Senior Client Account Manager

Lord Abbett•Jersey City, NJ

About The Position

Lord Abbett is seeking a senior member of the Client Account Management team to lead complex onboarding, implementation, and operational service activities supporting the firm’s institutional business. This role serves as both an operational lead and client service partner, responsible for managing the full institutional client lifecycle – from pre-sale operational support through onboarding, implementation, ongoing servicing, and lifecycle changes. The role is highly execution-oriented and requires strong project management capabilities, operational discipline, and the ability to coordinate across multiple internal and external stakeholders to deliver a seamless, high-touch client experience while maintaining a robust control environment. This position is best suited for a candidate with deep institutional onboarding, implementation, and operational lifecycle management expertise and is comfortable operating in a complex, face-paced asset management environment. The ideal candidate is proactive, detail-oriented, and solutions-oriented, with a strong ability to manage complexity, drive execution, mitigate operational risk, and enhance the institutional client experience. This individual will play a critical role in scaling Lord Abbett’s institutional onboarding and client lifecycle management capabilities in support of the firm’s continued institutional growth. The role is initially structured as a senior individual contributor position, with opportunities to mentor junior team members and potentially evolve into broader leadership responsibilities as the team scales.

Requirements

8–12+ years of experience in asset management or financial services, with a strong focus on institutional client onboarding, implementation, transitions, lifecycle management, or operations.
Deep understanding of the end-to-end institutional client lifecycle, including onboarding, implementation, funding, servicing, account maintenance, and lifecycle change events.
Experience supporting large, complex institutional mandates and high-volume onboarding environments.
Strong knowledge of institutional investment products, including fixed income, equities, separate accounts, and institutional fund structures.
Experience managing complex operational implementation projects involving multiple stakeholder groups and external counterparties.
Familiarity with guideline compliance, benchmark implementation, portfolio transitions, and account restructuring events.
Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a highly collaborative, cross-functional environment with strong execution and organizational discipline.
Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence and coordinate across diverse stakeholder groups.
High attention to detail, sound judgment, and strong operational risk awareness.
Familiarity with custodial platforms, client reporting processes, and operational workflows supporting institutional clients.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office; experience with client lifecycle management (CLM) systems, workflow tools, dashboards, or onboarding infrastructure preferred.
Experience contributing to operational scalability initiatives, workflow enhancements, or technology-enabled process improvements is strongly preferred.
Candidates from institutional asset managers or firms with significant institutional onboarding complexity and transaction volume are strongly preferred.
Candidates whose experience is primarily focused on investor relations or alternative investment fundraising environments may be less aligned due to differences in operational scale and institutional lifecycle management requirements.

Nice To Haves

Experience with client lifecycle management (CLM) systems, workflow tools, dashboards, or onboarding infrastructure.
Experience contributing to operational scalability initiatives, workflow enhancements, or technology-enabled process improvements.
Candidates from institutional asset managers or firms with significant institutional onboarding complexity and transaction volume.

Responsibilities

Serve as the operational lead for institutional clients, supporting pre-sale operational diligence, onboarding, implementation, and post-sale operational servicing.
Lead end-to-end onboarding and implementation of new institutional mandates, including separate accounts and institutional fund vehicles.
Manage complex lifecycle events such as account transitions, portfolio launches, guideline updates, benchmark changes, account restructures, and funding events.
Oversee account setup, documentation, funding coordination, and system configuration to ensure alignment with client mandates, operational requirements, and regulatory standards.
Act as a senior operational partner to institutional sales, relationship management, portfolio management, and clients throughout onboarding and servicing activities.
Deliver a high-touch, solutions-oriented client experience while maintaining strong operational discipline and governance standards.
Drive onboarding and lifecycle change events by establishing timelines, key milestones, governance checkpoints, and cross-functional dependencies.
Manage multiple concurrent onboarding and implementation initiatives in a fast-paced institutional environment.
Coordinate internal and external stakeholders — including Sales, Relationship Management, Portfolio Management, Legal, Compliance, Operations, Technology, clients, consultants, custodians, and third-party service providers — to ensure timely and accurate execution.
Maintain and monitor onboarding pipelines, workflow activity dashboards, implementation status reporting, and service level expectations.
Lead sign-off and readiness processes to ensure operational, legal, compliance, and client deliverables are completed prior to implementation events.
Ensure execution consistency, operational scalability, and strong process governance across onboarding and servicing activities.
Serve as a senior point of contact for institutional client servicing needs and operational inquiries.
Support client and consultant requests, including operational due diligence (ODD), RFIs/RFPs, onboarding documentation, and ad hoc servicing inquiries.
Partner closely with Client Reporting teams to ensure timely and accurate delivery of standard and customized client reporting.
Facilitate cash flow coordination, account funding activity, and operational communication across client accounts and external counterparties.
Build strong working relationships across internal business partners and external service providers to ensure a coordinated client experience.
Identify, escalate, and mitigate operational risks associated with onboarding, servicing, implementation, and lifecycle management activities.
Ensure adherence to firm policies, client guidelines, regulatory requirements, and operational controls.
Support governance, audit readiness, and operational sign-off processes associated with institutional client onboarding and servicing.
Maintain strong attention to detail and control discipline across all implementation and servicing activities.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance scalability, efficiency, transparency, and client experience across onboarding and client lifecycle management processes.
Partner with Technology and Operations teams to enhance client lifecycle management workflows, onboarding infrastructure, dashboards, and operational tooling.
Contribute institutional best practices and operational expertise gained from high-volume onboarding environments.
Support development and optimization of workflow automation and client lifecycle management capabilities.
Act as a senior resource and role model within the team, providing mentorship, guidance, and best practice support to junior team members.
Support training, workflow prioritization, operational consistency, and process development across onboarding and servicing functions.
Contribute positively to a collaborative, execution-focused team environment.