Real Estate Finance and Operations Manager

The purpose of the role is to provide finance and operations support to the Paris based Real Estate investment team as well as oversight of the external real estate fund outsourcers. This will include the management and delivery of significant change projects on behalf of Real Estate Operations working closely with the Real Estate Investment team in Paris and reporting to the Head of Real Estate and Infrastructure Operations in Swindon, UK.

**How you'll spend your time**

The Real Estate Operations Manager, France is responsible for providing finance and operations support to the Paris Real Estate investment team with the goal of growing the business while maintaining the highest operational standards. This includes supporting the launch of new real estate funds, operational activities required for existing funds and some internal operations processes. It will involve working closely with the Real Estate investment team in Paris as the representative of the wider European Operations team which is based in the UK.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Fund launches
- Providing project support and working with Front Office staff in the Paris office, Real Estate Tax and Legal teams in London and external advisors to help structure and launch new funds
- Input into the production of constitutional documentation for the funds and production of key investor documents as applicable
- Documenting the target operating model for each fund launch and providing support for onboarding of third parties such as fund administrators, valuers etc and managing the book of change with each supplier.

Fund support
- Oversight of outsourcers who are providing fund controlling of existing fund structures and entities (including SPV management, liquidity, cash movements and tax filings).
- Where relevant, oversight of fund accounting (including NAV pricing, financial statements and managing the audit) and reporting (client reporting, internal reporting and tax reporting)
- Documenting the operating model for each fund
- Supporting fund restructuring, merger or recapitalisation projects working with Front Office staff in the Paris office, support functions in London and external advisors
- Supporting the investments team with transactions, including review of key corporate and tax due diligence and legal documentation Input into Client reporting including performance calculations and fund operations update
- Supporting and controlling Cashflow modelling
- Supporting fund tax audits
- Liquidation of entities and cash return.

External AIFM processes
- Facilitating required approvals from external AIFM (acquisitions, disposals and financings)
- Support for valuations, KYC, money transfer, cash management, capex follow-up etc.

Internal governance processes
- Enterprise Vendor Management Requirements (vendor risk assessment)
- Identification and documentation of Business Technology assets (spreadsheet controls)
- Business Continuity Planning
- Procurement processes for appointment of advisers
- Conflicts of interest register
- Internal Audit requests

**Working Relationships - Internal**

Paris Front Office Investment team.

Swindon (UK) office Real Estate Operations team and London (UK) headquarters Real Estate Tax and Legal teams.

Munich (Germany) office client reporting, investors services and debt origination teams.

Internal tax, insurance and legal advisers.

**Working Relationships - External**

Luxembourg and Germany based AIFMs.

External legal, tax and accounting advisers.

Banks providing fund debt.

**To be successful in this role you will have**

Experience working with regulated and unregulated European domiciled fund structures (especially Luxembourg, French and German) in a Real Estate investment Operations function.

Ability to develop understanding of Real Estate fund strategies and the operational implications.

An understanding of the end-to-end operation and processes of a Real Estate Asset Manager.

Client Focus driven with proven experience.

Clear and concise communicator with experience of working with colleagues at all levels as well as external service providers. Fluent in French and English language.

Ability to work under pressure and experience in issue identification and resolution.

Fully Qualified Accountant.

**It would be great if you also had**

Experience of oversight of third party administrators.

**About Columbia Threadneedle Investments**

Working at Columbia Threadneedle Investments you'll find growth and career opportunities across all of our businesses.

We're intentionally built to help you succeed. Our reach is expansive with a global team of 2,500 people working together. Our expertise is diverse with more than 650 investment professionals sharing global perspectives across all major asset classes and markets. Our clients have access to a broad array of investment strategies, and we have the capability to create bespoke solutions matched to clients' specific requirement