Senior Fixed Income Client Services Analyst

Overview

Reporting to the Head of Fixed Income Trading Operations, you will lead the projects and initiatives driving the growth and development of our Fixed Income Client Services function; new clients, products, markets, venues and platforms, alongside the automation and process change that lets the service scale. You will have ownership of initiatives  and be expected to drive them forward independently, using sound judgement to deliver results.

The role is grounded in a deep understanding of fixed income settlement, including matching, confirmation, custody, funding, fails and claims. This expertise will inform your assessment of whether new business can be supported and where changes to the service would add value. You will apply that to the change agenda while working day to day in the client service function.

You will work closely with traders, sales and clients in a front office environment, developing a deep understanding of the products the firm trades and the international markets in which we operate.

What you'll be part of:

Leading Projects and Change

• Lead the operational projects that enable Fixed Income client growth — onboarding new clients, products, markets, venues and trading platforms.
• Assess whether new business can be supported safely and efficiently: settlement model and market convention, custodian and CSD/ICSD connectivity, counterparty and SSI readiness, cut-offs, funding and inventory implications, fail and penalty exposure, and operational capacity.
• Define requirements, manage stakeholders and drive delivery across Operations, Technology, Sales and Trading, managing dependencies, risks and agreed timelines.
• Develop the client service operating model as the business grows  scalable onboarding, straight-through processing, and removing the manual work that would otherwise scale with volume.
• Lead the Fixed Income client workstreams within firmwide strategic and regulatory change programmes.
• Identify service gaps, operational risks and opportunities for automation, and build prioritised business cases for improvements.
• Drive and deliver new ideas from concept to implementation.

Client Relationship and Service Delivery

• Own the operational relationship with clients, ensuring a high standard of settlement service acting as a responsive, accountable point of contact.
• Manage client onboarding from an operational perspective, covering account and static setup, SSIs, documentation, connectivity and client-specific workflows.
• Partner with Sales and Trading to give clients timely visibility of settlement risks, cut-offs, fails, claims and counterparty issues, supporting informed execution, allocation and financing decisions.
• Own the service standards and the delivery against them, including response times, query ageing and escalation, using reporting using reporting to track performance, identify improvements and provide visibility to Sales, Trading and management.
• Act as a senior escalation point for complex client, counterparty, settlement and custody issues, supporting resolution across relevant teams

Settlements, Fails and Cost Management 

• Own the Fixed Income settlement lifecycle for client activity covering allocation, matching, confirmation, settlement, reconciliation and post-settlement resolution — across domestic and international markets.
• Monitor settlement performance: fails, aged unsettled trades, unmatched items, partials and suspense positions.
• Investigate the root causes of fails including late or inaccurate allocations, booking errors, SSI issues, mismatched economics, insufficient securities, funding constraints, counterparty delays work with relevant teams to address underlying causes and prevent recurrence..
• Manage buy-in exposure, interest claims, penalties and other settlement costs, and recommend the trading, booking and process changes that reduce them.
• Produce management reporting on settlement rates, fail ageing, claims, buy-ins, penalties, root causes and financial impact, highlighting trends, priority issues and recommended actions.
• Manage relationships with custodians, CSDs and ICSDs on client settlement matters, working collaboratively to support efficient settlement, improve service delivery and resolve issues as they arise.

Technology, Controls and Risk

• Automate matching, SSI validation, settlement-status monitoring, break triage, fail escalation and client reporting, partnering with Technology and tech operations teams to define requirements.
• Use data to identify recurring fail drivers, counterparty performance issues and market-specific bottlenecks, inform targeted improvements and improve data quality across trade, position, cash and custody records.
• Maintain and improve the settlement control framework — procedures, cut-off governance, SSI standards, aged break management, custodian oversight and escalation protocols.
• Identify and escalate settlement, counterparty, cash and booking risks, and support root cause analysis and remediation of incidents through to completion

What we’re looking for

• 3rd level degree, preferably in a business, finance or quantitative discipline.
• Four or more years of experience in Fixed Income client services, settlements or middle office within a  trading firm, bank, broker or asset manager.
• A track record of owning projects and delivering them independently, from definition through stakeholder engagement to delivery.
• Strong understanding of the cash bond and/or repo lifecycle, from execution through matching, confirmation, settlement, reconciliation, claims and fail resolution.
• Experience working with domestic and cross-border settlement infrastructure including  custodians, CSDs/ICSDs, DVP settlement, SSIs and market cut-offs.
• Experience investigating and resolving settlement fails, partials, unmatched trades, claims, buy-ins, cash penalties or settlement-related client issues.
• Working knowledge of CSDR settlement discipline and the commercial consequences of poor settlement performance.
• A genuine client focus. With a track record of taking ownership of client issues, coordinating resolution and keeping clients informed through to completion.
• Demonstrated commercial judgement with the ability to assess what the firm should take on, and what it takes to support it properly.
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills, with the ability to find root causes and drive resolution across internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring colleagues or leading workstreams,
• Aptitude for using technology to improve efficiency; SQL/Python an advantage.
• Strong communicator, with the demonstrated capability and credibility to effectively engage clients, traders and senior stakeholders.
• Ability to prioritise competing requirements, maintain accuracy and exercise good judgement in a fast paced, time critical environment.

Desirable:

• Repo and securities financing experience a an area of particular interest given the firm's future product ambitions.
• Experience gained at, or working closely with, buy-side institutions, asset managers or ETF issuers.
• Product exposure to ETFs, options, futures or swaps.
• Experience with CTM, Traiana, Euroclear, Clearstream, Bloomberg, MarketAxess or Tradeweb.
• Exposure to SFTR, clearing, collateral or liquidity processes.