Middle Office Specialist

About the Role

The Arab Energy Fund is seeking a Middle Office Specialist to join its team in Riyadh, Riyadh. This full-time role requires a professional with 5-10 years of experience, focusing on robust control and governance within financial operations. The specialist will play a critical role in validating financial instruments and managing collateral, ensuring accuracy and compliance.

Key Responsibilities

• Independently validate OTC derivative valuations and review counterparty and valuation agent marks, with the authority to challenge and resolve differences.
• Perform independent price verification and valuation of the sukuk and investment portfolio, including profit distributions, redemptions, calls, and other corporate actions.
• Manage margin calls and collateral under CSA, which includes verifying calls, agreeing exposures, and handling disputes.
• Validate and attribute treasury and investment P&L, reconciling it against front office and finance records.
• Oversee trade capture and lifecycle controls, confirming correct trade booking and proper handling of resets, fixings, distributions, and maturities.
• Manage position, cash, and valuation reconciliations, ensuring thorough investigation and clearance of breaks.
• Own the middle office control framework, encompassing limits monitoring, exception reporting, escalation, and audit support.

Experience and Qualifications

• A minimum of 8 to 10 years of experience in middle office, product control, or treasury operations within a bank or financial institution, with significant hands-on depth beyond supervisory exposure.
• Solid command of LCH and OTC derivatives, particularly interest rate swaps and cross-currency swaps, with a strong understanding of mark-to-market, discounting, and margin mechanics for independent valuation validation.
• Strong knowledge of treasury products across money markets, FX, fixed income, and derivatives, including SAIBOR and SOFR-based instruments and SAR/USD cross-currency considerations.
• Working understanding of ISDA and CSA documentation and the underlying margin logic.
• A proven track record of identifying and resolving valuation and margin disputes with counterparties.

Technical Skills

• Experience with core banking systems, with Temenos T24 preferred.
• Proficiency in Bloomberg, with exposure to custodian or valuation agent platforms such as State Street.
• Advanced Excel skills, and ideally experience with Power BI or similar tools for analysis and reporting.

Personal Attributes

• Ability to work independently, demonstrating sound judgment on when and what to escalate.
• A strong control and governance mindset, with the discipline to maintain audit-ready work.
• Clear communication skills to confidently interact with front office, risk, finance, and counterparties, and to support and develop junior team members.