Job Opportunities at Allan Gray Proprietary Limited

Job description

Description

To deliver an elevated level of service to all Allan Gray clients. This includes direct clients, financial advisers and senior executives.

Main responsibilities

• To service Allan Gray investors, potential investors and financial advisers with transactions and queries for all Allan Gray products telephonically and via written correspondence through:
• Discussion and explanation of all funds and products offered by Allan Gray.
• Assisting clients with process information and quotes.
• Assisting clients with the tracking and follow up of transactions in progress.
• Responding to queries regarding investment performance.
• Clarifying and explaining Allan Gray’s investment approach and philosophy.
• To ensure accurate record keeping through service related administrative tasks.
• To provide assistance to the Service Support team and walk-in-centre team as and when required.
• To assist with database updates and information maintenance.
• To support a positive and responsive climate for client enquiry resolution.
• To play a key role in the stewardship of positive client relationships and the retention of clients.
• To build and establish relationships at all levels with internal departments to enhance organisational effectiveness and efficiency.
• To actively participate in the organisation's continuous improvement by identitying and proposing solutions to process and service related failures.

Qualifications

• Relevant Bachelors Degree (Essential) including but not limited to; Business Management, Economics, Engineering, Finance, Investment Management or Statistics
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills (Essential)
• Knowledge and interest in finance and investment management
• Multilingual (Advantageous)

Skills/Competencies and experience

• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Numeric ability
• Client focussed, friendly and empathetic manner
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Self Control
• Initiative
• Analytical Thinking
• Professionalism
• Administration Skills
• Adaptability
• Stress tolerance
• Ability to relate to others
• Ability to deal with complexity.
• Ability to prioritise and function positively under pressure
• Ability to function as part of a team
• Accept accountability and take responsibility for tasks done
• Computer literacy

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Job description

Description

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is used within the Allan Gray Institutional business and other parts of Allan Gray i.e. Group Finance. There is a role within the Institutional IT team for a CRM Analyst to be responsible for the technical analysis, system configuration, installation and support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The individual will work within in the larger Institutional IT a team which is responsible for all the technical solutions used with the Institutional business, which includes Microsoft Dynamics CRM. He or she will play a pivotal role in supporting, enhancing and administering the CRM platform, enforcing best practice and improving user productivity. They will be required to leverage strong planning and technical skills to achieve this.

The Institutional IT team is currently around 40 members, containing a range of skills including Architects, Business Analysts, Domain Owners, Developers (.NET and SQL), and IT Operations. There is plenty of opportunity to learn about the asset management industry and technology.
Main responsibilities

• Engage with users to resolve their technical support issues and queries.
• Work closely with the business analysts to elicit detailed functional / business requirements from users and sponsors.
• Configure and customise the CRM application, using built-in Microsoft development tools to support business processes as well as resolving CRM plug-in issues.
• Work with reporting and integration developers to understand the designs and validate that the software solution will satisfy the business needs.
• Develop and maintain documentation regarding CRM systems configuration, application workflow and business rules.
• Conduct functional testing of implemented applications and develop regression test plans for enhancements.
• Install CRM application and assist in configuring environments for use in development, testing and production.
• Maintain CRM security models.
• Maintain CRM software to latest version and patch levels ensuring minimal impact to current functionality.
• Perform CRM user training as needed.
• Continuously improve knowledge through reading and self-study.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience with working in a business analyst role with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 or 2015
• Ability to build CRM solutions using out-of-the-box functions, form editing and workflows according to best practice.
• A tertiary degree or diploma (ComSci, BBusSci or Bcom with IS/Actuarial, BSc (Eng, Math) or similar.
• An accredited Microsoft CRM qualification is advantageous.
• Financial markets and asset management industry experience is advantageous.
• Understands and uses documentation best practices.
• Understanding of business and technical process interrelationships is essential.
• Experience with the Agile development process.
• Experience with using SharePoint.
• Basic T-SQL skills are an advantage.

Skills/Competencies And Experience

• Strong interpersonal skills; must be a team player.
• Self-starter with ability to handle multiple tasks and priorities.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated proficiency in technical writing is required.
• Demonstrated project discipline and experience.
• Must be organized, focused, and driven toward established deliverable dates.
• Willingness to take initiative and responsibility.
• Effectively manage and solve complex problems.
• Remain flexible on changing workloads.
• Strong attention to detail and quality.

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Job description

Description

The Scrum framework is an integral part of the IT software delivery process within Allan Gray. The purpose of a ScrumMaster is to: help form a self-managed team that is happy, predictable, transparent, consistently delivers quality work and continually inspect and adapts in order to improve and maximize throughput whilst upholding the values, principles and practices of scrum facilitate the removal of impediments teams face when developing solutions implement agile best practices within a team help the team to develop a culture of collaboration support the team to be self organising and function as an accountable, high performance team.

Main responsibilities

Organise and execute the scrum process: Scrum meetings (i.e. daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, retrospectives, planning sessions) and scrum metrics (burndown charts, predictability velocity) Assist the product owner in prioritisation and scheduling of work, to meet agreed delivery time frames. Make sure that all the team members understand their roles and fulfill them to the best of their ability. Guide/coach/mentor the development team to take on the responsibilities of the process and the ownership of the product - lead team to a self-organised state. Identify and facilitate the resolution of identified impediments Helps the team in its use of scrum by motivating the team and reminding the team of its goals and how they choose to meet them.

Qualifications

• Tertiary qualification with at least 5+ years industry experience.
• Minimum of 2-3 years experience within an agile development environment as a Scrum Master

Skills/Competencies And Experience

• Experience in dealing with all levels of business essential.
• Strong communication, coaching and facilitation skills
• Flexible, resilient, energetic and have an adaptive leadership style Influential.
• Able to exert influence without authority inside and outside the team Strong logical thinking and deductive reasoning.
• Strong negotiation and conflict resolution skills
• Self motivated and the ability to motivate others
• Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to work with diverse personality types and deal with conflict in an effective way.
• Collaborative. Works to ensure a collaborative culture exists within the team Highly observant and an expert at root cause analysis
• Committed and responsible: Take responsibility without assuming any authority that might be useful in achieving it.
• Humble: Recognize the value in all team members and by example lead others to the same opinion.

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Job description

Description

The Allan Gray investment team typically numbers 20 to 25 people (including analysts and portfolio managers). This is small in comparison to the large number of applications we receive from smart, ambitious and hard-working people. This unfortunately means that we have to turn away many good applications. But we are always looking for exceptional candidates, and you don’t have anything to lose by trying. So if you think you have what it takes to succeed, we encourage you to apply.

We try to make good investment decisions by performing rigorous research. Similarly, we strive to identify the best applicants through rigorous research. This requires work and commitment on both our part and that of the candidate. Unfortunately we will probably never have perfect information (on shares or candidates) and we do make errors of judgement from time to time. So, if we decline your application, that is not to say that you are not the next Warren Buffett – we may have got it wrong, and we wish you the best of luck in seeking out your goals.

Main responsibilities

• To research, analyse and value South African / rest of Africa listed companies.
• To communicate your insights and findings to the portfolio managers.
• To support the decision-making of the portfolio managers.

Qualifications

We recruit for diversity of ideas and experience. Therefore, we welcome applications from high-achievers in all disciplines - it’s not what you studied or which industry you worked in that matters, but rather what you have achieved and your potential to contribute to our investment research.

• A history of achievement in your field
• A questioning nature
• An analytical mind
• Strong numeracy
• A resilient personality

Values

• Independent mindedness: we look for candidates with a unique perspective
• Individually accountable: we look for candidates who take personal ownership
• Long term oriented: we look for candidates who take a long-term perspective on investment decisions
• Performance driven: we look for candidates who set demanding and challenging standards
• Client focused: we look for candidates who always puts the clients first

Skills/Competencies And Experience

We prefer that candidates have at least 2 years work experience.
Motivation
N/A
Screening questions (Attach your answers in PDF format)

• Describe an experience in which you have had to overcome adversity.
• What is the most difficult decision you have ever had to make? How did you decide? Would you say now that it was the right decision?
• What do you think are the three most important things to consider before buying a long-term asset?
• What is the worst investment you ever made? How did you go wrong?
• Describe your experience in trading in shares. What have you learnt from your experience? If you have never bought shares before, why are you applying for a position in an investment team?
• It is better to rely on accumulated human knowledge than to try and figure things out for yourself from first principles. Do you agree or disagree?
• Do you think e-cigarettes should be regulated? Why? How?
• Who is your role model? Why?
• Give an example of anything you consider to be mispriced today? Why do you think it is mispriced? What is its true value?
• There are already many smart, hard-working people seeking to profit from mispricing in the stock market. Why do you believe you will have an edge?

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Job description

Description

• To deliver an elevated level of service to all Allan Gray clients.

This includes direct clients, financial advisers and senior executives.

Main responsibilities

• To service Allan Gray investors, potential investors and financial advisers with transactions and queries for all Allan Gray products telephonically and via written correspondence through:
• Discussion and explanation of all funds and products offered by Allan Gray.
• Assisting clients with process information and quotes.
• Assisting clients with the tracking and follow up of transactions in progress.
• Responding to queries regarding investment performance.
• Clarifying and explaining Allan Gray’s investment approach and philosophy
• To ensure accurate record keeping through service related administrative tasks.
• To provide assistance to the Service Support team and walk-in-centre team as and when required.
• To assist with database updates and information maintenance.
• To support a positive and responsive climate for client enquiry resolution.
• To play a key role in the stewardship of positive client relationships and the retention of clients.
• To build and establish relationships at all levels with internal departments to enhance organisational effectiveness and efficiency.
• To actively participate in the organisation's continuous improvement by identitying and proposing solutions to process and service related failures

Qualifications

• Relevant Commerce degree in Finance, Economics, Statistics, Investment Management or Business Management (Essential)
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills (Essential)
• Knowledge and interest in finance and investment management
• Multilingual (Advantageous)

Skills/Competencies And Experience

• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Numeric ability
• Client focussed, friendly and empathetic manner
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Self Control
• Initiative
• Analytical Thinking
• Professionalism
• Administration Skills
• Adaptability
• Stress tolerance
• Ability to relate to others
• Ability to deal with complexity.
• Ability to prioritise and function positively under pressure
• Ability to function as part of a team
• Accept accountability and take responsibility for tasks done
• Computer literacy

go to method of application »

Job description

Description

To provide day-to-day support within the IT Infrastructure operations environment, with the primary focus being on provisioning and support of physical and virtual servers as well as their respective applications. The role will encapsulate troubleshooting of both hardware and software related issues and execution of documented operational and maintenance procedures.

Main responsibilities

• Installation, support and troubleshooting of Windows Server operating systems
• Installation, support and troubleshooting of Windows based server hardware
• Active directory maintenance and support including application of group policies and general directory maintenance
• Day to day maintenance and support of MS Exchange and Lync environments
• DNS and DHCP support and maintenance
• Patch management and anti-virus support
• Setup, maintain and support the VMware ESX environment
• Provide after-hours support as/when required
• Adhere to strict change control and project management procedures
• Support for Infrastructure related applications
• Provide support for and interact with the Retail and Institutional IT Ops teams to continuously enhance the environment
• Responsible for documentation of processes and procedures within the IT Infrastructure operations environment

Qualifications

• MCSE or MCITP
• Degree or Diploma in Information Systems advantageous but not essential
• Some form of scripting skill i.e. PowerShell, VB etc.
• A comprehensive working knowledge of all MS Windows operating systems, specifically Windows server editions
• Conversant with HP, Dell, Oracle Sun and Cisco server technologies
• Proven experience in a pressurized operations support environment
• Extensive knowledge of Operating system security
• Knowledge of Netapp SAN storage advantageous
• Some Linux knowledge or experience advantageous

Skills/Competencies And Experience

• Friendly and approachable
• Strong analytical and problem solving capability
• Very good team player, but must be able to work on their own and set their own goals
• Be willing to work all hours of the day as/when required
• Detail oriented
• Tenacity and the ability to ‘get things done’
• Good verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills
• Planning, organizational and time management skills

go to method of application »

Job description

Description

To provide day-to-day support within the IT Infrastructure operations environment, with the primary focus being on provisioning and support of physical and virtual servers as well as their respective applications. The role will encapsulate troubleshooting of both hardware and software related issues and execution of documented operational and maintenance procedures.

Main responsibilities

• Installation, support and maintenance of Linux and Solaris operating systems
  
  
• Provide occasional support for and troubleshooting of Windows OS based servers
• Active directory support for Linux and Solaris. Preferably knowledge of implementing either Samba, Powerbroker or Centrify
• Linux and Solaris patch management
• Continual development and maintenance of infrastructure monitoring and reporting tools
• Setup, maintain and support of the VMware ESXi environment
• Provide after-hours support as/when required
• Develop and maintain in house automation capabilities
• Strong grasp on configuration management tools such as Puppet and Ansible
• Adhere to strict change control and project management procedures
• Provide support for and collaborate with IT Ops teams to continuously enhance the environment
• Responsible for documentation of processes and procedures within the IT Infrastructure operations environment

Qualifications

• Linux and Solaris certified sysadmin (extensive experience will be considered if not qualified)
• Degree or Diploma in Information Systems advantageous but not essential
• Highly proficient with the following scripting languages i.e. PowerShell, VB, Perl, Python and Bash.
• Front end programming experience using PHP advantageous
• Conversant with HP, Dell, Oracle Sun and Cisco UCS server technologies
• Experience building and supporting Lamp and Postfix environments
• Proven experience in a pressurized operations support environment
• Extensive knowledge of Linux and Solaris OS security
• Extensive knowledge of Enterprise SAN environments preferably Netapp and CISCO MDS Fibre fabrics

Skills/Competencies And Experience

• Friendly and approachable
• Innovative thinker and creative problem solver
• Team player, but must be able to work on their own to resolve complex problems
• Be willing to work all hours of the day as/when required
• Detail oriented
• Tenacity and the ability to ‘get things done’
• Good verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills
• Planning, organizational and time management skills

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Job description

Description

The candidate will be responsible for developing, supporting and maintaining all of the relationships with the bulk clients that invest in Allan Gray and Orbis funds.
The bulk dealer client group includes: Linked investment platforms (“LISPs”) - including each LISP’s distribution & advisory team/s, as well as the financial advisors that support Management Companies via these LISP Fund of Funds (“FoFs”) and multi-managers (“MMs”) - including any consultants/asset management companies that advise these IFA’s / FoFs / MMs. Other small corporate clients (e.g. Pension funds)
The individual will be required to travel nationally on a regular basis.

Main responsibilities

• Manage and develop relationships with the bulk dealer channel nationally.

With Regards To Both Groups Mentioned Above To

• collate, update & manage a database of these bulk dealer clients;
• develop a servicing strategy for these clients (e.g. bi-annual meetings, presentations, email interaction, roadshow invites etc);
• implement that servicing strategy to promote Management Co, and the Unit Trust products;
• ensure the investment decision maker is kept informed and updated on funds;
• be the “Manco” contact person for any queries, due diligence questionnaires, presentation requests etc arising from these clients;
• ‘manage’ the flows/AUM in accordance with the internal strategy.
• Liaise with the Marketing and Events teams regarding events organised for the bulk dealer channel (e.g. road shows, due diligence visits, other presentations).

Qualifications

• Relevant business degree (CFA/CFP preferable)

Skills/Competencies and experience

• At least 5 years relevant work experience at an asset management or LISP company.
• An in-depth understanding of the CIS and LISP industries.
• An in-depth understanding of the investment market (economies, stocks, asset allocation etc)
• Passionate about investments and the asset management industry;
• Be confident, articulate and energetic;
• Allan Gray brand ambassador;
• Passionate about providing the highest level of service;
• Have excellent interpersonal skills – having a friendly and diplomatic nature, and the maturity to handle high level negotiations;
• Have excellent verbal and written communication skills – in particular be able to present to large audiences on technical investment content;
• Be well-versed in economic and investment markets, and have a sound understanding of asset class fundamentals and the asset management industry;
• Have the highest standards of ethics and integrity, and be able to manage confidential information and sensitive relationships;
• Be a strong self-manager. Be self-motivated and self-disciplined, and have the ability to run this channel independently;
• Have excellent time management and problem solving skills;
• Be accurate and thorough;
• Advanced – MS Excel, Word and PowerPoint.

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Job description

Description

The candidate will report to the Regional Manager and will be responsible for maintaining, and growing a panel of Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) in Pretoria, the North West and Mpumalanga.

As a result of their marketing, service delivery and product knowledge, the candidate will be expected to achieve certain production targets as determined by the Regional Manager.

Main responsibilities
Marketing And Relationship Building

• To manage and develop relationships with IFAs and their support staff
• To maintain and grow business flows from their designated IFA panels
• To deliver against determined production targets
• To ensure an understanding by their IFAs of the philosophy and long term goals of Allan Gray
• To promote Allan Gray and the products and services to their IFA panel
• To ensure that the IFA and support staff are aware of, and well versed in, all Allan Gray’s systems and processes and to provide ongoing training to the IFA and their support staff
• Do presentations to IFAs and their clients when required to do so, and to take responsibility for the efficient co-ordination of the events
• To identify trends in the industry and to gather competitor intelligence, and to take steps to ensure threats are countered, and opportunities are exploited
• To ensure the highest standard of service excellence for all Allan Gray Financial Advisers and Clients.

Operations And Administration

• To develop and maintain a strategic plan, and to execute against that plan
• Solve and manage queries on an on-going basis
• To respond to and resolve all the IFA and support staff ad hoc requests
• To meet with and report progress against targets to the Regional Manager
• To ensure the cost effective running of their panel of IFAs
• To liaise with relevant persons and divisions at Allan Gray head office, to ensure delivery of their responsibilities
• To keep and maintain a portfolio of evidence of all daily activities for presentation purposes to a panel of assessors once a year as required by the BDM competency model.

Qualifications

• Formal qualifications or relevant experience - relevant business degree (CFP) or job related experience would be an advantage.
• Fluent in Afrikaans and English: reading, writing and presenting.

Skills/Competencies and experience

• The candidate should be self-motivated and action oriented
• The candidate should have a friendly and diplomatic nature, possessing sufficient maturity to speak confidently and with empathy to intermediaries and clients, many of whom may be senior executives.
• The highest standards of personal integrity and ability to maintain confidentiality is essential.
• The candidate, whilst needing to be able to cope with shifting priorities will need to ensure conformity with processes and rules.
• The job requires someone who is energetic, flexible, organised and self-disciplined and who enjoys working in a team environment.
• The candidate should have a passion for people, able to use their initiative, and be willing to go the extra mile
• The candidate should be able to work under stress, while retaining composure and focus.