Operations Specialist - Portfolio Services (AVP)

About the role

DWS Group is hiring an Operations Specialist for its Portfolio Services team in Madrid, within the COO Division. Portfolio Services supports the investment platform through Corporate Actions, Collateral Management and Securities Finance, Class Actions and Proxy Voting, and Trailer Fees, Management Fees and Billing. The role contributes to automation, AI-enabled process improvement and data-driven controls while keeping operational risk, auditability and governance in place.

Key responsibilities

• Support end-to-end delivery of Portfolio Services processes so that execution is timely, accurate and controlled.
• Manage daily BAU processes, controls and exception management, including event processing, margin and collateral workflows, securities lending and repo activities, proxy and class action events, fee calculations, invoice verification and billing oversight.
• Partner with Portfolio Management, Trading, Fund Accounting, Compliance, Risk, Technology, Finance, coverage, custodians, triparty agents, external collateral managers and data vendors to resolve operational issues.
• Maintain operational control frameworks: process ownership, documentation, KPI/KRI monitoring, incident management, control execution, audit readiness and timely escalation of risks.
• Contribute to the Smart Middle Office agenda by simplifying and standardising workflows, reducing manual intervention and improving transparency.
• Apply AI, automation, workflow tooling and data analytics to exception management, predictive controls, reconciliation, vendor oversight, reporting and management information.
• Turn operational pain points into automation or AI use cases with Technology and transformation partners.
• Support readiness for market changes, regulatory developments, new products, migrations and vendor changes.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• 5+ years of experience in financial services operations, ideally in Portfolio Services, Middle Office, Investment Operations or related asset management functions.
• Strong understanding of one or more Portfolio Services disciplines (Corporate Actions, Collateral Management, Securities Finance, Class Actions, Proxy Voting, Trailer Fees, Management Fees or Billing).
• Good knowledge of investment products, financial instruments and operational processes across the asset management value chain.
• Hands-on experience with event processing, exception management, reconciliations, fee/invoice oversight, collateral or margin workflows and proxy/class action events is highly beneficial.
• Proven ability to investigate complex issues, perform root-cause analysis and coordinate remediation across teams and service providers.
• Comfortable in a global, matrix environment, influencing stakeholders and building partnerships.
• Strong understanding of operational risk, controls, governance, audit readiness and regulatory obligations.

Required skills

• Experience with investment operations platforms, collateral or securities finance tools, corporate action systems, fee and billing platforms, workflow tools or similar operations technology is a plus.
• Strong analytical skills and practical data analysis, turning operational data into controls and management information.
• Practical understanding of AI, automation and data analytics, with the ability to identify use cases and partner with Technology.
• Experience with process automation, workflow design, digital tooling, Python, Power Automate, SQL, data visualisation tools or similar is highly beneficial.

What we offer

• A personalised benefits plan covering healthcare, company perks and retirement planning.
• A hybrid working model, with the office-to-home split discussed during the application and interview process.