Lead the critical fund control function, safeguarding the integrity of Northern LGPS’s fund accounting records and providing rigorous oversight of externally produced net asset values.

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 Manager - Fund Control, you’ll lead the function that owns the integrity of Northern’s fund-level accounting record and provides independent oversight of net asset values (NAVs) produced by its external administrator. Rather than recreating the administrator’s work, you’ll build an effective oversight capability with the technical depth and judgement to review, challenge and ultimately own its outputs.

Your remit will extend across the accounting book of record, private markets accounting, fund financial statements and the fund-level information supporting tax and regulatory reporting. Working closely with Investment Operations, Finance, Valuations and Compliance, you’ll help establish clear accountabilities, robust controls and effective provider oversight as Northern develops its future operating model.

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 Head of Investment Operations, you’ll lead Fund Control as a technically capable oversight function, maintaining the integrity of fund-level accounting and providing effective challenge to external providers.

You will:

• Own the review of administrator-produced NAVs against documented controls and tolerance thresholds, ensuring each NAV is appropriately reviewed and signed off.
• Provide effective challenge to the fund administrator, taking NAV queries through to resolution and assessing NAV errors, restatements and any resulting compensation position.
• Identify pricing and valuation exceptions and refer these to the Valuations Manager, maintaining clear separation between NAV oversight and fair value determination.
• Own the accounting book of record, including general ledger oversight, reconciliation to the administrator, trial balance and analytical review, income and distribution accounting and revaluation review.
• Explain and sign off differences between the accounting book of record and investment book of record, ensuring concluded fair values are appropriately reflected in both.
• Oversee expense accruals and independently recalculate management fees, performance fees and carried interest before payment authorisation.
• Validate provider invoices against contracted rates and analyse fund expenditure against budget.
• Lead Northern’s private markets accounting, including capital account maintenance, general partner statement ingestion and reconciliation, equalisation and waterfall accounting, look-through data and annual review of general partner audited financial statements.
• Own commitment schedules and unfunded commitment reporting to support treasury drawdown planning.
• Own the financial statements of Northern’s pooled vehicles, including the Northern Private Equity Pool, and act as the operational contact for their external audit.
• Provide the accounting and investment information required by Northern’s three administering authority partner funds to prepare their pension fund financial statements, working to each fund’s required timetable and specification.
• Oversee the provision of fund-level data supporting relevant tax and regulatory reporting, including Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) Annex IV, MIFIDPRU and Internal Capital Adequacy and Risk Assessment (ICARA) inputs, Stamp Duty Reserve Tax (SDRT), Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Common Reporting Standard, VAT recharge data and US tax requirements.
• Manage the day-to-day relationship with the fund administrator, maintaining effective error logs, root-cause analysis and input into Northern’s wider third-party oversight arrangements.
• Establish and maintain effective procedures and financial controls, ensuring these can be evidenced appropriately to auditors and regulators.
• Provide Fund Control reporting to the Operating Committee and work closely with the Finance Director on the boundary between fund-level and corporate accounting, tax and regulatory reporting.
• Lead and develop the Fund Control team, with a target structure of seven direct reports.

What we're looking for

You’ll bring strong technical fund accounting expertise alongside the judgement and confidence to provide effective oversight and challenge rather than simply reproduce an administrator’s work.

You’ll have:

• Fund accounting experience gained within an asset manager, asset owner, fund administrator or audit practice.
• Demonstrable experience of NAV oversight and challenging an outsourced administrator, rather than experience of NAV production alone.
• Knowledge of fund financial statements and external audit.
• Experience operating financial controls and evidencing those controls to auditors and regulators.
• Willingness to develop the skills needed to operate within an FCA-regulated financial services firm.

The role also requires the ability to maintain clear boundaries between fund control, valuation, corporate finance and the responsibilities of Northern’s administering authority partner funds.

Qualifications

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

Location

You can be based at any of our offices in Bradford, Manchester or Liverpool.

Flexible and hybrid working

Northern LGPS offers flexible and hybrid working arrangements, alongside a commitment to colleague wellbeing.

Sponsorship

We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

Equal opportunities

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and able to thrive. If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process to support your application, please let us know, and we will work with you to meet your needs.

 

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive a sufficient volume of suitable applications.