Operations – KYC Refresh Lead - Executive Director

About Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services.

As a market leader, the talent and passion of our people is critical to our success. Together, we share a common set of values rooted in integrity, excellence, and strong team ethics. We can provide a superior foundation for building a professional career - a place for people to learn, to achieve and grow. A philosophy that balances personal lifestyles, perspectives and needs is an important part of our culture.

Role Details

Client Onboarding & Regulatory Data Services (CORDS) is an Operations division responsible for delivering the firm’s regulatory client onboarding, refresh and screening obligations across the client lifecycle.

KYC Refresh supports critical regulatory requirements across local and global jurisdictions through a rigorous control framework designed to verify client identity, validate business activity and maintain high standards of risk management and data integrity.

Morgan Stanley is seeking a high-calibre, seasoned Executive Director to lead the Population & Schedule Management (PSM) and Event Driven Review (EDR) organisation across Mumbai and Bangalore. This is a significant operational leadership role with accountability for the strategy, performance, control environment and organisational capability of two critical components of the KYC Refresh lifecycle. The successful candidate will set a clear direction, lead through an experienced management team, exercise sound judgement on complex risk and delivery matters, and build a high-performing organisation capable of delivering sustained, controlled outcomes at scale.

In parallel, the role will serve as the Mumbai Executive Director Site Lead for Data & Document Refresh (DDR). The site leadership mandate is to provide visible senior leadership, strengthen connectivity across the Mumbai DDR community, sponsor talent and culture priorities, and ensure local matters are represented and escalated effectively. The role does not own the global DDR governance function.

Morgan Stanley is seeking an experienced and highly credible Executive Director to lead the KYC Refresh Governance function in Mumbai. This role has responsibility for driving disciplined first-line governance across one of the firm's most critical regulatory control programmes. The successful candidate will partner closely with senior stakeholders across Operations, Business Units, Financial Crime and regional leadership teams to strengthen execution transparency, manage regulatory delivery risk and shape the future governance model for KYC Refresh.

The leadership mandate

• Set the strategic direction and operating model for PSM and EDR across Mumbai and Bangalore, translating the wider KYC Refresh agenda into clear priorities, accountabilities and measurable outcomes.
• Lead, inspire and hold accountable a multi-location organisation through an effective leadership team, creating the conditions for consistently strong delivery, informed decision-making and disciplined execution.
• Own the performance and control environment for PSM and EDR, ensuring population management, scheduling and event-driven activity are delivered accurately, transparently and within applicable regulatory and operational requirements.
• Act as the senior decision-maker and escalation point for material operational, client, people and control matters, bringing clarity to ambiguity and ensuring risks are contained and resolved at the appropriate level.
• Shape the future capability of the functions by simplifying the operating model, strengthening management information, modernising controls and sponsoring automation and data-led transformation.
• Build deep leadership and subject-matter capability across both locations through succession planning, targeted development, mobility, cross-training and clear standards for performance and conduct.

What will you be doing?

• Provide executive oversight of the end-to-end construction and maintenance of KYC Refresh populations, including annual and monthly scoping, inclusion and exclusion decisions, case grouping, business unit and regional assignment, sales coverage, scheduling and tranche readiness.
• Provide executive oversight of EDR trigger validation and case initiation, ensuring events are assessed consistently, the appropriate scope and treatment are determined, and material risks or judgement-based decisions receive timely senior challenge.
• Establish a robust management system across both functions covering demand, capacity, throughput, quality, ageing, exceptions, incidents and control performance, with clear ownership and decisive intervention where outcomes are off track.
• Ensure the control framework remains effective and proportionate, including maker-checker controls, reconciliations, completeness reviews, evidence retention and transparent audit trails for population and trigger decisions.
• Provide senior judgement on complex or non-standard matters, including deferments, out-of-scope determinations, risk-ranking or review-date discrepancies, manual certifications, document invalidation and controls designed to prevent inappropriate straight-through processing.
• Drive operational resilience across Mumbai and Bangalore by ensuring critical processes have appropriate leadership coverage, capability depth, contingency arrangements and recovery plans.
• Sponsor the investigation and sustainable resolution of significant data, workflow or process breaks, ensuring root causes are understood, interim risks are controlled and corrective actions deliver lasting improvement.
• Influence senior partners across KYC Services, DDR Production, FCR, BCU, GFC/Advisory, CRDS, Technology and Change to resolve cross-functional issues and secure outcomes for PSM and EDR.
• Sponsor simplification, standardisation and automation across recurring manual activities, controls, reconciliations and reporting, using data and technology to improve scalability, efficiency and risk outcomes.
• Ensure approved policy, process and technology changes are translated into clear operational requirements, supported by effective readiness, training, implementation and adoption across both locations.
• Develop an inclusive, accountable and performance-led culture that attracts, retains and advances strong talent while maintaining high standards of integrity, conduct and client confidentiality.

Mumbai DDR Executive Director Site Lead

• Act as the visible senior leader for the Mumbai DDR community, creating strong connectivity across teams and reinforcing a shared culture of accountability, collaboration, inclusion and control excellence.
• Convene and connect Mumbai DDR leaders on location-wide priorities, emerging risks, resource dependencies, employee matters and operational issues requiring coordinated local action.
• Represent Mumbai DDR in relevant site and leadership forums, ensuring local opportunities, constraints and risks are articulated clearly and directed to the appropriate functional owners.
• Sponsor location-level talent, succession, mobility, engagement and development priorities, with particular focus on strengthening the senior leadership pipeline and building sustainable capability in Mumbai.
• Coordinate senior communication and escalation during material site events or operational disruption, while respecting the functional accountabilities of individual DDR teams and the separate ownership of global DDR governance.

What we’re looking for

• A seasoned operations leader with substantial senior leadership experience in KYC, AML, CDD, client onboarding, periodic refresh, population management, event-driven review or a comparably regulated environment.
• A strong record of leading sizeable, complex or multi-location organisations through experienced managers, with accountability for performance, controls, talent, organisational design and operational resilience.
• Demonstrated ability to set direction, convert strategy into executable priorities and create management disciplines that deliver sustained outcomes at scale.
• Exceptional risk judgement and personal credibility, with the confidence to challenge constructively, make difficult decisions and take ownership of material issues through resolution.
• Strong command of risk-based KYC refresh, including population scoping, review cycles, trigger assessment, exclusions, deferments, case initiation and audit-trail expectations.
• A track record of transforming operational processes through simplification, standardisation, data, automation and stronger management information.
• Significant experience influencing senior stakeholders across Operations, Compliance, Business Units, Technology and Change in a complex global organisation.
• Compelling executive presence and communication skills, with the ability to bring clarity to complex topics, align diverse stakeholders and lead confidently through periods of change or pressure.
• Proven commitment to building inclusive, high-performing teams and developing the next generation of leaders.
• High levels of resilience, integrity and accountability, combined with sound commercial awareness and an unwavering commitment to control excellence.

Skills that will help you in the role

• Advanced operational leadership capability across capacity planning, volume forecasting, service performance, quality, ageing, exceptions and operational risk.
• Strong analytical fluency, with the ability to interpret complex operational datasets, workflow outputs and management information and convert insight into executive action.
• Working knowledge of KYC workflow, population-management and client-data environments such as PIPE/PipeX, Population Manager, GDS, DQS and ECRR, or comparable platforms.
• Experience using or sponsoring solutions built with Excel, Power BI, Alteryx, Python or equivalent tools to strengthen controls, reporting and operational scalability.
• Ability to define meaningful KPIs and KRIs, establish clear risk appetite and intervention thresholds, and hold leadership teams accountable for corrective action.
• Strong change sponsorship capability, including operating-model design, operational readiness, user acceptance testing, procedure implementation and adoption across multiple teams or locations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to deliver concise executive briefings, articulate risk and represent the organisation in senior forums

Where will you be working?

The role will be based in Mumbai and will lead PSM and EDR teams across Mumbai and Bangalore. As Mumbai Executive Director Site Lead for DDR, the successful candidate will maintain a strong on-site presence, remain closely connected to Bangalore and global functional partners, and play a prominent role in the leadership of the Mumbai DDR community.

Flexible work statement

Interested in flexible working opportunities? Morgan Stanley empowers employees to have greater freedom of choice through flexible working arrangements. Speak to our recruitment team to find out more.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM MORGAN STANLEY:

At Morgan Stanley, we raise, manage and allocate capital for our clients – helping them reach their goals. We do it in a way that’s differentiated – and we’ve done that for 90 years.  Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren’t just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work-life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There’s also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

To learn more about our offices across the globe, please copy and paste https://www.morganstanley.com/about-us/global-offices​ into your browser.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a workforce that is diverse in experience and background.  Our recruiting efforts reflect our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion, where individuals are hired, developed, and advanced based on their skills and talents.

Our workforce reflects a broad cross-section of the global communities in which we operate, bringing a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives, and experiences.

For more information, please visit: https://www.morganstanley.com/people-opportunities/eeo.