Head of Middle Office

Role Summary

The Middle Office Reconciliation Head owns end‐to‐end reconciliation and data integrity across positions, valuations, and transaction data for Client’s global custody and investment servicing clients. The role is accountable for operational control, automation strategy, exception management, and transformation, ensuring accurate books and records across asset classes while driving scalability, STP, and risk reduction through technology‐enabled solutions.

Core Accountabilities

1. Domain Ownership – Positions, Valuations & Transactions

Position Reconciliations

• Oversee reconciliation of security positions across:
• Custodian vs Investment Book of Record (IBOR)
• IBOR vs Accounting Book of Record (ABOR)
• Prime broker, clearing broker, and counterparty statements
• Cover complex products including:
• Equities, fixed income, repos
• Exchange‐traded and OTC derivatives (Futures, Options, Swaps, CDS)
• FX positions (spot, forward, NDFs)
• Alternative investments (where applicable)
• Ensure position accuracy across:
• Trade date vs settlement date
• Corporate actions processing
• Stock lending/borrowing and collateral movements
• Drive root cause reduction on systemic position breaks (corporate actions, settlement failures, asset servicing events).

Valuation & Pricing Reconciliations

• Own valuation difference analysis across:
• IBOR vs ABOR
• Custodian vs Fund Accounting
• Client vs third‐party pricing vendors
• Handle valuation complexities including:
• Multi‐currency pricing and FX rate impacts
• Dirty vs clean pricing
• Model‐based valuations for OTC and illiquid instruments
• Price challenges and tolerance breaches
• Ensure governance around:
• Price sourcing hierarchy
• Stale price detection
• Fair value adjustments
• Partner with Valuation, Product Control, and Pricing teams to resolve systemic valuation differences.

Transaction & Activity Reconciliations

• Oversee reconciliation of transaction flows from front office through settlement and accounting:
• Trade capture vs settlement systems
• Broker confirms vs internal records
• Corporate action entitlements and elections
• Monitor integrity of:
• Trade lifecycle events (amendments, cancellations, resets)
• Derivative lifecycle cashflows (premiums, margin, coupons)
• FX settlements, fails, and netting
• Ensure accurate reflection of transactions in downstream books and client reporting.

Automation & Transformation Leadership (Key Focus)

Automation Strategy & Execution

• Define and execute a reconciliation automation roadmap aligned to Client’s strategic platforms.
• Drive adoption of:
• Rule‐based auto‐matching
• Tolerance‐driven break categorization
• Automated ageing and escalation workflows
• Leverage analytics to:
• Identify repeat and non‐value‐add breaks
• Eliminate manual touchpoints
• Improve first‐pass reconciliation rates

Advanced Capabilities

• Partner with Technology and Transformation teams on:
• Intelligent reconciliation engines
• Data lineage and upstream data quality fixes
• Exception clustering and pattern recognition
• Support use cases leveraging:
• Machine learning for break prediction
• NLP for transaction and confirmation matching
• Workflow digitization and case management tools
• Ensure strong control design even as processes move to low‐touch / no‐touch models.

Risk, Controls & Governance

• Own reconciliation‐related operational risk, SOX controls, and regulatory commitments.
• Ensure completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of:
• Break ageing metrics
• Control attestations
• Management and regulator reporting
• Act as senior escalation point for:
• Aged, high‐risk, or material differences
• Audit, risk, and regulatory findings
• Deliver sustainable remediation, not workarounds.

Client & Stakeholder Management

• Serve as a senior partner to:
• Front Office, Fund Accounting, Custody, and Client Service teams
• External clients for reconciliation transparency and issue resolution
• Support client onboarding, conversions, and new product launches with strong reconciliation design.
• Present reconciliation health, automation progress, and risk posture to senior leadership.

People Leadership

• Lead and develop multi‐layered global teams (Managers, Team Leads, SMEs).
• Build deep domain expertise across asset classes and reconciliation disciplines.
• Drive performance, engagement, and succession planning.

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 12–18+ years in financial services operations
• Deep expertise in middle office or control‐focused reconciliation roles
• Proven leadership of large, global teams within custody / asset servicing environments
• Hands‐on exposure to:
• Positions, valuations, and transaction reconciliations
• Automation and transformation initiatives

Education & Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or related field
• MBA, CA, CPA, CFA, or equivalent preferred

Key Competencies

• Strong product and data flow knowledge across the trade lifecycle
• Automation‐first mindset with risk awareness
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication
• Ability to operate at scale in a regulated, high‐control environment