Senior Fund Controller - private markets

• Senior_Fund_Controller_-_Private_Markets_JD

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Take ownership of private markets fund control across Northern LGPS, bringing together specialist fund accounting, capital activity and general partner oversight at an important stage in the organisation’s development.

Northern LGPS is entering an important period of development, creating an FCA authorised investment management company and establishing the leadership, governance and operating capabilities required for the future.

As Senior Fund Controller - Private Markets, you’ll own the end-to-end fund control of Northern’s private markets exposure, including the Northern Private Equity Pool and alternatives portfolios. It is a specialist role spanning capital calls and distributions, capital accounts, general partner reporting, private markets fund accounting, and the tax and regulatory data associated with these investments.

You’ll join at a point when there is a real opportunity to strengthen how this capability operates for the long term. Alongside delivering effective day-to-day fund control, you’ll help document and transfer specialist private markets knowledge, strengthen controls and reduce reliance on knowledge concentrated within a single partner fund. Working closely with Fund Control, Treasury, Valuations and the investment teams, you’ll play an important role in building a resilient private markets operating capability for Northern.

About Northern LGPS

Northern LGPS is a c£70bn pooled investment partnership for the Local Government Pension Scheme, bringing together the investments of Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Merseyside Pension Fund and West Yorkshire Pension Fund.

Building on the foundations of its collaboration over several years, Northern LGPS is now entering the next phase of its development. This phase focuses on establishing an FCA authorised investment management company with a dedicated senior leadership team; strengthening governance and creating a clear operating model to support long-term investment outcomes.

For those joining at this stage, the opportunity is exceptional. These roles offer the chance to shape strategy, set standards and build leadership capability for the long term, working closely with the partner funds, who are both shareholders and clients, Boards and regulators to ensure Northern LGPS continues to evolve as a well-governed, resilient investment organisation.

Our culture

As Northern LGPS continues to evolve, we are building a collaborative, open and trusting organisation where people can do their best work.

We believe strong outcomes come from working together, sharing knowledge and supporting one another. Our flexible and hybrid working arrangements give colleagues greater flexibility in how they manage their time, while supporting collaboration and colleague wellbeing.

We are developing a supportive learning culture where people are encouraged to grow, contribute ideas and help shape how the organisation works. Our ambition is to build a resilient and sustainable organisation that delivers for its Partner Funds over the long term.

The main responsibilities of this role

Reporting to the Fund Control Manager, you’ll lead the day-to-day fund control of Northern’s private markets exposure and provide specialist expertise across the operational lifecycle of these investments.

You will:

• Own the receipt and validation of capital call notices against limited partnership agreements and commitment records, providing funding instructions to Treasury.
• Manage distribution notices from receipt and validation through to processing, alongside drawdown tracking against commitments and the handling of in-specie and stock distributions through to realisation instruction.
• Oversee general partner notices and correspondence, subscription documentation for new commitments, investor onboarding documentation including know your customer and anti-money laundering packs, and the private markets fund document library.
• Maintain capital accounts covering commitments, amounts drawn and distributed, unfunded positions and remaining commitments, including the ingestion and reconciliation of general partner capital account statements.
• Review and challenge general partner-reported figures and investigate reconciliation differences.
• Oversee equalisation and catch-up accounting, waterfall and carried interest allocation reviews, and production of look-through data for exposure and regulatory purposes.
• Own the commitment schedule and unfunded commitment reporting used to support Treasury’s drawdown planning.
• Support net asset value oversight and administrator oversight for the Northern Private Equity Pool, including query management and error logging.
• Review general partner audited financial statements annually for consistency of fees, expenses and carried interest, and coordinate the associated data required for accounts and cost benchmarking.
• Support fund audits and the financial statement process for private markets vehicles.
• Maintain US tax status documentation, including W-8 series forms, FATCA and Common Reporting Standard classifications, and qualified foreign pension fund and section 892 status.
• Coordinate US federal and state tax return filings and refund recovery with the external adviser, while monitoring withholding tax and effectively connected income relating to US investments.
• Maintain the private markets monitoring and receipt register covering capital statements, accounts, questionnaires and tax documentation, following up outstanding items against agreed deadlines.
• Maintain effective procedures and controls for private markets fund control and ensure incidents, errors and near misses are appropriately recorded.
• Manage day-to-day interaction with general partners and the fund administrator and provide private markets content for Fund Control reporting.
• Provide capital account and general partner data to the Valuations Manager while maintaining a clear separation from the fair value conclusion for those same holdings.
• Help document and transfer existing private markets knowledge, strengthening operational resilience and reducing single-person dependency.

What we're looking for

You’ll bring strong private markets fund accounting experience and detailed knowledge of the operational and accounting requirements associated with private markets investments.

Essential

You’ll have:

• Demonstrable private markets fund accounting experience gained on either the general partner or limited partner side.
• Detailed working knowledge of capital calls, distributions, capital accounts, unfunded commitments, equalisation, waterfalls and carried interest.
• Experience reconciling general partner capital account statements and challenging general partner-reported figures.
• Familiarity with limited partnership agreements and the operational obligations they create.
• Willingness to develop the skills required to operate within an FCA-regulated financial services firm.

Desirable

• Experience of private markets tax documentation, including W-8 series forms and FATCA and Common Reporting Standard classifications.

Qualifications

You’ll be a qualified accountant – ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent.

Location

You can be based at any of our office