Portfolio Operations Manager

Hercules Capital, Inc. (“Hercules”) is an internally managed, publicly traded BDC providing financing solutions to high-growth, innovative venture capital-backed and institutional-backed companies. This position is a process-ownership role responsible for the integrity and efficiency of Hercules’ legal documentation, collateral custody, and post-close compliance workflows across the portfolio lifecycle. The individual will serve as the internal subject matter expert for legal document management, collateral tracking, and associated audit and reporting obligations. The role requires strong initiative, sound judgment, and the ability to drive process improvements and own outcomes with minimal day-to-day direction. This is a manager-level individual contributor position.

Legal Documentation & Post-Close Compliance

• Own post-close legal documentation end-to-end: track loan amendments, follow up on deliverables with legal counsel and investment teams, and ensure timely sign-off and reporting across internal stakeholders.

• Manage receipt, organization, and storage of all legal and funding documents across the portfolio lifecycle.

• Prepare and coordinate assignment documentation for legal execution in collaboration with legal counsel.

• Prepare and submit Letters of Transmittal for various portfolio company transactions as needed.

Custody & Collateral Management

• Own the end-to-end custody process: define and enforce standards for receipt, storage, tracking, and retrieval of all collateral and legal documents; ensure custody files are complete, accurate, and audit-ready at all times.

• Manage receipt and tracking of all collateral instruments, electronic or physical, including warrants and stock certificates; ensure data accuracy and integrity across all systems; identify and escalate exceptions or discrepancies promptly.

• Manage UCC filings, continuations, and reconciliations with the company’s UCC filing agent.

• Perform periodic custody reconciliations to confirm completeness and accuracy of all custody files across the portfolio; identify and resolve discrepancies with external custodians.

Audit & Compliance Support

• Maintain all legal and collateral documentation in a continuously audit-ready state; proactively identify and remediate gaps in documentation controls or process compliance ahead of scheduled reviews.

• Lead audit project work for legal documents and support quarterly external audit procedures.

• Ensure complete and accurate data entry at loan close; maintain data integrity throughout the deal lifecycle.

Process Ownership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with legal counsel, investment, and operations teams to ensure smooth handoffs on legal deliverables, diligence items, and post-close workflows.

• Identify and escalate collateral or documentation risk flags to senior leadership in a timely manner.

• Identify and execute process improvements across all owned workflows; document procedures to support consistency, auditability, and scalability; contribute to the development of new systems, policies, and guidelines as the function evolves.

• Contribute to special projects and evolving business needs as directed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, or a related field; relevant work experience will be considered in lieu of degree.

• Minimum 5–8 years of professional experience in loan operations, legal documentation, custody operations, or a closely related field within financial services.

• Prior experience at a BDC, private credit firm, or venture lending institution strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated ability to read, interpret, and track legal documents including loan agreements, amendments, UCCs, and collateral instruments.

• Strong understanding of the lending lifecycle from deal onboarding through payoff and collateral release.

• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail; proven ability to manage multiple concurrent workflows under deadline pressure.

• Process-oriented mindset with a track record of owning, documenting, and improving operational procedures.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; comfortable engaging with legal, finance, investment, and executive stakeholders.

• Proficiency in document management systems and portfolio management databases; familiarity with UCC filing platforms or equity management tools is a plus.

• Ability to work independently and exercise sound judgment in escalating issues appropriately.