Head of Custody Operations and North America Lead for Investor Services Operations

This Managing Director role, Global Head of Custody Operations and NAM Lead for Investor Services Operations, is a senior leadership position within the Investor Services Operations leadership team, reporting within Services Operations.

The role provides global strategic accountability for Citi's Custody Operations franchise and senior leadership accountability for North America (NAM) Investor Services Operations, including institutional governance, regulatory compliance, and market-leading asset safety across multi-trillion-dollar traditional and emerging asset portfolios.

The successful candidate will set the strategic vision and deliver the multi-year transformation roadmap across Citi's Custody franchise, spanning international branch operations and shared service hubs, while leading an international workforce of approximately 1,700 professionals across more than 60 countries. This includes oversight of the global operating model, direct custody market access, sub-custody networks, and core post-trade infrastructure

This executive will drive operational excellence, regulatory compliance, risk management, client experience, and strategic transformation through the modernization of core platforms, the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and intelligent automation, and the development of digital asset custody readiness.

The role requires close partnership with Technology, Product Management, Sales, Markets, Risk, Legal, Audit, and business leadership to ensure Citi maintains a best-in-class custody control environment and resilient investor services infrastructure while supporting commercial growth. The position demands significant experience leading large-scale global operations organizations within highly regulated environments and the ability to influence senior stakeholders across businesses, functions, geographies, regulators, and industry bodies.

Responsibilities

Strategic & Operational Leadership:

• Lead the Custody Operations organization, delivering operational excellence, regulatory compliance, and strong client outcomes.
• Provide senior leadership and oversight for NAM Investor Services Operations, ensuring resilient, timely, and effective execution across critical custody and investor servicing activities.
• Architect and execute the global Target Operating Model (TOM), strategically balancing scale across centralized multi-hub Centers of Excellence with direct custody market access across 60+ countries.
• Define and execute the strategic vision for Custody Operations and NAM Investor Services Operations, aligning operational priorities with Citi's business, risk, client, and regulatory objectives.
• Drive transformation initiatives that improve effectiveness, scalability, resilience, productivity, and service quality.
• Sponsor enterprise post-trade technology investments, steering legacy platform rationalization and the transition to cloud-native, API-first, and event-driven market connectivity.
• Partner across Operations, Technology, Product, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Audit, and business leadership to deliver strategic priorities and enterprise objectives. 

Custody Operations:

• Maintain end-to-end accountability for Custody operations, including settlement, asset servicing, income processing, and related operational activities across traditional and emerging asset classes.
• Ensure effective execution of custody controls across sub-custody networks, direct market access arrangements, and shared service hubs.
• Drive enhancements to processing effectiveness, data quality, platform modernization, and operational intelligence.
• Ensure custody operations remain responsive to changing regulatory requirements, market infrastructure developments, and emerging industry risks.
• Support new products, client implementations, strategic initiatives, and acquisitions through effective custody risk assessment and operational readiness.
• Partner with Product and Innovation teams to build future-ready operational infrastructure bridging traditional securities with digital and tokenized assets.

North America Investor Services Operations

• Provide leadership oversight of critical North America investor services and custody operations, ensuring settlement excellence, operational resilience, and effective risk management.
• Maintain strong operational governance and First Line of Defense accountability across NAM Investor Services Operations, including effective management of operational, asset protection, and resilience risks.
• Maintain readiness for regulatory supervision and engagement across relevant North American authorities.
• Drive the continued modernization of the NAM investor services environment, including automation and AI across exception management, reconciliations, and technology co-design.
• Partner closely with Custody Product, Sales, and Markets leadership to accelerate commercial growth and alignment with client priorities.
• Maintain a strong focus on execution and client outcomes, including service quality, settlement performance, exception management, operational resilience, and the management of material incidents.

Risk, Governance & Regulatory Management

• Maintain robust operational controls, procedures, and governance frameworks consistent with Citi policy, regulatory expectations, and enterprise risk standards, including the Manager's Control Assessment (MCA) framework.
• Enforce strict client asset segregation, cross-border custody tax governance, and global regulatory compliance.
• Maintain strong First Line ownership of operational and control risks across both Custody Operations and NAM Investor Services Operations.
• Represent the organization during regulatory examinations, audits, independent reviews, and risk assessments.
• Ensure timely remediation of audit findings, regulatory issues, and control weaknesses.
• Establish proactive risk mitigation, institutional business continuity (BCP), and cross-regional failover capabilities to ensure uninterrupted market access under severe market dislocation.
• Exercise sound judgment and reinforce a culture of accountability, compliance, and ethical decision-making.

Client Experience & Innovation

• Deliver a client-centric operating model that balances robust custody controls with efficient and predictable client experiences.
• Champion modernization of custody processing, asset servicing, exception management, and reconciliation workflows.
• Drive enterprise productivity through the deployment of Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning, GenAI, and predictive exception models) and intelligent automation to decouple volume growth from cost trajectory.
• Advance digital asset custody readiness, including tokenized securities, smart contract lifecycle models, and digital asset safekeeping and key management, alongside traditional custody architecture.
• Partner with Technology, Product, and Compliance teams to co-design and implement next-generation solutions supporting custody risk management, platform modernization, operational resilience, and improved client outcomes.

People Leadership & Talent Development:

• Lead, mentor, and inspire a diverse, high-performing global organization of approximately 1,700 professionals across Custody Operations and senior NAM Investor Services Operations leadership.
• Create a culture focused on accountability, inclusion, continuous improvement, employee engagement, and talent development.
• Establish strong executive succession pipelines and maintain accountability for organizational design, workforce strategy, budget management, and performance outcomes.
• Foster operational excellence and strong risk awareness across all levels of the organization.
• As a member of the Investor Services Operations leadership team, contribute to the strategic direction of the broader Services Operations organization.
• Build strong partnerships across internal stakeholders and external industry, regulatory, client, and technology partners.

Required Experience & Competencies:

• Extensive and progressive senior executive leadership in Securities Services, Custody, Investor Operations, or Post-Trade Market Infrastructure within a Tier-1 global financial institution.
• Proven track record directing large-scale, matrixed international operations across multiple regions and time zones.
• Demonstrated success architecting and delivering large-scale operational transformations, Target Operating Model (TOM) redesigns, and core technology modernizations.
• Deep expertise in global transaction lifecycles, sub-custody networks, asset servicing, custody tax frameworks, and international asset protection regulations.
• Strong First Line risk and controls experience, including familiarity with the supervisory expectations of relevant regulatory authorities.
• Proven track record leading large-scale transformation, automation, digitization, and operational excellence initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Track record of sponsoring Artificial Intelligence (GenAI/ML), predictive analytics, and cognitive workflow automation within institutional post-trade operations.
• Working knowledge of Digital Asset Custody, including tokenized securities, smart contract lifecycle models, and digital asset safekeeping/key management, alongside traditional custody architecture.
• Experience representing a major financial institution with custody industry bodies, market infrastructure providers, regulators, and institutional clients.
• Exceptional stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills with the ability to drive alignment across senior executive audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to lead effectively within highly regulated, global, and matrixed organizations

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in finance, Economics, Business Administration, Engineering, or related field required. 
• Advanced degree (Master's/MBA) or equivalent executive credentials preferred

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Job Family Group:

Operations - Management Operations

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Job Family:

Management Leadership

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Time Type:

Full time

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Primary Location:

New York New York United States

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Primary Location Full Time Salary Range:

$250,000.00 - $500,000.00

In addition to salary, Citi’s offerings may also include, for eligible employees, discretionary and formulaic incentive and retention awards. Citi offers competitive employee benefits, including: medical, dental & vision coverage; 401(k); life, accident, and disability insurance; and wellness programs. Citi also offers paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays. For additional information regarding Citi employee benefits, please visit citibenefits.com. Available offerings may vary by jurisdiction, job level, and date of hire.

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Most Relevant Skills

Please see the requirements listed above.

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Other Relevant Skills

For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.

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Anticipated Posting Close Date:

Nov 26, 2026

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Automated Processing and AI

We use automated processing, including artificial intelligence, for our legitimate business interests (or our reasonable and appropriate business purposes) to identify and align the candidate's skills and abilities with a specific job opening. Additionally, if you so choose, or consent, we can match your skills and abilities to other suitable roles at Citi.

Importantly, all our hiring processes and decisions, including determining your suitability for a role, are conducted, checked, and decided by individuals. Our automated processing and AI do not involve relying on automatic or autonomous decision-making. Please refer to any Jurisdictional Considerations, with specific provisions for your country (where relevant) for further details.

Illinois residents – AI Notice and Right

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