Who we are:
Sequoia Financial Group is a growing Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), headquartered in Northeast Ohio, offering financial planning and wealth management services. At Sequoia, we exist with a singular purpose: to enrich lives. Our values define how we behave and guide us through the pursuit of our purpose to enrich lives. At Sequoia, our core values are:
- Integrity. We act in the best interests of others by providing an honest, consistent experience for our clients and team.
- Passion. We pursue our full potential, seeking to continually enhance and evolve our ability to serve our clients and team.
- Teamwork. We subordinate our egos to work together for the benefit of our clients.
Our promise to team members is that you will grow with us. From experienced advisors to new college grads to transitioning principals, every team member will find Sequoia a place to refine their professional mission, move into new opportunities, go deeper, and lead further. We are built to help you build a career here as a long-term contributor in our work to enrich lives for generations.
Summary of the Position:
The Billing & Services Lead leads Sequoia's Billing & Services team and is accountable for the accurate and timely calculation, review, and collection of advisory fees across every client relationship and custodian, along with the client account service workflows that support them. Because advisory fee billing is how the firm captures its revenue, the Lead is accountable for a process in which errors are both client-visible and financially material. This is a player-coach role. The Lead carries a defined portion of the quarterly billing cycle directly, reviewing contracts and billing settings, generating and validating fees, and preparing reconciliation statements alongside the team's Billing Specialists; while leading, developing, and building depth in the group. The Lead sets the standard for how the work is performed and serves as the final review point on it, rather than duplicating what the Specialists own end to end. Beyond the cycle, the Lead governs fee schedules and billing settings across the firm's systems, owns the Billing and Fee workstream in firm acquisitions end to end, partners with Finance on collections, accounts receivable, and management reporting, and represents the group on firm initiatives and system implementations. A central objective of the role is to eliminate single-person dependency in billing through documentation, cross-training, and durable controls.
- Reports To: Head of Operations.
- Direct Reports: Billing Specialists and Service Specialists.
- Work Arrangement: Hybrid.
- Travel: Limited
Responsibilities:
- Lead, develop, and manage the Billing & Services team, setting priorities and allocating capacity across the quarterly billing cycle and the ongoing service workflows the team covers, with deliberate planning for quarter-end peaks.
- Conduct goal setting, performance management, and ongoing development for team members, building depth and cross-training so that no billing or service workflow depends on a single individual.
- Carry a defined portion of the quarterly billing cycle directly, performing fee generation, contract and billing settings review, and reconciliation work alongside the Billing Specialists rather than overseeing it exclusively from a distance.
- Serve as the final review and approval point on the quarterly cycle, signing off on billing reconciliation statements before fees are deducted from investment accounts and before invoice detail is passed to Finance.
- Own the outcome of the end-to-end billing process across all systems and custodians - fee generation, deduction, invoicing through Finance, collections, and post-billing reconciliation - while the Billing Specialists execute the cycle.
- Serve as the senior reviewer on complex and exception billing, including householded relationships, tiered and blended fee schedules, mid-period contributions and withdrawals, prorations, minimum and flat-fee arrangements, and negotiated exceptions.
- Govern the firm's fee schedules and billing settings across systems, ensuring every new contract and billing change is properly authorized, documented, and reflected in the system before the next cycle runs.
- Review and approve the resolution of billing escalations processed by the Billing Specialists, including fee disputes, contract interpretation items, and any exception that would change what a client is charged.
- Partner with Finance on collections, accounts receivable, and management reporting around billing and fees, and support period-end close.
- Own the Billing and Fee workstream for acquired firms end to end - setting the integration plan, defining the detailed steps and sequencing for the Billing Specialists to execute, communicating the plan to stakeholders, and holding accountability for delivery dates alongside the broader integration.
- Oversee the account service workflows the team covers, including new account setup, account closures, unassigned securities, and compliance reporting support, and ensure coverage is maintained across them.
- Establish and monitor service standards, turnaround expectations, and quality controls, and serve as the escalation point for time-sensitive advisor- and client-facing requests.
- Document billing and service procedures and controls end to end, and maintain them as a current operating record rather than a one-time exercise.
- Identify and drive automation, system cleanup, and process improvement across billing and service workflows, reducing manual steps, cycle time, and reliance on individual knowledge.
- Represent Billing & Services on firm initiatives and system implementations that touch billing, fee data, or client account servicing, and manage vendor relationships related to invoicing and billing systems.
- Support Compliance and internal and external audit requests related to advisory fee billing, including testing of fee accuracy and documentation of exceptions.
- Maintain compliance with all internal policies and procedures.
- Perform other related duties as assigned.
Required Skills / Experience:
- Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, business, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
- Five or more years of analytical, accounting, billing, or fee experience, preferably within an RIA, wealth management, or asset management firm.
- Direct, hands-on experience executing an advisory fee billing cycle, including contract and billing settings setup, fee generation, collections, and reconciliation.
- Experience leading, developing, or mentoring others, paired with a genuine willingness to remain hands-on in the work.
- Proven ability to establish, maintain, and improve complex processes.
- Demonstrated ownership of a recurring, deadline-driven process where errors are visible to clients and carry direct revenue consequences.
- Excellent analytical, logical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to explain a fee calculation clearly to an advisor, a client service team, or a client.
- Ability to manage multiple concurrent workflows and prioritize against firm and client deadlines.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office, including advanced Excel skills such as VLOOKUP and pivot tables.
Preferred Skills / Experience:
- Tamarac and Envestnet experience.
- Experience working with large spreadsheets and uploads greater than 10,000 rows.
- Experience owning the billing and fee workstream in firm acquisitions or platform migrations.
- Experience partnering with Finance on accounts receivable, revenue reporting, or period-end close.
- Salesforce experience.
- Ability to write JavaScript.
Competencies:
- Accuracy and Diligence. Produces consistently precise work in a process where a single error reaches a client invoice or the firm's revenue, and builds checks into routine processes rather than relying on downstream review.
- Revenue Ownership. Treats the billing cycle as a firm commitment rather than a task, and carries accountability for its completeness and timing across every quarter.
- Player-Coach Leadership. Leads credibly by doing the work as well as directing it, and uses that proximity to develop the team, spot friction early, and set a standard by example.
- Controls and Process Discipline. Thinks in terms of documented procedures, authorization, and repeatability, and designs the function so that outcomes do not depend on who happens to be available.
- Client and Advisor Orientation. Recognizes that a fee is one of the most closely examined things a client sees, and holds the team's output to that standard.
- Cross-Functional Influence. Works effectively across Operations, Finance, Client Service, Compliance, and Technology, and with external custodians and vendors, without relying on formal authority.
- Discretion and Fiduciary Mindset. Handles sensitive client and financial information with confidentiality, and acts in the best interest of clients consistent with Sequoia's obligations as a fiduciary.
- Strategic and Improvement Orientation. Looks beyond the current process to how the function should operate as the firm grows and acquires, and advances that view through practical, sequenced change.
Work Authorization & Sponsorship:
Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without requiring employer sponsorship to commence or continue employment at any point in time. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide sponsorship.
EEO Statement:
At Sequoia, we value and respect differences in our workforce. We actively encourage everyone to apply. Sequoia is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
Working Conditions:
Frequent minimal physical effort such as sitting, prolonged periods working on a computer, standing and walking is required for this role. Depending on location, occasional moving and lifting light equipment and/or furniture may be required. This role may require occasional travel, including travel to client sites, company offices, or industry events, as needed.
Employer Rights:
This job description does not list all of the job duties of the job. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. You may be evaluated in part based upon your performance of the tasks listed in this job description. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. This job description is not a contract for employment and either you or the employer may terminate your employment at any time for any reason.