UK Transfer Agency (UKTA) Head of Operations

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.

Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.

With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

The UK Transfer Agency-Head of Operations position is a critical senior leadership role within UK Transfer Agency (UKTA), accountable for operational leadership, service delivery, governance and control oversight across UK, Ireland and India activity.

The role supports the Head of UKTA by leading BAU operational management, maintaining an effective control environment, driving regulatory compliance, supporting client and prospect engagement, and delivering strategic priorities across service, risk, efficiency and transformation.

The role has senior operational accountability across a multi-location UKTA operating model, supporting complex fund administration and shareholder servicing activity across onshore, nearshore and offshore teams.

The role requires oversight of high-volume, time-critical BAU activity, regulatory obligations, client change, operational resilience events, service-critical processes and cross-functional stakeholder management.

The Head of Operations is expected to operate as a senior escalation point, trusted adviser and accountable owner for operational execution, ensuring the function remains scalable, controlled and aligned to UKTA, regional and global Transfer Agency strategy.

Key accountabilities include:

• Operational delivery and service management: Lead UKTA Operations to ensure sustained delivery of agreed service standards, KPIs, KRIs and client commitments across dealing, registration, settlement, distributions, commissions, statements and investor servicing activity.
• Operating model and transformation: Lead the evolution of the UKTA regional operating model, partnering with TA executive leadership to scale processes, simplify activity, implement automation and deliver strategic change initiatives.
• Risk, control and governance: Maintain a robust operational control environment, ensuring that risks, incidents, breaches, audit findings and control gaps are identified, assessed, escalated and remediated in line with governance expectations.
• Regulatory and compliance oversight: Ensure operational processes remain aligned to relevant regulatory obligations, including CASS, AML/FCC, Consumer Duty, operational resilience, data privacy and applicable fund administration requirements.
• Client and stakeholder engagement: Support RFPs, prospect presentations, due diligence activity, new business onboarding, existing client engagement and senior client escalations on behalf of UKTA Operations.
• Escalation and issue management: Act as a senior escalation point for regulatory, operational, service and client-impacting matters, ensuring decisions are appropriately framed, documented, escalated and resolved with urgency and control.
• Business continuity and resilience: Support business continuity activity, operational management of outages, SLA-critical incidents and operational resilience events, ensuring clear ownership, communication and recovery discipline.
• People leadership: Provide leadership, coaching and guidance to operational teams and specialist individual contributors, fostering a culture of accountability, inclusion, teamwork, continuous improvement and positive client and consumer outcomes.
• Performance and talent management: Conduct performance management, succession planning, career development and talent review activity for direct reports, ensuring capability is developed across the UKTA Operations leadership bench.
• Financial and resource management: Own workforce planning, budget discipline, expense management, recruitment input and salary review processes for UKTA Operations.
• Industry and governance representation: Represent UKTA in relevant internal governance forums, client meetings, executive updates and external industry forums, ensuring the operational perspective is clearly articulated.

The ideal candidate should have a fair amount of the following skills & experience:

• Senior operational leadership: Significant experience in Transfer Agency, fund administration, asset servicing, investment operations or a comparable regulated financial services environment.
• Transfer Agency expertise: Detailed understanding of end-to-end Transfer Agency operational processes, including dealing, registration, settlement, distributions, commissions, investor servicing and operational oversight.
• Regulatory awareness: Strong knowledge of collective investment schemes, Authorised Contractual Schemes, Long Term Asset Funds and relevant regulatory frameworks, including CASS, AML/FCC, Consumer Duty, operational resilience and data privacy.
•  Leadership capability: Proven ability to lead, develop and scale large multi-location operations teams, including senior managers and specialist individual contributors.
• Control and risk judgement: Strong judgement in operational risk, issue management, incident resolution, root cause analysis and control remediation, with the ability to operate effectively under pressure.
• Transformation experience: Track record of delivering operating model change, process improvement, automation, workflow enhancement, technology adoption or cross-jurisdiction programme delivery.
• Client and executive communication: Strong stakeholder management, presentation and communication skills, with experience engaging senior leadership, clients, auditors, regulators, oversight teams and offshore or nearshore partners.
• Commercial and financial discipline: Ability to manage resources, budgets, capacity, workforce planning and service priorities in a controlled and commercially effective manner.
• Familiarity with Transfer Agency platforms, workflow tools, client servicing systems and reporting solutions.
• Strong understanding of payment, settlement, reconciliation, investor record keeping and operational data processes.
• Demonstrated ability to use MI, dashboards, KPI/KRI reporting and trend analysis to manage service, risk, capacity and efficiency.
• Working knowledge of automation, workflow improvement, control design and operational process optimisation.
• Degree-level education or equivalent industry experience is expected.
• Relevant financial services, Transfer Agency, fund administration, risk, compliance or investment operations qualifications would be beneficial.
• Project, change, Lean, Six Sigma, Agile or process improvement qualifications would be advantageous.

Work Authorization

Applicants must have the right to work in the United Kingdom at the time of application and for the duration of employment.

Please note that Northern Trust is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role. This includes Skilled Worker visas, Global Business Mobility routes, Graduate visas, Youth Mobility Scheme, High Potential Individual visas, Scale-up Worker visas, Temporary Worker visas, and other employer-sponsored visa categories.

Working with Us

As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.

Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.

Reasonable Accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [email protected], or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.