01Overview
The Head of Operations in an Institutional (Insti) Back Officeoften situated within investment banks, asset management firms, hedge funds, or custody banksis the senior executive responsible for managing the post-trade processing, settlement, accounting, and administrative infrastructure that supports large-scale institutional trading and asset management.
While the front office (traders, portfolio managers) generates revenue and the middle office manages immediate trade risk and compliance, the back office ensures that every executed trade is cleared, settled, accounted for, and reconciled seamlessly.
Core Responsibilities
Trade Operations & Settlement: Overseeing the post-trade lifecycle, including trade affirmation/matching, clearing, settlement across custodians and central securities depositories (CSDs), and managing failed trades (fails management).Corporate Actions & Income Processing: Ensuring correct processing and booking of dividends, coupons, stock splits, mergers, acquisitions, and rights issues across all client accounts and firm inventory.Reconciliations & Cash Management: Supervising daily position, cash, stock, and ledger reconciliations between internal books and external custodians, prime brokers, or counterparty accounts.Fund Accounting & Valuation: Overseeing Net Asset Value (NAV) calculation, portfolio accounting, client statement generation, and daily/monthly mark-to-market pricing routines.Process Automation & Modernization: Driving digital transformation by replacing legacy manual workflows with Straight-Through Processing (STP), AI-driven exception handling, and automated clearing integrations.Vendor & Custodian Relationship Management: Managing relationships and performance SLAs with third-party service providers, prime brokers, custodians, clearing houses (e.g., DTCC, Euroclear), and fund administrators.Regulatory Reporting & Compliance: Ensuring strict adherence to global and local transaction reporting mandates (e.g., EMIR, MiFID II, SFTR, SEC rules, or local market regulations like SEBI in India).Essential Skills & Background
Industry Expertise: Deep knowledge of multi-asset class mechanics (Equities, Fixed Income, Foreign Exchange, Derivatives, Structured Products).Market Infrastructure Knowledge: Hands-on understanding of clearing systems (DTCC, Euroclear, Clearstream, local CSDs), messaging standards (SWIFT ISO 15022 / ISO 20022), and FIX protocol.Technology & Data Savvy: Familiarity with core banking/custody systems (e.g., Aladdin, Murex, Calypso, Broadridge, Geneva) and data analytics (Python, SQL, BI tools).Risk Control & Audit: Expertise in operational risk frameworks, SOC1/SOC2 compliance, anti-money laundering (AML), and regulatory audit readiness. .
