Global Head of Technology

Location: Baltimore, MD - Must be on site 2 days a week. Ideal candidate is local to that region but they can be 2-3 hours a way as long as they are open to being in the office two days a week

Interview Process: 3 rounds, maybe a 4th. Remote and then in person for final round

Our client, a Global Leading Investment firm in business since 1937, is seeking a senior leader to serve as Global Head, US Institutional and Intermediary Technology with responsibility for driving strategic initiatives across the company’s Global Business Solutions (GBS) US Intermediary business. Reporting to the Head of Global Distribution Technology, the successful candidate will leverage technology to bring about meaningful advancements in our US Intermediary & Institutional technology. S/he will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the existing technology portfolio and implement changes where necessary to increase the overall effectiveness of critical business facing and client technology platforms. This executive will lead a team of engineers and analyst professionals that currently number about 30 associates and contract staff.

Central to her / his remit will be driving ongoing strategic efforts to drive further strategic growth, digitize existing client on-boarding, advancing client data and reporting capabilities, expanding use of data science and machine learning where possible to introduce efficiency and lower error rates in client servicing. In addition, the role will focus on continuing to provide differentiating capabilities and flexibly adapt to ongoing business, technology, and regulatory changes.

Over the next 3-4 years efforts are expected to be focused around the following:

• Partnering with business leaders in US Intermediary and Institutional to explore, and invest in, state of the art Technology solutions for our US business strategic initiatives.
• Enable the rollout of new investment product vehicles and content to drive growth while maintaining established governance protocols?.
• Ensure that target state applications and Technology are maintained to the highest levels of reliability and that technical debt does not accrue over time.
• Partnering with internal technology teams (e.g., Architecture, Adobe platform, Data Science, Digital Shared Capabilities, UI/UX design teams, other business technology channel delivery teams) as new solutions are implemented across DMS and our greater technology organization.
  
  

As well as the functional side of the role, the successful candidate will be responsible for attracting, developing, and retaining the existing team with a focus on developing the engineering talent to ensure that the firm can deliver on its strategy. In addition, the candidate will partner with the business to demonstrate the ‘art of the possible’ and use technology to further enhance client service and drive increased revenues or margins.

The incumbent leads a team which designs, develops, modifies, and implements short- and long-term solutions to information technology through new and existing applications, systems, databases, and associated infrastructure, reviews and interprets system requirements and business processes, and codes, tests, debugs and implements software solutions.

If you are a leader who can provide direction through large teams of professionals and other managers? Are you able to work with executives to build and execute on key business priorities? Do you strive bring both a near and long-term perspective to your decisions? If so, we encourage you to apply.

Critical Leadership Capabilities

• The Head of Intermediary and Institutional Technology must be comfortable working in a non-hierarchical environment which places high importance on influence management skills.
• The individual must possess the stature and intellect to quickly build effective, credible, long-term relationships with members of the senior leadership team
• Culturally, they are seeking someone with a dynamic, collaborative style who leads by example, brings expertise to the table, and possesses an entrepreneurial orientation.
• The ideal candidate is a non - “political” executive who can build immediate credibility with the senior leadership and engineers alike and help drive towards a vision for a largely automated, resilient, cost-effective technology environment.
• This involves using thoughtful analysis to justify technology decision making, constructively questioning decisions made in the past, such that s/he can explain the status and benefits of ongoing projects and programs to stakeholders.
  
  

LEADERSHIP ACUMEN

• Demonstrated desire and ability to mentor team members, developing their skills, competencies, and orientation towards new ways of working, while ensuring delivery of projects. Demonstrated ability to lead and operate in an international environment.
• A collegial, direct communicator with the ability to interact with all levels of management, business partners, internal clients, service providers, and engineering staff. The ability to distill and articulate the business rationale driving each new technology decision to a range of stakeholders. S/he should be able to explain technology issues to management in business terms as well as technology terms.
• A bottom-line orientation: a manager who drives performance and accepts accountability and responsibility for his / her organization’s performance. A “player-coach” who is comfortable working with a team in a direct manner.
• An efficiency orientation; driving for cost effective performance.
• Strong presentation and excellent interpersonal technical skills.
• Able to communicate to highly technical content to a variety of audiences.
• Strong interpersonal skills; able to establish and maintain a close working relationship with quantitative researchers, traders, and senior business leaders.
• Confident communicator able to argue a point concisely and deal positively with conflicting views.
• Provides timely feedback and coaching to individuals and teams using data to reinforce learning.
• Accountable for the development and mentoring of direct reports.
• Able to overcome differences of opinion and drive team alignment around a specific goal or solution.
• Works closely with product owners, develops intimate understanding of business strategy and direction.
• Makes decisions that are cognizant of the firm’s broader business strategy.
  
  

TECHNOLOGY ACUMEN

Skills

The Head of US Intermediary & Institutional Technology will have broad experience managing high-performing technology teams within a top tier investment manager or global investment bank. The successful candidate will possess a blend of strategic and tactical skills so that they can make operational improvements while simultaneously supporting the company’s long-term strategic business initiatives. As such, this leader must:

• Bring an architect’s “first principles thinking” in terms of the optimal design and management of a complex global ecosystem involving a large vendor partnership along with an evolving and growing business. Be willing and able to ‘get into the details’ of specific technical implementations.
• Engineering minded leader that can devise strategy and deliver incremental change toward it
• Bring a deep understanding of how emerging technologies – big data / analytics, machine learning and low code / no code – relate to the world of client reporting and account servicing.
• Bring a strategic business perspective to anticipate key marketplace trends, opportunities, and vulnerabilities, and represent opportunities in how Technology may enable those to senior management.
• Analyze and effectively communicate to management the trade-offs (cost vs. benefit) of various technology related projects
• Experience implementing large-scale enterprise content management and digital asset management solutions.
• Know how to manage large teams for consistent project delivery.
• Accountable for the quality, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), maintainability and security of the solutions built.
• Articulates broader business concerns and/or regulatory landscape, including key risks and controls (e.g., GDPR, MIFID, SOX)
• Adobe Digital Marketing Cloud / Adobe Experience Manager / Adobe Campaign Manager preferred.
• Ensures adoption of modern software development practices including secure SDLC, test automation, CI/CD, and DevOps in accordance with the firm’s cloud adoption strategy.
• Capable of leading projects in one or more SDLC methodologies (e.g., Scrum), operating with efficiency and transparency.
• Experience leading web development and web content management initiatives in support of digital marketing organizations.
• Stays current with best-of-breed technologies.
• Stays abreast of industry trends and technologies and knows if/when/how to apply them appropriately.
• Demonstrated desire and ability to mentor team members, developing their skills, competencies, and orientation towards new ways of working, while ensuring delivery of projects. Demonstrated ability to lead and operate in an international environment.
• A collegial, direct communicator with the ability to interact with all levels of management, business partners, internal clients, service providers, and engineering staff. The ability to distill and articulate the business rationale driving each new technology decision to a range of stakeholders. S/he should be able to explain technology issues to management in business terms as well as technology terms.
• A bottom-line orientation: a manager who drives performance and accepts accountability and responsibility for his / her organization’s performance. A “player-coach” who is comfortable working with a team in a direct manner.
• An efficiency orientation; driving for cost effective performance.