build effective working relationships with Equity and Special Solutions Portfolio Managers, Traders, Middle Office, Operations, Fund Accounting, Tax, Legal, Compliance, Technology, Custodians, Brokers, and transfer agents.
• Participate in status meetings, issue reviews, transaction-readiness discussions, and process forums, providing concise updates on risks, blockers, ownership, and next steps.
• Work collaboratively across locations and functions, support effective handoffs, and contribute to a culture of accuracy, accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement.
• Escalate issues clearly and promptly when operational risks may affect investment activity, fund transactions, portfolio records, client outcomes, or regulatory obligations.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• 2–5 years of experience in investment operations, middle office, trade support, fund operations, reconciliation, or a related role at an asset manager, bank, custodian, or financial institution.
• Exposure to equity products and lifecycle events, including listed equities, ADRs, rights and warrants, dividends, splits, mergers, tenders, proxies, and voluntary corporate actions.
• Hands-on experience with cash, position, transaction, or tax-lot reconciliations; trade settlement; corporate actions; and operational exception management.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to investigate data, cash, position, trade, and tax-lot discrepancies through resolution.
• Strong Microsoft Excel skills.
• Organized, detail-oriented, and able to manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a time-sensitive environment.

Qualifications (Preferred)

• Experience supporting pooled vehicles, separately managed accounts, alternative or bespoke investment solutions, or Exchange Funds is preferred.
• Understanding of subscriptions, redemptions, cash and in-kind transfers, security movements, valuation inputs, and fund-level operational controls is advantageous.
• Familiarity with Aladdin or comparable OMS, IBOR, ABOR, accounting, reconciliation, custody, or transfer-agency platforms is preferred.
• Experience with reporting tools, dashboards, macros, workflow tools, automation, or AI-enabled solutions is helpful.