Head of Derivatives eTrading and SDP in London

The role involves partnering with the business and co‑developing a multi‑year technology strategy with front‑office quant teams to deliver a unified UI platform across external clients, Sales and Trading, and to accelerate the electronification of the derivatives business. It also includes helping the teams form a robust sustainable technology strategy for the systems in this area, ensuring technical debt is paid down and not further accumulated, as well as managing the relationship with vendors.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategy
• Provide a unified UI platform across the Macro Business line, to deliver the pricing, execution and lifecycling needs of external Clients, Sales and Trading.
• Provide a first‑class eTrading platform for Macro Derivatives business by extending the platforms’ Pricing and eCommerce capability.
• Co‑develop platform and execution strategy with front‑office quant teams, ensuring the technology roadmap is aligned to trading models, pricing analytics, hedging workflows, and desk priorities.
• Analysing, evaluating and providing strategic technical direction to solving complex business requirements; capturing, translating, understanding and refining requirements as they are presented by the business.
• Shaping the technical architecture and direction of the platform.
• Ensure business delivery is tempered with technical improvements, keeping the platform up to date and ensuring adequate BAU resource and prioritisation.
• Be a key participant within the wider T&I Technology organisation’s agile transformation program.
• Ensure the transformation program is driven in the right direction, making engineer’s lives easier and more efficient.
• Help drive the adoption of agile development practices across the whole technology department not just within the team.
• Define and execute a multi‑year AI adoption roadmap for the Derivatives eTrading and Strategic UI platforms, aligned to business outcomes, platform strategy and the Bank’s AI governance framework.
• Drive the responsible use of AI across the technology stack, including software delivery lifecycle (SDLC) acceleration, intelligent automation, developer tooling, observability, and operational efficiency, while maintaining strong controls and explainability.
• Partner with Architecture, Data, Risk and Compliance teams to ensure AI‑enabled solutions are secure, auditable, resilient and compliant with applicable regulatory requirements.
• Evaluate, select and govern the use of vendor and in‑house AI capabilities, balancing innovation with operational stability and long‑term maintainability.
• Business
• Own the relationship with key business stakeholders, including, but not limited to, the global Macro Sales and Trading businesses and front‑office quant teams.
• Build productive business relationships.
• Work with Sales, Trading and Product partners to explore AI‑enabled enhancements to client experience, workflow efficiency and platform insight, ensuring clear value articulation and controlled delivery into production environments.
• Processes
• Play a critical role in embedding Agile and DevOps practices across Markets Technology, working closely with Markets Engineering and Enterprise Architecture teams to drive consistent adoption and standardisation across the end‑to‑end SDLC.
• Ensure compliance with defined engineering and delivery processes, leveraging automation and tooling (e.g. Azure DevOps) to enable efficient, well‑controlled execution of objectives.
• Define and enforce baseline engineering standards across high availability, resilience, observability and DevOps maturity.
• Drive adoption of best practices, technology standards, automation and delivery methodologies, overseeing continuous improvement in operational stability, incident management and learning.
• Operate within the established T&O Quality Control model and the T&O Risk & Control framework for overall risk and control, partnering proactively with the Risk & Control team to ensure continuous compliance and effective control outcomes.
• People & Talent
• Leading the global IT team in London, Singapore and Bangalore. As a manager of managers, this includes the Java and UI development, Scrum Masters / Project Managers, Business Analysts and QA teams.
• Attracting and retaining the best talent pool to provide a class‑leading team and platform.
• Lead through example and build the appropriate culture and values.
• Set appropriate tone and expectations for the team and work in collaboration with risk and control partners.
• Ensure the provision of ongoing training and development of people, and ensure that holders of all critical functions are suitably skilled and qualified for their roles ensuring that they have effective supervision in place to mitigate any risks.
• Employ, engage and retain high quality people.
• Set and monitor job descriptions and objectives for direct reports and provide feedback and rewards in line with their performance against those responsibilities and objectives.
• Provide technical leadership to the team, ensuring best design and implementation practice is followed.
• Build organisational capability in AI‑aware engineering and delivery, ensuring teams are equipped with the skills to design, develop, operate and govern AI‑enabled systems.
• Foster a culture of responsible experimentation, encouraging teams to leverage AI tools to improve productivity and quality while operating within defined risk and control boundaries.
• Ensure appropriate training, standards and supervision are in place for the use of AI‑assisted development tools and automation across global teams.
• Risk Management
• Responsible in managing the financial and reputational risk associated with running an automated/algorithmic electronic trading platform.
• Ensuring compliance with the stringent regulatory requirements around algorithmic trading platforms.
• The ability to identify, assess, monitor, control and mitigate risks to the firm.
• Also, an awareness and understanding of the main risks facing the firm and the role the individual plays in managing them.
• Identify risks with the existing technology platform and put in place a plan to remediate or mitigate these risks.
• The ability to interpret the firm’s financial information, identify key issues based on this information and put in place appropriate controls and measures.
• Ensure that all AI‑enabled capabilities are assessed, approved and operated in line with the Group’s model risk, technology risk and data governance frameworks.
• Identify and mitigate risks associated with AI adoption, including model risk, explainability, data leakage, bias, operational resilience and third‑party dependency.
• Maintain clear accountability and decision‑making for AI‑driven functionality within regulated electronic trading environments.
• Governance
• Attend Architecture councils (where relevant), ensuring compliance with Architecture Principles and adherence to the Architecture Roadmap.
• Embed the Group’s values and code of conduct in the Markets Technology domain to ensure that adherence with the highest standards of ethics and compliance with relevant policies, processes and regulations.
• Ensure compliance with the highest standards of regulatory and business conduct and compliance practices as defined by internal and external requirements. This includes compliance with local banking laws and anti‑money laundering regulations and guidelines.
• Manage the Markets Technology Domain’s schedule and scope dependencies agreed with the Product Owners in the Business Segment.
• Responsible for delivering ‘effective governance’; capability to challenge fellow executives effectively; and willingness to work with any local regulators in an open and cooperative manner.
• Represent Markets Technology at relevant Process Governance Committees.

Ideal Candidate Skills & Experience

• 15 plus Years Of Technology Banking Experience, Preferably in Markets.
• Expertise in latest Technology Stack and exposure to Fin Tech Operating Model.
• E‑Trading & Capital Markets Expertise – Deep understanding of derivatives trading platforms, pricing, execution workflows, and front‑office integration.
• Technology Strategy & Architecture Leadership – Ability to define multi‑year tech strategies, drive platform modernization, and shape scalable, resilient architecture.
• Risk, Governance & Regulatory Awareness – Solid understanding of controls, model risk, and regulatory requirements in electronic trading environments.
• Agile, DevOps & Engineering Excellence – Expertise in driving Agile transformation, DevOps maturity, and engineering best practices across global teams.
• AI & Automation Enablement – Proven experience driving adoption of AI/ML and automation across SDLC, developer productivity, and client‑facing platforms.
• Stakeholder & Front‑Office Partnership – Strong ability to collaborate with Sales, Trading, and Quant teams to translate business needs into technology solutions.

Education

• Relevant degree qualification required.

Role Specific Technical Competencies

• Business Strategy and Model
• IT Standards, Procedures & Policies
• Software Development
• Software Architecture
• Data Governance
• Emerging Technologies
• Cloud Pipelines and Environments

Benefits

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time‑off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive well‑being support through Unmind, a market‑leading digital well‑being platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first‑aiders and various self‑help toolkits.
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values‑driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies – everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.