Associate Director, Middle Office

Middle Office in Financial Markets at Standard Chartered was created in 2017 to provide dedicated Value-Added support to Front Office and enable business growth, better Risk Management, and resolution of queries for Sales and Trading. Middle Office acts as the conduit between many different stakeholders and is a client-facing function.

Globally, Middle Office is split across 13 locations and covers Macro, Credit, and Equity products. They are the main point of contact across Front Office and various Operations groups.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Partner with business and COO to continuously provide value-added service to drive efficiency and support business growth.
• New business enablement and solutions, partner to deliver strategic FM initiatives.
• Constantly seek opportunities to improve global consistency, work closely with the Hubs (GBS), Centre of Excellence, and other regions to close gaps and standardize processes.
• Communicate with clients to solve immediate day-to-day issues with transactions as well as understand their longer-term needs to shape business decisions in Operations.
• Build strong relationships with Hub teams (Fixed Income & OTC Derivs Ops) to facilitate efficient communications and speedy resolutions of issues.
• Identify and close knowledge gaps within the Hubs through hands-on training.

Business

• FM Macro business including FX, FX Derivatives, Rates, XVA, and Commodities.

Processes

• Trade capture, life cycling, daily funding, and PnL flash runs for Macro business.
• Manage query remediation, trade life-cycling, and other day-to-day processing, ensuring timely escalation to minimize risk exposure.
• Drive operational readiness.
• Collaborate with global Middle Office and Centre of Excellence to achieve seamless follow-the-sun model and constantly seek opportunities to achieve process consistency.
• Face of Operations to Macro Trading and Sales Desks locally – primary point of contact:
  • Insulate FM from post-execution processing/queries, represent Operations functions.
  • Build team profile with the Front Office.
  • Stakeholder engagement, 2-way flow of information – "Trusted Advisor".
• Build strong relationships with Centre of Excellence and Trade Control to facilitate efficient communications and speedy resolutions of issues:
  • Identify and close knowledge gaps within the Hubs through hands-on training.
• Drive continuous improvement and innovate:
  • Partner with Technology to deliver transformation.
  • Work with FO to identify booking model improvements and drive efficiency.
• Operations representation for external/internal and regulator scheduled audits:
• Ensure Audit points are addressed within timelines.
• Achieve regulatory compliance and future-proof the Middle Office model through a strong understanding of current rules and anticipation of upcoming regulations.
• Proactive approach to identify operational risks and remediation plans.
• Timely risk incident escalation, propose remediation plans to mitigate the risks and ensure action plans are complete.
• Inculcate a strong risk culture mindset in Middle Office.

Governance

• Adherence to Ops Risk Framework standards of implementation and process management:
• Continuous review of procedures and booking models.

Regulatory & Business Conduct

• Be up to date and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group's Values and Code of Conduct.
• Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank.
• Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate, and resolve risk, conduct, and compliance matters.

Key Stakeholders

• Trading and Sales
• COO and Business Managers
• Offshore Middle Office
• Compliance
• FM Operations
• Finance / Product control
• Market Risk

Qualification

• University degree preferred.
• 10+ years of relevant working experience ideally within the middle office function as a team manager/team leader.

Skills and Competencies

• In-depth knowledge of financial markets, derivatives (flow and structured), financing products, and understanding of products front to back operation process.
• Possesses an analytical mindset along with strong interpersonal skills and the ability to confidently communicate, adapting one's style to both Front Office and offshore colleagues.
• Provide independent challenge and drive management actions at senior level to deliver targeted outcomes.
• Demonstrate strong teamwork with internal and external groups. Introduce and implement new controls and process changes required to support the transformation initiative.
• Thrive on working in a fast-paced environment while maintaining attention to detail.
• Proven problem solver using quantitative techniques, strong analytical skills with the ability to develop proof of concept frameworks and business cases. Proficient in data analytics – PowerBI, Tableau.
• Fast learner with the ability to think out of the box and provide solutions.
• Flexible and adaptable; able to work in ambiguous situations. Resilient and tenacious with a propensity to persevere. Forward-looking with a holistic approach.

Role Specific Technical Competencies

• Understanding of Risk and PnL.
• Industry knowledge – regulatory and technology tools.
• System knowledge – Murex, Bloomberg, Markitwire.
• End to end trade execution workflow.
• FM – Products – Foreign Exchange.
• FM – Products – Structured Rates / Notes.
• FM – Products – Money Markets.
• FM – Products – Commodities.

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge, and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good, are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do.
• Never settle , continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well.
• Are better together , we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term.

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial, and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum), and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders, and all sorts of self-help toolkits.
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual, and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values-driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions, and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.