Securities Operations Manager

About this role:

The Operations Manager will provide strategic and operational leadership across Advisory Allocations and Trade Processing, with accountability for business delivery, risk and controls, people leadership, stakeholder management, and continuous improvement.

The role oversees market-sensitive securities operations supporting trade allocation and settlement. Advisory Allocations is responsible for the timely and accurate processing of trade allocations and billing instructions received from money managers, while Trade Processing supports trade allocations, ex-clearing and step-out transactions, and resolution of settlement breaks by settlement date.

The manager will be expected to develop a strong operating model, proactively manage risk and escalations, strengthen process expertise, and partner effectively with U.S. and India stakeholders

In this role, you will:

• Provide end-to-end leadership and oversight across Advisory Allocations and Trade Processing, ensuring timely, accurate and controlled execution of daily operations.
• Oversee critical activities including trade allocations, billing instructions, ex-clearing and step-out transactions, and settlement-break resolution.
• Maintain strong oversight of service levels, volumes, capacity, quality, operational exceptions, aged items and key business deliverables.
• Understand upstream and downstream dependencies across the trade lifecycle and proactively address issues that could impact allocation, settlement or client outcomes.
• Provide effective leadership during time-sensitive operational events and complex escalations.

Risk Control

• Establish a strong risk and control environment with clear ownership, appropriate oversight and timely escalation of issues.
• Proactively identify operational and settlement risks and ensure appropriate corrective and preventive actions.
• Drive root-cause analysis for recurring errors, settlement breaks and control gaps, with sustainable remediation.
• Ensure procedures, controls, quality reviews, business continuity and cross-training remain current and effective.
• Promote a culture of strong control discipline, accountability and first-line risk ownership.

People Leadership

• Lead, coach and develop managers, leads and team members across the functions.
• Build strong subject-matter expertise and adequate process depth across critical activities.
• Establish clear performance expectations and accountability while developing a strong succession and leadership pipeline.
• Drive cross-training and skill development to improve operational resilience and reduce key-person dependencies.
• Build broader business understanding within the team so that employees understand the business and risk rationale behind the processes, rather than only the procedural steps.
• Effectively manage capacity, workload distribution and resource deployment based on volumes and business priorities.

Stakeholder Escalation Management

• Build strong relationships with U.S. leadership, business partners, money managers and other stakeholders supporting the trade lifecycle.
• Serve as the escalation point for significant operational issues, settlement risks and service concerns.
• Drive timely resolution of complex issues through effective collaboration across functions and locations.
• Provide clear, concise and timely communication to senior leadership on material risks, incidents, capacity concerns and remediation progress.

Transformation Operational Excellence

• Identify and deliver opportunities to simplify, automate and standardize processes, while maintaining appropriate controls.
• Challenge existing processes and identify opportunities to reduce manual intervention, operational risk and turnaround time.
• Use operational metrics, trend analysis and root-cause insights to identify efficiency and control opportunities.
• Drive transformation initiatives from identification through implementation and benefits realization.

Promote continuous improvement and encourage teams to proactively identify opportunities beyond BAU delivery

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of Securities Operations experience, or equivalent experience demonstrated through one or a combination of the following: work experience, training, military experience, education
• 2+ years of leadership experience
• 5+ years of experience in securities operations, brokerage operations, trade processing, middle office, investment operations or a closely related financial-services environment.
• People-management experience with demonstrated ability to lead multiple operational teams and/or frontline managers.
• Strong understanding of the securities trade lifecycle, including trade allocation, settlement, exception and break management.
• Experience managing time-sensitive and risk-sensitive operations within a strong control framework.
• Proven ability to manage complex business and operational escalations and make sound decisions under tight timelines.
• Strong understanding of operational risk, controls, quality management and issue remediation.
• Demonstrated experience working across global teams and managing senior stakeholder relationships.
• Proven track record of driving process improvement, automation, transformation or operational-efficiency initiatives.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication and influencing skills.