Head of Collateral Management

Role Overview

Our client is looking for an experienced Collateral Management professional to lead a high-performing team responsible for the end-to-end collateral lifecycle across OTC derivatives, repo, securities lending, and centrally cleared products. The successful candidate will serve as a key control point within Operations, ensuring effective counterparty risk mitigation, operational excellence, regulatory compliance, and continuous process enhancement across the collateral management function.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Collateral Operations Management

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of six professionals responsible for daily collateral operations, including margin call issuance, dispute management, collateral settlement, and reconciliations across OTC derivatives, repo, securities lending, and CCP-cleared products.
• Ensure all margin obligations under ISDA/CSA, GMRA, GMSLA, and CCP frameworks are accurately executed within agreed service levels and regulatory timelines.
• Oversee the complete margin lifecycle, including Initial Margin (IM) and Variation Margin (VM) calculations, call execution, dispute resolution, and escalation of aged exposures.
• Maintain strong oversight of collateral settlements, ensuring timely movement and verification of cash and non-cash collateral with counterparties, custodians, and market infrastructures, including Clearstream and Euroclear.
• Drive daily collateral and trade population reconciliations, ensuring exceptions are investigated, resolved, and appropriately escalated in a timely manner.

Strategic Initiatives & Change Management

• Represent Collateral Management in New Product Approval (NPA) and strategic business initiatives, assessing operational readiness, margining impacts, and control requirements for new products, markets, and trading strategies.
• Partner closely with Front Office, Risk, Legal, Compliance, Operations, and Technology teams to support business growth while maintaining a robust control environment.
• Lead and sponsor operational transformation initiatives focused on automation, workflow optimization, data quality enhancement, and operating model efficiency.
• Oversee user acceptance testing (UAT), implementation activities, and production releases related to collateral systems, workflow tools, and regulatory enhancements, ensuring operational readiness and successful adoption.
• Develop scalable processes and controls to support increased volumes, new regulatory requirements, and business expansion.

Risk Management & Control

• Maintain oversight of collateralized and uncollateralized exposures, dispute inventories, settlement fails, and segregation breaches, ensuring timely escalation and remediation of material risks.
• Establish and monitor key risk indicators (KRIs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure operational effectiveness, risk exposure, and service quality.
• Ensure compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, including Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR), collateral segregation requirements, and related reporting obligations.
• Strengthen the control framework through periodic reviews, issue remediation, audit support, and continuous process improvements.
• Prepare and present management information, operational metrics, and risk updates to senior management and governance forums.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
• Minimum 15 years of experience within Banking or Financial Markets Operations, including at least 5 years of hands-on collateral management experience in a leadership or managerial capacity.
• Strong product knowledge across OTC derivatives, repo, securities financing transactions, and centrally cleared products, with a thorough understanding of front-to-back trade lifecycles.
• Deep understanding of industry documentation, including ISDA/CSA, GMRA, and GMSLA agreements.
• Proven experience managing collateral disputes, portfolio reconciliations, exposure monitoring, and risk mitigation activities.
• Demonstrated people leadership skills with the ability to build, motivate, and develop high-performing teams.
• Strong risk and control mindset with the ability to identify operational vulnerabilities and implement sustainable solutions.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the confidence to engage effectively with senior management, trading desks, counterparties, and control functions.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced and highly regulated environment.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including complex data analysis and automation tools.
• Experience with collateral and market infrastructure platforms such as CloudMargin, Calypso, Clearstream, and Euroclear is highly desirable.
• Fluency in English and Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin).