Senior Specialty Operations Professional

Cetera is currently seeking a Senior Specialty Operations Professional for our Fee for Service Operations team located in Des Moines, IA or St. Cloud, MN. This is a unique opportunity to join our team in providing operational support and world-class customer service to our clients and financial advisors across our Individual Consulting Programs, including Financial Planning and Participant Advice. There is potential for this to be a hybrid role based on a successful training period.

Core Responsibilities:

• Provide operational support to financial advisors and their clients across our Individual Consulting Programs, including Financial Planning Fee for Service and Participant Advice, ensuring high-quality service delivery at every touchpoint.
• Receive, review, and process client agreements submitted via mail, fax, document imaging upload, or the AdvicePay platform, ensuring all fields are accurately entered and validated against source documents in our internal database.
• Perform thorough good-order reviews of incoming paperwork, cross-referencing form data against database records to confirm accuracy and completeness prior to releasing commission payments.
• Process and reconcile multiple payment types including physical check deposits, commission file batches, ACH debits and credits, and wire transactions, ensuring all billing activity is properly documented and reported.
• Run and maintain operational reports to support billing facilitation, payment processing, and workflow tracking, with proficiency in Excel functions including VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, pivot tables, and related analytical tools.
• Partner with internal stakeholders including Program Managers, the AdviceWorks team, and Compliance to ensure all processed transactions meet regulatory and broker-dealer compliance standards.
• Responsible for low to mid-level escalations, partnering with the Operations Team Lead and leadership to research, communicate, and resolve issues in a timely manner.
• Proactively identify and resolve potential operational problems before they escalate, demonstrating sound analytical and critical thinking skills across daily work functions.
• Respond to inquiries from internal and external customers via email, Support Center tickets, and outbound phone calls, providing first-level contact resolution in a timely and professional manner.
• Perform detailed research on customer accounts as requested and deliver accurate, timely responses to advisors, clients, and internal partners.
• Support the development and maintenance of written procedures and workflow documentation, leveraging tools such as Microsoft Visio to help organize and improve team processes.
• Comply with all team processes, procedures, regulatory requirements, and service level agreements while consistently achieving quality metrics.
• Cross-train on additional queues and operational workflows to support team capacity and continuity.
• Complete other duties as assigned.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Ability to multi-task
• Flexible and adaptable to change
• Strong communication and organizational skills
• Positive role model to colleagues
• Highly responsive to coaching and training
• Independent; able to work and resolve complex issues with minimal guidance
• Ability to learn quickly and multi-task effectively in a fast-paced environment
• Team player attitude
• Energetic and results-oriented
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills with a keen attention to detail
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, pivot tables, and data analysis functions
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Visio and ability to document procedures and workflows
• Basic understanding of API concepts and system data flow
• Familiarity with broker-dealer and advisory compliance rules and practices
• Ability and willingness to place outbound phone calls to advisors and clients to resolve issues proactively

Desired Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Series 99, 6, or 7 licensed
• Demonstrated experience delivering excellent problem resolution, organizational and follow-up skills
• Ability to multi-task while staying on track with regulatory deadlines, field inquiries, and internal assignments
• Knowledge of AI tools and prompting techniques as applied to operational workflows
• Experience with financial services platforms such as AdvicePay, AdviceWorks, Salesforce, or similar systems

Minimum Required Education & Experience:

• High School Diploma or GED
• 1 years’ experience in the financial industry
• 1 years of experience with MS Office tools
• Licensing (if applicable)

#LI-Hybrid