SMA Trade Operations Specialist

The SMA business within Lord Abbett is growing and we are seeking a unique individual to join as an SMA Trade Operations Specialist.  Integrated with Investments, the SMA Operations group is part of the larger Global Investment Platform Integrity team which is essential to ensuring our investment professionals can drive investment performance with accurate and timely access to data.  As a member of the SMA Trade Operations team, you will have a unique opportunity to not only support a growing and thriving SMA business but also be empowered to play a key role in developing our future state operating model focused on delivering scale and efficiency.  This role supports daily trading, account onboarding, model delivery, reconciliation, and operational oversight for our Separately Managed Account (SMA) platform. The ideal candidate brings strong product knowledge, exceptional attention to detail, and a passion for operational excellence in a fast-paced environment. You will also be tasked to collaborate with our strategic partners to ensure exceptional service delivery.

Trade Support & Processing
• Validate and process daily SMA trades across multiple custodians, sponsors, and platforms.
• Monitor order flow and ensure accurate trade execution, settlement, and allocation.
• Coordinate with traders to resolve trade discrepancies, breaks, and unmatched items.
• Support model delivery workflows, ensuring updates are transmitted correctly to all SMA sponsors.
• Review and reconcile trading activity against SEI/APL, sponsor feeds, and internal systems.

Account Onboarding & Maintenance
• Ensure new SMA accounts are set up accurately in trading systems, including restrictions, tax lot details, cash targets, and strategy assignments.
• Validate investment guidelines and ensure coding aligns with client mandates.
• Monitor account readiness and resolve missing or incomplete data (e.g., cost basis, cash positions, restrictions).

Reconciliation & Exception Management
• Perform daily reconciliations of cash, positions, tax lots, and trade activity.
• Investigate and resolve reconciliation breaks across custodians, SEI, APL, and internal platforms.
• Support daily exception reporting and coordinate resolutions with internal teams and external partners.

Client & Sponsor Support
• Work directly with SMA sponsors, custodians, and internal business partners to ensure timely and accurate delivery of trade files and account data.
• Assist in handling inquiries from advisors, relationship managers, and internal stakeholders.
• Support customized SMA requests (e.g., restrictions, DTLH, ESG filters, cash management rules).

Operational Oversight & Controls
• Ensure operational activities comply with firm policies, industry regulations, and best practices.
• Maintain and update procedures, workflows, and control documentation.
• Identify opportunities to streamline processes and implement operational improvements.

Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Partner with Portfolio Management, Trading, Technology, Compliance, and Risk to support SMA strategy execution.
• Assist with new sponsor/platform integrations and large-scale operational projects.
• Support testing of system enhancements, sponsor feed updates, and platform changes.

• Bachelor’s degree (Finance, Economics, Business, or related field preferred).
• 2–5 years of experience in operations, trading support, or account administration—preferably at an asset manager, SMA sponsor, or custodian.
• Strong understanding of equity and/or fixed income trading workflows.
• Experience with SMA platforms or vendor systems.
• Strong Excel skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, data validation).
• Excellent analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities under tight deadlines.
• Exceptional attention to detail and commitment to data accuracy.

Preferred

• Experience with OMS/PMS systems.
• Knowledge of tax-lot accounting, cost basis management, and restricted account handling.
• Series 7/66 or interest in pursuing licenses.
• Experience with broker/dealer trade settlement workflows (DTCC/Omgeo).
• Familiarity with reconciliation engines or operational workflow tools.

Lord Abbett is a leading global independent, privately held investment management company. We are active managers and invest where we believe we have a repeatable edge and can deliver alpha for our clients. Our vision is to be the most respected asset manager in the world, admired for our people, our performance, our relationships, and our organizational agility. This inspires the three pillars of our culture.

• Principles-Based - We empower our leaders to create an environment of trust.
• Performance-Oriented - We inspire our people to embody our values, excellence, responsibility, transparency & collaboration.
• Purpose-Driven - We instill a passion for always putting our clients' interests first. 

We have been ranked #1 in Barron’s Best Fund Families for 2024 and have earned recognition as one of the Best Places to Work in Money Management by Pensions & Investments for five consecutive years.

Compensation Information: Annual base salary for this role is $85,000 - $110,000. Salary is estimated for this role. Actual pay may be different.

Discretionary Bonus: Role may be eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus. Discretionary bonuses are determined by several factors including, but not limited to, firm, team, and individual performance. 

Benefits: Lord Abbett is committed to offering a competitive total rewards package to all eligible employees. Offerings include competitive total compensation, retirement plans, competitive health and well-being plans. To learn more about what we offer, please visit Careers | Lord Abbett

Lord Abbett is an equal employment opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals without regard to the following legally protected characteristics: race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, sexual identity, caregiver status, military/veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal law. All employment decisions at Lord Abbett are based solely on the applicant’s relevant experience, skills and qualifications.

Important notice to Search Firms - Please Read Carefully

Without prior written agreement, Lord Abbett does not accept unsolicited submissions from employment agencies, search firms, placement services, or any similar provider (“Search Firms”) for employment opportunities. All candidates submitted by Search Firms to any employee or partner at our company without a written Search Firm agreement in place will be deemed the sole property of our company. In such circumstances, no fee, commission, or other compensation will be paid to such Search Firm in the event a candidate is hired by our company. To the extent a Search Firm has a written agreement in place, all introductions are position specific and should be directed to HR or the hiring manager, so we kindly request no unsolicited phone calls or emails.