Saturna Capital is seeking an accomplished, strategic, and hands-on
Senior Vice President of Operations to provide enterprise-wide leadership for the firm's mutual fund and investment-management operations. Reporting to the Chief Operations Officer, this executive will serve as a key link between the COO and the operations management team, helping to strengthen, modernize, and scale the firm's operating platform.
This is a high-impact leadership role for an operational executive who can translate strategy into disciplined execution, lead through change, and build efficient, well-controlled, client-focused operational capabilities. The successful candidate will bring deep investment-management operations expertise, strong judgment, and the ability to align teams, systems, processes, and service providers in support of Saturna Capital's continued growth.
Location: Bellingham, WA
Expected Starting salary range: $150,000 - $200,000 annual base wage
Primary duties include:
- Partner with the COO to establish operational strategy, annual priorities, budgets, staffing plans, performance expectations, and improvement initiatives.
- Provide leadership, coaching, and direction to operations managers and teams across fund administration and accounting, investor services, transfer agency, retail brokerage, dealer services, trading support, mutual fund distribution, and related functions.
- Translate organizational priorities into practical operational plans with clear ownership, timelines, resource needs, and measurable results.
- Evaluate and improve operational processes, procedures, documentation, systems, reporting, workflows, controls, and vendor relationships.
- Develop scalable operating practices that improve accuracy, efficiency, risk management, service quality, and employee experience.
- Lead operational modernization initiatives, including process redesign, automation, systems implementation, reporting enhancements, and workflow improvements.
- Assess operational readiness for growth opportunities, including new products, services, distribution channels, technologies, strategic partnerships, and client segments.
- Establish staffing models, capacity plans, cross-training opportunities, succession planning, and performance measures to support organizational growth.
- Maintain a strong control environment that supports regulatory compliance, safeguards fund assets, protects data integrity, and promotes timely, accurate execution.
- Partner with Compliance, Legal, Finance, Technology, Investment Management, and senior leadership on regulatory filings, examinations, audits, vendor oversight, business continuity, and operational due diligence.
- Oversee the identification, escalation, tracking, and remediation of operational incidents, control gaps, process weaknesses, and recurring service issues.
- Build and maintain productive relationships with custodians, transfer agents, fund administrators, technology vendors, and other third-party service providers.
- Establish meaningful management reporting, including operational KPIs, service-level measures, capacity indicators, project-status reporting, exception reporting, and key-risk indicators.
- Serve as a senior escalation point for material operational, client-service, vendor, and business-continuity matters.
- Assume delegated leadership responsibility for operations when the COO is unavailable.
Required Education and Experience:
- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or a related field required.
- Advanced degree, relevant securities licenses, or industry certifications are preferred.
- Required to obtain and maintain applicable FINRA licenses, including SIE, Series 7, Series 63, and Series 24.
- Twelve or more years of progressively responsible experience in investment-management operations, mutual fund or ETF operations, fund administration, transfer agency, brokerage operations, trading operations, or a related field.
- Experience with fund-administration platforms, reporting tools, Bloomberg, FactSet, or similar systems is preferred.
- Professional credentials such as CPA, CFA, or CIPM are a plus.
Our Employee Benefits package includes:
- 100% company-paid medical premium for employees; High-deductible plan offers full family coverage at no cost to employee
- Health Savings Account with employer contribution, Employee Assistance Program, regular Wellness activities
- Supplemental insurance such as Long-Term Disability, Voluntary Life, Critical Illness
- 401k with generous match
- Profit sharing and annual performance bonuses
- 11 personal and 10 vacation paid days off after first year of service
- 10 paid holidays (per NYSE holiday schedule)
- Paid Parental and Bereavement leaves
- Up to $2,000 per month in childcare/tuition assistance
- Adult continuing education and professional development assistance
- Home-buyer assistance program
