Torchora
Back to Home

Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for AIS Fund Administrator

💰 $ - $

FinanceFund AccountingInvestment OperationsAlternative Investments

🎯 Role Definition

As an AIS Fund Administrator you'll be responsible for end-to-end fund administration activities supporting alternative investment vehicles. You will calculate NAVs, prepare investor and regulatory reporting, manage subscriptions and redemptions, perform reconciliations across custodians and prime brokers, support audits and tax filings, and drive process and control improvements. This role requires accuracy, strong technical accounting knowledge, and the ability to communicate clearly with clients, custodians, auditors, portfolio managers, and internal teams.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Fund Accountant / Junior Fund Accountant
  • Investment Operations Analyst or Operations Associate
  • Corporate or Financial Accountant transitioning into alternative investments

Advancement To:

  • Senior Fund Accountant / Senior Fund Administrator
  • Fund Accounting Team Lead / Supervisor
  • Fund Accounting Manager or Head of Fund Administration

Lateral Moves:

  • Client Services / Investor Relations Specialist
  • Middle-Office Operations Manager
  • Transfer Agency or Registrar Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Calculate and validate Net Asset Value (NAV) for multiple fund structures (hedge funds, private equity, fund of funds, feeder funds) on daily, weekly, and monthly cycles, ensuring accuracy and timely delivery to clients and custodians.
  • Prepare comprehensive investor statements and capital activity reports, including subscription and redemption processing, allocation of cash movements, and investor ledger reconciliations for both institutional and retail investors.
  • Reconcile cash, positions, and security movements between fund books, custodians, prime brokers, and portfolio accounting systems; identify and resolve breaks promptly and document root cause and resolution.
  • Execute daily and month-end trade and position reconciliations (equities, fixed income, derivatives, OTC instruments) including supporting reconciliation of margins, collateral and financing arrangements with prime brokers.
  • Calculate and apply management fees, performance fees (carry), preferred returns and waterfall allocations for complex fee structures, ensuring contractual compliance and accurate posting to ledgers.
  • Maintain and reconcile investor capital accounts including capital calls, distributions, manager co-investments, side letters, and partner-level allocations for private equity and closed-end funds.
  • Prepare monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements in accordance with GAAP, IFRS or client-specific accounting policies, including schedules for management review and sign-off.
  • Support statutory and regulatory filings, including FATCA/CRS reporting, AIFMD reporting support, investor tax documentation (K1s/1099 equivalents) and liaise with tax advisors to deliver required information.
  • Manage cash forecasting and liquidity monitoring for funds, coordinate cash sweeps, movement instructions with banks, and ensure adequate liquidity for redemptions, margin calls and day-to-day operations.
  • Serve as the primary operational contact for clients, custodians, prime brokers and transfer agents on administration matters, providing timely responses and detailed status updates.
  • Coordinate and manage external audit and tax processes: prepare audit packs, provide reconciliations and explanations, coordinate auditor requests and support year-end financial close.
  • Implement and maintain internal control procedures and SOX-type compliance controls for fund accounting processes, including segregation of duties, change controls and periodic testing.
  • Maintain and configure fund setup and lifecycle events within fund administration systems (e.g., SS&C Geneva/Eagle, SS&C Investran, Advent Geneva, FIS, SimCorp) and implement system parameter changes for new share classes and vehicles.
  • Monitor corporate actions, corporate event processing and income accruals; determine entitlements, apply adjustments to valuations and communicate impacts to stakeholders.
  • Perform complex tax and withholding calculations on distributions, dividends and interest in coordination with tax teams; provide documentation for investor tax reporting and withholding compliance.
  • Provide detailed performance and attribution reports, including time-weighted and money-weighted returns, benchmark comparisons and contribution analysis to support portfolio managers and client reporting.
  • Support fund launches, closings, restructurings and mergers: coordinate legal and trustee documentation, prepare fund accounting set-up templates, test new fund configurations and deliver onboarding checklists.
  • Prepare management information (MI) and operational dashboards, identifying trends, operational KPIs, and potential risk areas to share with management and clients.
  • Drive process improvement initiatives and automation projects to reduce manual tasks using Excel macros, VBA, SQL queries and support roll-out of RPA or data pipeline improvements.
  • Oversee and mentor junior fund accountants and operations staff; conduct quality reviews, deliver training, and escalate issues to management when required.
  • Ensure KYC/AML and investor onboarding requirements are met in partnership with compliance and transfer agency teams; review investor documentation and escalation of exceptions.
  • Provide ad-hoc modeling and analysis for special projects such as side letter pricing, preferred return catch-up scenarios, or complex allocation scenarios requested by clients.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Assist with vendor management, including oversight of third-party administrators and reconciliation of third-party reports with in-house ledgers.
  • Prepare and maintain comprehensive procedural documentation, runbooks and reconciliation matrices for audit readiness and continuity planning.
  • Support regulatory examinations and investor due diligence questionnaires (DDQs) by collating operational evidence and historical reporting.
  • Participate in disaster recovery and business continuity testing for critical fund administration systems and processes.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Fund accounting and NAV calculation expertise for alternative investments (hedge funds, private equity, funds of funds).
  • Strong knowledge of accounting standards (US GAAP, IFRS) as applied to investment funds and financial instruments.
  • Advanced Excel skills including pivot tables, complex formulas, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH and VBA for process automation.
  • Experience with fund administration and portfolio accounting systems such as SS&C Geneva, SS&C Investran, Investran Cloud, Eagle, FIS, or Apex.
  • Familiarity with transfer agency platforms and investor servicing tools; experience reconciling investor ledgers and KYC/AML processes.
  • Solid understanding of derivatives, repos, securities lending, prime brokerage mechanics and margin calculations.
  • Hands-on experience with performance and attribution calculation methodologies (time-weighted, money-weighted).
  • Bank and custodian reconciliation experience and proficiency with SWIFT messaging, bank instruction flow and cash movement processes.
  • Experience supporting audits and tax reporting processes, including preparation of audit packs and investor tax schedules.
  • SQL querying skills and experience extracting and transforming data from operational databases; comfortable working with CSV/flat files and APIs.
  • Knowledge of regulatory requirements relevant to funds (AIFMD, Form PF, FATCA/CRS, MiFID II reporting basics) is advantageous.
  • Familiarity with automation tools (Alteryx, Power Query, RPA tools) and data visualization (Power BI, Tableau) for MI reporting.

Soft Skills

  • Excellent client-facing communication skills with the ability to explain technical accounting topics to non-technical stakeholders.
  • Strong attention to detail and commitment to accuracy under tight deadlines.
  • Problem-solving mindset with the ability to investigate breaks, identify root causes and implement corrective actions.
  • Ability to prioritize multiple concurrent tasks in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
  • Team-oriented approach with mentoring and coaching experience for junior staff.
  • High level of integrity and discretion in handling confidential investor and fund data.
  • Adaptability and comfort working in dynamic, evolving operational environments.
  • Proactive mindset: identifies process inefficiencies and recommends practical solutions.
  • Strong organizational skills and effective time management.
  • Resilience under pressure and the ability to manage end-of-period stress points robustly.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, Business Administration, or a closely related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Finance, Accounting or MBA; professional qualifications such as CPA, ACCA, CFA or similar are strongly preferred.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Accounting
  • Finance
  • Economics
  • Business Administration
  • Computer Science or Data Analytics (beneficial for automation and reporting)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 2–5 years for Fund Accountant / AIS Fund Administrator (mid-level); 5+ years for senior roles with exposure to alternative investments.

Preferred:

  • 3–7+ years’ experience specifically in fund administration or fund accounting for alternative investments (hedge funds, private equity, real assets).
  • Demonstrable experience with NAV production, fee and performance calculation, investor reporting and reconciliations.
  • Prior exposure to leading fund setups, audit/tax support and regulatory reporting is advantageous.
  • Experience working with major fund administration platforms (SS&C, Investran, Geneva, Apex) and strong Excel/SQL capability.
  • Proven track record of improving processes, implementing controls, and participating in system implementations or upgrades.
Explore More Careers