Middle Office Service Analyst

Role can be based Salisbury or Edinburgh  At Nucleus, we aim to be the UK’s best loved retirement wealth platform and delivering exceptional Customer service plays a vital part in this.  The Operations Service Analyst is part of the Middle Office team and provides specialist operational knowledge and reporting analysis within Nucleus Operations, supporting Front Office to improve active management of Service delivery with key firms, and helping to resolve more complex queries and issues by proactively identifying cases requiring attention to ensure the right Customer and Adviser outcomes are achieved. The role seeks to proactively review FNZ operational reporting to identify complex inflight cases where proactive communication and expectation management with advisers will provide a more positive Adviser service experience. In addition, the role acts as a point of contact where an inbound Adviser or Customer query cannot be resolved through the standard Front Office to Back Office boundary processes.   Further to analysing FNZ operational reporting and articulating to Advisers, the Operations Service Analyst will triage issues, identify themes, liaise with operational managers to support the resolution of complex transactions. The role will use insights gained from recurring queries, issues, and customer interactions to continuously improve the information and support available to Front Office teams. This will increase Adviser and colleague self-sufficiency, reduce avoidable contacts, and mitigate the risk of foreseeable customer harm.     General Responsibilities • Provide operational knowledge and support to Front Office on more complex operational queries and cases. • Proactively identify cases which require attention to ensure right customer outcomes achieved.  • Triage queries to understand the issue, establish whether it is within expected service timescales and identify the appropriate route to resolution. • Maintain oversight of issues through to resolution, ensuring appropriate updates are provided to Front Office. • Analyse MI and operational information to identify trends, root causes, emerging risks and opportunities for sustainable service improvement, providing clear recommendations where appropriate. • Identify potential service issues or risks early and escalate appropriately where intervention is required. • Support the identification and development of clearer guidance, FAQs, and other information for Front Office based on recurring queries and areas of complexity. • Contribute to continuous improvement by identifying recurring issues, root causes and opportunities to improve the service experience. • Understand and adhere to all regulatory and company-specific policies Three Core Service Areas – Responsibilities: Investment Operations • Support Front Office with queries relating to investment operations, including asset types, trading, settlement, valuations, dealing and platform functionality.  • Support queries relating to new fund requests and liaise with relevant operational teams where required.  • Provide support and guidance on corporate actions, dealing issues and other investment-related communications.  Transfers In • Use FNZ’s Transfers In reporting to support key Adviser firms with the active management of their inflight transfers, aiming to reduce incoming individual case query volume. • Support queries relating to Transfers In, including cash and in-specie transfers, particularly where clarification is required on expected completion timescales or where issues are causing delays.  Benefit Payments • Use FNZ’s Benefits reporting to support key Adviser firms with the active management of their inflight transfers, aiming to reduce incoming individual case query volume • Support queries relating to benefit payments, helping to ensure payments are made within expected timescales.  • Identify and help resolve issues that may delay payment, liaising  with relevant operational teams where required.  • Provide clear and timely updates to Front Office on the status of payments, any issues identified and expected timescales for resolution.     About you We’ve always placed more importance on cultural contribution above technical ability, but we’d really like you to have/be: • Experience in Financial Services administration or operations, preferably within a Pension or investment environment. • Good understanding of operational processes and how they impact Advisers and Customers. • Strong analytical skills, being able to analyse data and reporting and articulate issues and required actions where the data or report is highlighting potential issues or areas outside of expected tolerances • An interest in or understanding of investment operations, including trading, settlement, valuations and different asset types. • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to assess a query, identify the issue and determine the appropriate next step. • A confident communicator who can explain operational issues clearly to Front Office and build effective relationships with operational teams. • Customer and Adviser focused, with a strong understanding of what good service looks like. • Able to take ownership of issues and see them through to resolution. • Comfortable working across teams and coordinating activity where there are multiple parties involved. • Vigilant and able to identify potential risks, delays or poor Customer/Adviser outcomes. • Proactive in identifying recurring queries and turning operational knowledge into better guidance and self-service. • Positive and adaptable, with a willingness to learn and develop knowledge. • Positively demonstrate the Nucleus Smart, Heart and Courage values and behaviours. A little about us   We’re the Nucleus Financial Platforms group and we help make retirement more rewarding.   People come first - whether it’s our colleagues, or the advisers and customers we support, we know that working in partnership and collaboration leads to the best outcomes. Together, we’ve shaped the platform to how it is today. We work hard, and we celebrate hard too.   Our ambition is to create a platform with a difference, putting the customer centre stage meant tearing up the rule book and starting from scratch. We’ve come a long way since then, but our mission remains just as focused. That’s why our culture, values, and social responsibility are things we keep at the top of our agenda – because we know they matter and have a big impact.   Our culture is one of the many things that sets us apart from the pack. We want to have an environment where our people feel that they can make a real difference, know they’ll be rewarded for their efforts and more importantly, enjoy themselves at work.   Inclusion and diversity at Nucleus   As with most things in life, who cares, wins. We really care about inclusion.   For us it’s not a tick box exercise; inclusion and diversity are embedded in our culture and everything we do. It’s a commercial imperative. It isn’t about being PC. It’s about being future-relevant and durable. We owe it to ourselves and the industry to ensure we are playing our part in creating a fair, balanced and transparent financial services sector.   More diversity means broader experience, a wider set of perspectives and a better collective ability to problem-solve. And it means being more representative of customer groups, which supports areas such as product development.   At Nucleus, we offer a generous blend of benefits for the things that really matter to our people, including a non-contributory pension, bonus, enhanced parental leave, paid time off for emergencies, health and wellbeing initiatives and flexible working options.