Allan Gray Jobs

To apply, click on the link at the end of the posts and all the best with your applications.

1. Consultant | Retail Operations
2. Server Engineer
3. Allan Gray Accelerate Programme
4. Intermediate Application Support Analyst
5. Intermediate Test Analyst (Manual & Automation)
6. Test Analyst II (Manual)
7.  Intermediate Test Analyst (Manual & Automation)

Consultant | Retail Operations

Purpose of the role

The position is within the Retail Operations division, an area responsible for processing transactions from clients and independent financial advisers, as well as providing administrative support for the firm’s retail investment offering.

The purpose of the role is to ensure the high service standard at Allan Gray is maintained through building strong client relationships and delivering excellent client service to our clients and independent financial advisers. You will be responsible for ensuring all incoming instructions are responded to and processed and any pending instructions are followed up on. You will report to a team leader, which requires you to work actively within a team but also independently.

Responsibilities

• Checking and accurately processing all incoming or pending instructions. These include:
  • New business transactions, e.g. opening a new investment account
  • Existing business transactions, e.g. where a client adds or withdraws money or makes changes to their investment
• Providing clients and advisers with a superior level of client service through call and email communications, e.g. responding on time and diligently to all requests from clients, advisers and internal business teams
• Maintaining accurate record-keeping on internal systems of all interactions with clients and advisers
• Knowledge of various legislative requirements relating to investment products
• Supporting members of your team and the team leader, e.g. assisting with technical queries, workflow and processes.

Job Specifications

• Relevant business degree and/or job-related experience
• Sound knowledge of the life insurance industry (including pension funds) and/or the unit trust industry would be an advantage

Key Attributes & Competencies

• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Excellent time management skills
• Excellent problem-solving skills
• Client-focused with strong verbal and written communication skills
• Self-motivated and agile with the ability to function well under pressure
• Intermediate computer literacy skills in Microsoft Word or Excel

Location

Cape Town.

Closing Date

30th June 2024. 

Server Engineer

Job Summary

The role covers a broad spectrum of technologies of which the majority relates to the Microsoft stack, this is an ideal opportunity for someone wanting to expose themselves to cloud platforms as we have a huge part of our estate in both cloud providers Microsoft Azure and AWS, the latter being our primary cloud provider. 

The ideal candidate should be adept at a programming language as our cloud adoption necessitated our adoption of Infrastructure as Code across Infrastructure teams. Further to this we need someone who is highly autonomous, detail oriented, possess strong written and verbal communication skills and experience in supporting large scale, enterprise class networks.
 

Job Responsibilities

    Management and Maintenance of Infrastructure in Cloud Platforms
    Management and Maintenance of Microsoft Operating Systems
    Configuration and Housekeeping of Monitoring Solutions
    Remediation of Security Vulnerabilities and Scheduled Updates
    Documentation of Failovers and Procedures
    Vendor Management

Education

    Certification and/or or Degree in Information Systems (Essential)
    Microsoft Windows Server Certification (Essential)
    AWS Certification (Essential)

Allan Gray Accelerate Programme

Job Summary

Our fast-paced Accelerate Programme is the perfect opportunity for high achievers to push their limits in their personal and professional development. In our four-day vacation programme, which will run from 9 – 12 July 2024, you will become part of our team. You will gain exposure to Allan Gray professionals from areas across the business and from all seniority levels. You will work in groups on industry-relevant challenges, network with other exceptional students and have a chance to display your unique skill set. This is a deeply immersive and action-packed week of growth and discovery.

The Accelerate Programme will be hosted at our Cape Town office at the Silo District, V&A Waterfront. Flights and accommodation will be provided for candidates residing more than 100km from the office; and all successful candidates will receive a stipend at the end of the programme. 
 

What a career at Allan Gray may look like

Allan Gray Accelerate provides an opportunity for you to showcase your brand and skills towards a permanent career at Allan Gray within areas such as Retail Client Services, Retail Operations, Retail Product Development and others.

Our commitment to long-term investing extends to our people, our greatest assets. We understand that even the smartest investment philosophy means nothing without the talent to execute it. This is why we are looking for high-performing, independent-minded, academic achievers who are motivated and enthusiastic about joining our firm. We take great pride in our people and have created a supportive work environment that nurtures talent and recognizes and rewards hard work and perseverance. We value solutions-driven individuals who take ownership of their career progression.
 

Competency requirements

•    Strong client focus and interest in investments.
•    Highly performance driven and seeking new challenges.
•    An enquiring mind with proven independent-mindedness and problem-solving abilities.
•    Strong verbal and written communication skills.
•    Ability to work in a team of highly skilled individuals while delivering on your own personalised goals.
•    High adaptability, vigor, and agility.
•    A growth mindset.
•    A strong sense of responsibility and accountability

•    Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite

Qualifying Criteria

•    Available for the vacation programme between 9 – 12 July 2024.
•    Final year students who are ready to start working permanently in 2025.
•    Currently completing an under- or postgraduate Commerce or Business Science degree with majors in but not limited to Finance, Economics, Investments, Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics.
•    Consistently strong academic performance.
•    Must be eligible to work in South Africa.
 

Closing date

Closing date:  25 april

Intermediate Application Support Analyst

Job Summary

To provide an excellent level first and second line support, ensure operational stability and increase efficiency to the Allan Gray Business Users and IT Domains and Developers. We are responsible for a range of departments including Fund Operations, Pricing, Client Operations, Institutional Client Servicing, Trading and Compliance. The successful candidate will be expected to handle all support queries from the Business and IT Domains and Developers as well as analyse/implement fixes and enhancements.

Job Responsibilities

· Incident and Problem Management: troubleshoot/investigate and fix issues raised by the business and the rest of IT. These events could be related to Production or Development Environments and encompass in-house and vendor developed applications (applications include the following technologies C#, JavaScript, MSSQL, Crystal, SSRS)

· Request management: the fulfilment of requests raised by business and the rest of IT

· Drive automation of IT processes

· Maintenance of the production and development environments

· Work on multiple projects

· Support domains with the technical setup and configuration of new system implementations

· Implement access requests while ensuring due process is followed especially with regards to auditing requirements

· Release Management: release scripts and code ensuring changes are tested and approved

· Application and Database Performance Monitoring, Investigation and Tuning

· Liaise with 3rd line development teams to resolve incidents, when required.

· Business Continuity Planning and Testing

· Regular updating of documentation

· Work closely with the rest of IT to continuously drive stability, architecture, process and performance improvements

· Knowledge of AWS will be advantageou

Experience Required

• 3 years experience in a similar role
• Exposure to the Asset Management business would be advantageous
• Comprehensive working knowledge of Microsoft Windows, Active Directory and MS Office
• Understanding of Database Server Administration and SQL scripting
• Understanding of Networking and IT Security
• Understanding of AWS infrastructure (advantageous) 
•  

Skills and Competencies

• Working knowledge of Azure and AWS (advantageous)
• Knowledge of Allan Gray’s application environment would be a distinct advantage
• A working knowledge of scripting languages (advantageous)
• Able and willing to self upskill.
• Ability to work independently as well as part of a team
• Strong logical thinking and deductive reasoning
• Ability to analyse and investigate error messages
• Excellent communication and overall people skills
• Enthusiastic and fast learner
• Passion for IT and technology in general
• Excellent time management skills
• Be prepared to work shifts on a rotational basis
• Be prepared to work after hours on a rotational basis (including weekends)
• Exceptional attention to detail
• Ability to function well under pressure in a fast moving environment
• Results orientated
• Ability to accept responsibility for all tasks
• Show initiative for own growth and development
• Detail oriented

Qualifications

• Degree or Tech course in IT, Commerce, Sciences or Engineering faculty
• 3+ years experience in a similar role

Intermediate Test Analyst (Manual & Automation)

Overview

Allan Gray Retail IT has a passionate testing community, which includes QA architects and mentors that work together with the testers to innovate, build testing frameworks, and help make our software delivery cycle more efficient so that we deliver good quality software timeously. 
We are looking for an experienced and passionate Automation tester with Oracle and JavaScript experience to join one of our Core administration team. The team is responsible for the core administration system that is developed by a third party. The system consists of a UI (used by administrators to capture instructions), webservices that provide an interface to allow other systems to input and retrieve data, business rules and batch processes.
Automation is a key part in what we do, so we will expect our Testers to have a strong coding background to assist in building the automation systems that enable us to deliver this world class software rapidly. Our ideal candidate is very detail oriented, innovative, self-driven, curious, is a critical thinker, and willing to both learn and share knowledge. Our space will provide the chosen candidate plenty of opportunities to learn about the asset management industry and our technologies, give space for creativity, and an opportunity to provide tremendous value.
 

Job Responsibilities

    Play a central role in implementing best testing practices in the team. 
    Define the testing approach for each sprint. 
    Collaborate with business analysts to extract testing requirements for user stories. 
    Estimate effort for testing tasks.
    Manage and maintain test data. 
    Extend the team’s test framework.
    Contribute to automation of tests in-sprints

• Actively contribute to increasing measurable manual and automation coverage at all levels.
• Maintain existing test packs.
• Document and execute manual tests.
• Create, debug, verify, and maintain automated scripts.
• Review others’ Merge requests.
• Guide test automation in the team.

    Report on test execution, risks, and issues.
    Debug test results.
    Collaborate closely with developers, identifying, logging, prioritizing, and verifying defects in a defect tracking system. 
    Be second line support for production issues.
    Follow and drive root cause analysis to prevent future defects, both in Prod and In-sprint.
    Participate in, assist with, and give feedback on any activities where product quality practices and risks should be considered.
    Share knowledge with, and mentor others.
    Contribute to the use of available tools and technology.
    Implement quality improvement initiatives (supported by Senior testing leadership).
    Actively manage risk. 
    Provide the PO with sign-off of for releases.

Skills and Experience required

    You have experience testing data within databases, reports, and applications.
    You know how to read and write SQL.
    You have a practical understanding of CI/CD.
    You know where it is most effective for an automated test to live (Unit, Integration, Acceptance Testing, E2E). 
    You understand the benefits of manual testing but also the costs. 
    You are continually trying to improve your testing skills.  
    You have and can work under pressure. 
    You have solved complex testing issues. 
    You can understand requirements to come up with sufficient testing coverage.
 

Advantageous

    Experience with testing financial applications.
    A strong understanding of financial rules.
    A strong understanding of Oracle databases.
    Experience managing relations with external vendors.
    Experience in API integration testing.
    Understanding of microservice architecture.
    You can program.
o    You have JavaScript skills.
o    You have experience in other scripting languages.

Minimum Qualifications

    Degree in computer science or business information systems ideal, but solid experience will be considered as well

Test Analyst II (Manual)

Job Summary

We are looking for a self-motivated individual to join the Institutional IT team as a test analyst in delivering quality software that will create an exceptional user experience for our end-users. 

Allan Gray Institutional IT team consists of appr. 65 members, covering a range of skills and responsibilities including Domain Owners, Development Manager, Architect, Business Analysts, Developers (.NET and SQL) and IT Operations. The team operates with four business-aligned domains (Front Office, Middle Office, Fund Operations and Client Servicing). 
Additionally, the Tech domain and IT Operations teams support the business-aligned domains.

What you can expect: You will work predominantly within the Client Services Domain performing functional and regression testing as well as resolving production defects. 
Please note: This is a Cape Town based role and you will be required to be in office for a minimum of 2 days / week or as required by your domain. 
 

Job Responsibilities

    Extracting test requirements for user stories, 
    Designing and creating test cases, 
    Estimating effort for testing tasks, 
    Manual testing of applications, which includes front-end, system integration, regression, and end-to-end as well as exploratory testing, 
    Managing and maintaining manual regression test suites, 
    Product risk mitigation, thereby limiting defects in production, 
    Collaborating closely with developers and business analysts in identifying, logging, and verifying defects in a defect tracking system, 
    Collaborating with other teams in INST IT for integration testing. 
    Assist in production support issues and queries.
    Liaise with IT Ops and other Domains for support to resolve or assist with fixes.
    Continuous improvement initiatives specifically with regard to quality and performance
 

Skills and Experience Required

    Attention to detail, 
    Data analysis and reporting skills, 
    Good verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills, 
    Ability to:
o    Manage own time and get tasks done, 
o    Grasp concepts and understand the systems being tested, 
o    Deal with complexity, 
o    Deal with high variability of work and context switching, 
o    Be comfortable with a fair amount of unpredictability in daily tasks.
o    Resolve issues and overcome obstacles
o    Able to engage with others to gather information
 

Minimum Qualifications

    4 years test experience 
    Basic SQL skills
    Relevant Business/ Commerce/ IT degree. 
    Testing fundamentals training / Test certification would be advantageous.
    Exposure to Agile methodologies (e.g. SCRUM) would be advantageous

 Intermediate Test Analyst (Manual & Automation)

Job Summary

We are looking for an experienced and passionate Test Analyst to join our team. We believe our Test Analysts play a vital role not just in ensuring the quality of the software we develop, but in making it better, all the way from backend to frontend. As a Test Analyst in our team, you will play a critical role in the design of our software to ensure it is developed with quality in mind from the very beginning and solving the many complex challenges along the way, using some of the industry’s latest technologies. Automation is a key part in what we do, so we will expect our Test Analysts to have a strong coding background to assist in building the automation systems that enable us to deliver this world class software rapidly.

Job Responsibilities

• Play a central role in implementing best testing practices in the team.
• Define the testing approach for each sprint.
• Collaborate with Business Analyst to extract testing requirements for user stories.
• Estimate effort for testing tasks.
• Manage and maintain test data.
• Extend the team’s testing framework.
• Contribute to automation of tests in-sprint.
• Report on test execution and any risks and issues.
• Participate in, assist with, and give feedback on any activities where product quality practices and risks should be considered.

Experience

• You have hands experience in API testing.
• You can test reports, and applications and know how to read and write SQL.
• You can program (we use Scala, JavaScript and UFT amongst others).
• You have a practical understanding of CICD.
• You care about releasing great software. 
• You know where it is most effective for an automated test to live (Unit, Integration, Acceptance Testing, E2E). 
• You understand the benefits of manual testing but also the costs. 
• You are continually trying to improve your testing skills. 
• You read widely about what is happening in the world of testing. 
• You can work under pressure. 
• You can solve complex testing issues.
• Experience testing financial applications, will be advantageous. 

Education

Degree in computer science or business information systems ideal, but solid experience will be considered as well

Click here to apply

All the best with your applications.