Job Description
12 month Fixed Term Contract
At abrdn, our purpose is to enable our clients to be better investors.
Clients worldwide trust us to find future-fit investment opportunities to deliver the outcomes they want. Our technology and insight help empower them to make better decisions, while the powerful partnerships we build help to enhance the expertise that we offer. And by enabling clients to invest responsibly, it helps us to build a better world.
About The Team
Sustainability is at the core of abrdn’s investment process and heavily integrated across the range of assets in which it invests. On top of this, clients are continuing to embed sustainability throughout their businesses and investment policies. As a result, client engagements, RFPs, questionnaires, surveys, queries, pitches and discussions are becoming increasingly complex and demanding in this space. It is essential to support abrdn’s relationship with its clients and prospective clients when it comes to sustainable investing matters, strengthen connections with our externally facing client colleagues across them business and ensure the firm’s sustainability narrative supports this.
About The Role
The purpose of the role is to support the Investments Vector Sustainability Group’s (IVSG) efforts when it comes to client-facing activities – both reactive and proactive, with a particular focus on supporting the broader team across UK and EMEA. The role is responsible for collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders, in particular client teams, in facilitating access to sustainable investment content and expertise, and supporting end-to-end client propositions and messaging. The role will also contribute to developing abrdn’s sustainability narrative, act as an incubator for sustainability ideas and raise abrdn’s sustainable investing watermark.
Key Outcomes / Responsibilities
- Co-ordinate the IVSG’s work with clients, customers, consultants and prospects.
- Form strong relationships with client teams and other stakeholders in pursuit of abrdn’s client-related objectives.
- Respond to client queries, either directly or through client-facing colleagues, in a timely and accurate manner.
- Support the RFP team to ensure RFP data is accurate, up-to-date and effective in describing our approach to clients and prospects.
- Support and contribute to client meetings, pitches and due diligence sessions – presenting abrdn’s sustainable investing approach and co-ordinating technical input from SMEs within the IVSG, as appropriate.
- Ensure key sustainable investing documentation, such as standard pitch decks and client collateral, are accurate and up-to-date.
- Seek, consider and manage client feedback to help enhance abrdn’s sustainable investing approach, narrative and product offering, feeding this back into the wider IVSG as appropriate.
- Provide expert advice to the IVSG in distributing client-related materials and ensure internal stakeholders are aware of key client sustainability developments.
- Support Marketing and other stakeholders’ efforts to ensure our external narrative is efficient, effective and resonates with its target audience e.g. helping shape website structure and content.
- Provide expert input where appropriate into product development and associated marketing activities, particularly in relation to our sustainable investing fund range.
- Design, promote and oversee opportunities for colleagues to self-serve Sustainable Investing content and information in an efficient manner.
- Support and coordinate responses to industry surveys, submissions to industry awards and engagement with industry bodies and NGOs, critically assessing the value of each.
- Actively identify opportunities (and problems); identifying solutions, communicating to team/managers and undertaking or supporting remedial work (as appropriate), to generate higher quality output, greater scale/efficiency, and risk reduction.
- Seek out and leverage opportunities to support continual learning and development and stay abreast of industry developments, opportunities, risks, and best practice. This may include representing abrdn at external events, where appropriate.
- Support projects and initiatives across the business and wider IVSG as necessary.
- Proactively engage with clients/prospects on collaboration opportunities.
About The Candidate Requirements
- Financial services experience and a solid understanding of investment management industry, preferably gained in a relevant role.
- Experience in ESG and/or corporate sustainability.
- Appropriate academic qualifications.
- Client/customer-focussed with a can-do attitude when it comes to supporting their needs.
- Excellent relationship management skills, including the ability to effectively collaborate with and influence senior stakeholders.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, experience working with a variety of stakeholders and cultures.
- Commercial acumen.
- Ability to succeed in a collaborative work environment, balancing team and individual work effectively.
- Strong organisational, time management, and multi-tasking skills.
- Ability to manage competing priorities and to have a flexible approach to changing priorities.
- Ability to learn quickly, adapt to change and willing to undertake additional work and initiatives as necessary.
- Strong written and oral communication.
- Experience of managing or supporting projects.
Additional Skills / Other
- Genuine passion for sustainability.
- Self-sufficient and a self-starter, working with a high degree of autonomy as well as part of a team.
- Problem solver with a ‘can do’ attitude and a strong sense of ownership and accountability.
- Ability to take (sometimes abstract) concepts from idea stage through to implementation.
- Ability to understand complex issues and present these in a way that is easily understood by others.
- Confident offering constructive challenge or pushing back, where required.
- Ability to work the flexible hours required for the role, including interacting with global colleagues.
- Demonstrates maturity, professionalism and maintains the highest level of confidentiality.
Our Benefits
There’s more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported.
When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits here.
Our business
Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.
An inclusive way of working
Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we’d like to hear from you.
At abrdn we’ve adopted a ‘blended working’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face-to-face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business.
An inclusive culture, where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do. If you need assistance with your application, or a reasonable adjustment to your interview arrangements – for example, because you are neurodivergent, or have a physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, visible or invisible disability – please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.
We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment. We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance. We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone.
If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.