Univest - Head - Operations - Broking Business

Head Operations | Broking Business
Role Purpose:
Lead and manage end-to-end operations for the broking business, ensuring seamless, scalable and compliant execution across client onboarding, trading operations, settlements, risk controls, reconciliation, corporate actions, service operations and regulatory requirements.
Key Responsibilities:
- Own end-to-end broking operations across the trade lifecycle order execution, trade processing, confirmation, settlement and reconciliation.
- Lead client onboarding/KYC, account opening, documentation, activation and account maintenance processes.
- Ensure accurate and timely trade settlement, pay-in/pay-out, funds and securities reconciliation.
- Oversee coordination with exchanges, clearing corporations, depositories, banks, custodians and other external partners.
- Establish strong operational controls, SOPs, maker-checker mechanisms and risk controls to minimise errors, fraud and operational losses.
- Ensure compliance with applicable SEBI, exchange, clearing corporation, depository and other regulatory requirements.
- Manage operational aspects of corporate actions, pledges/unpledges, transfers, account closures and other client transactions.
- Drive process automation, digitisation and straight-through processing to improve TAT and reduce manual intervention.
- Monitor operational MIS, KPIs, ageing, exceptions, reconciliation breaks and service-level metrics and drive corrective action.
- Lead and resolve high-priority client and operational escalations in coordination with business, risk, compliance and technology teams.
- Partner with Product and Technology teams to improve platforms, workflows and operational efficiency.
- Identify operational risks and implement business continuity and disaster recovery processes.
- Build, manage and develop the operations team, including capacity planning, performance management and succession planning.
- Manage operational audits and ensure timely closure of audit observations and regulatory/exchange requirements.
- Continuously identify opportunities for cost optimisation, process simplification and scalability.
Key Success Metrics:
- Settlement and reconciliation accuracy
- Operational TAT and SLA adherence
- Reduction in manual processes/errors
- Client onboarding turnaround time
- Exception and escalation resolution

- Regulatory/audit compliance
- Operational cost efficiency
- System/process uptime and scalability
- Team productivity and effectiveness
Ideal Candidate:
- 12-18+ years of experience in broking / capital markets operations, preferably with leadership experience.
- Strong understanding of the Indian equity broking ecosystem, including exchanges, clearing, depositories and settlement processes.
- Experience managing large-scale operations teams and complex operational workflows.
- Strong knowledge of SEBI/exchange/depository regulations and operational controls.
- Proven track record of process automation, transformation and operational scalability.
- Strong analytical, stakeholder-management and problem-solving skills.
- Experience working closely with Technology, Risk, Compliance, Finance, Product and Business teams.
- Education: Graduate/Postgraduate; MBA/CA/CS/CFA or relevant capital-markets qualifications preferred.