Vice President | Mutual Fund Operations

Hybrid Work Environment: This position follows our hybrid-friendly schedule, with 3 in-office days per week in one of the following locations: St. Petersburg, FL, Memphis, TN, or Southfield, MI.

About the Role

Mutual Funds is seeking a seasoned Vice President of Operations to lead and oversee all aspects of Mutual Fund Operations, including Account Services, Reconciliations, Security Setup, and Trading. This critical leadership role is ideal for a highly regarded financial services leader with a proven track record of driving operational excellence, leading large-scale teams, and delivering results in complex, highly regulated environments. As a key leader within the organization, this individual will drive performance, foster collaboration, support succession planning initiatives, and position the department for long-term success.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end mutual fund operations function, including governance of securities master and trading restrictions; trade execution and settlement; corporate actions and fund event processing (mergers, liquidations, MF to ETF conversions); share class conversions; networking functions; cash, share, and dividend reconciliation; direct fund account management; vendor oversight; fund relationship management; and leadership of the project/change portfolio.
• Product Setup & Platform Readiness: Partner with internal stakeholders on open-end mutual fund platform. Oversee onboarding of new mutual funds and share classes, ensuring accurate configuration of eligibility rules, minimums, fees/load structures, and trading restrictions across all systems and channels. Manage fund reference data integrity and enforce prospectus and regulatory compliance through robust operational processes and platform controls.
• Fund Relationship & Industry Advocacy: Serve as the executive liaison with fund families, transfer agents, vendors, and market utilities (NSCC/DTCC), ensuring operational readiness for new offerings, corporate actions, and regulatory changes. Advocate for the broker-dealer industry within the mutual fund ecosystem and through active participation in industry committees, influencing standards and regulatory developments to promote operational compatibility, efficiency, and client benefit.
• Provide executive oversight and strategic direction for the project and change portfolio, setting priorities, aligning initiatives with business objectives, and ensuring optimal resource allocation for timely, high-quality delivery that drives operational efficiency and scalability.
• Take overall responsibility for designing, developing, and delivering the organization's operational strategy and outcomes.
• Set and approve area budgets that achieve organizational strategy.
• Manage and report on business performance; hold direct reports accountable for achievement of business plans, and take corrective action where necessary to ensure the achievement of business objectives, balancing short-term goals with longer-term stakeholder value.
• Lead the development of annual and longer-term business plans for a significant function, ensuring alignment with strategy; quantify business outcomes (e.g., revenues or other KPIs) and resource budgets (financial and headcount); and ensure integration of key activities or projects across the organization.
• Set and communicate the strategy, along with the broad actions needed to implement it, for achieving the organization's mission, vision, and values within a function; inspire a large or diverse workforce to commit to these tenets and achieve business goals.
• Identify and manage stakeholders up to and including top management level, addressing their needs, issues, and concerns by leading and coordinating stakeholder engagement plans to support communication of business information and decisions.
• Develop the strategy for a significant area of responsibility, anticipating complex issues, challenges, and opportunities, and ensure successful implementation to meet medium-term business needs.
• Represent the organization in industry, institutional, and professional forums, boards, and committees to promote the company brand or efforts. Represent the organization in external relations with investors, clients, industry, partners, the public, and others, focusing on a specific area such as a function or department. May involve preparation of presentations and materials for professional meetings, seminars, and conferences.
• Identify the capabilities needed to meet current and emerging business needs. Evaluate current capabilities, identify gaps, and prioritize development activities. Motivate others to develop their capabilities and fulfill their potential. Build capabilities elsewhere in the organization through mentoring and other informal methods.
• Define the detailed organization structure for a business area to align with corporate principles, define relationships between elements of the organization, and define responsibilities of senior managers to enable achievement of business objectives.
• Participate in the development of corporate strategy, applying functional expertise to test the viability of the strategy and contributing creative ideas and insights to support strategy formation.
• Collaborate with private client group management to identify and implement solutions.
• Monitor regulatory compliance with internal and external groups including auditors, FINRA, IRS, SEC, and others.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the company’s working structure, policies, mission, and strategies.
• Apply project management methodology sufficient to act in a sponsorship role.
• Apply principles of finance and securities industry operations, financial markets, and products.
• Utilize performance management practices effectively.

Skills

• Act as the organizational authority on developing appropriate plans or performing necessary actions based on recommendations and requirements.
• Act as organizational authority on planning, organizing, prioritizing, and overseeing activities to efficiently meet business objectives.
• Operate as a recognized expert to shift mental mindsets associated with assessing facts and circumstances, making innovative adjustments to thinking and work habits to thrive in any scenario.
• Act as organizational authority on strategic planning.
• Act as the organizational authority on ensuring the organization develops and maintains the culture, values, and design it needs to reach its objectives while managing structural change.
• Act as the organizational authority on developing, monitoring, interpreting, and understanding policies and procedures, ensuring they match organizational strategies and objectives.
• Act as organizational authority on developing and implementing policies.
• Act as organizational authority on managing projects and/or programs within desired cost, time, and quality parameters.
• Act as the organization's authority on using clear and effective verbal communications skills to express ideas, request actions, and formulate plans or policies.
• Act as the organization's authority and established expert to develop solutions based on an understanding of the business environment and objectives.
• Act as the organizational authority and established expert on costing, budgeting, and finance tasks.
• Negotiate as the organizational authority and established expert to obtain consensus between two or more internal or external parties who may have different interests.
• Use expertise to act as the organizational authority on reviewing and creating relevant, lucid, and effective reports.
• Operate as a recognized expert to orient work in a workflow to plan, organize, and execute steps to achieve goals and higher efficiencies.

Qualifications

• High School diploma (required).
• More than 15 years of general work experience.
• 10 to 15 years of management experience.

Licenses/Certifications

• SIE (Securities Industry Essentials Exam) required or ability to obtain within 120 days (as required by FINRA), provided that an exemption or grandfathering cannot be applied.
• Series 99 required, or ability to obtain within 120 days (as required by FINRA). Persons holding Series 6, 7, 17, 37, 38, or principal-level registrations (Series 4, 9/10, 14, 16, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 51, and 53) would be qualified to register as an Operations Professional (Series 99) without passing the examination.
• Series 7 – Not required, but highly preferred.

Benefits

This position is eligible for a benefits package that may include:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Life insurance; critical illness insurance and accident insurance.
• Disability benefits.
• Retirement savings.
• Paid time off (including vacation, holidays, and sick leave).
• Parental leave.

Eligibility for benefits and specific offerings may vary based on position and employment status. For more details, visit Myrjbenefits.com.

Travel

Less than 25%.

Culture

At Raymond James, our associates use five guiding behaviors (Develop, Collaborate, Decide, Deliver, Improve) to deliver on the firm's core values of client-first, integrity, independence, and a conservative, long-term view. We expect our associates at all levels to:

• Grow professionally and inspire others to do the same.
• Work with and through others to achieve desired outcomes.
• Make prompt, pragmatic choices and act with the client in mind.
• Take ownership and hold themselves and others accountable for delivering results that matter.
• Contribute to the continuous evolution of the firm.

As part of our people-first culture, we honor, value, and respect the uniqueness, experiences, and backgrounds of all associates. When associates bring their best authentic selves, our organization, clients, and communities thrive. The Company is an equal opportunity employer and makes all employment decisions on the basis of merit and business needs.