Head of Clearing Technology

Marex Spectron; City Of London; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A global financial services platform is seeking a Head of Clearing Technology to oversee technology services for their Clearing business. The ideal candidate will have substantial experience in FCM and vendor management, with responsibilities including budget support, project oversight, and strategic direction. This role emphasizes the importance of communication skills and being resilient in a fast-paced environment, ensuring that technology services align with business priorities. This position is based in London.

Qualifications

• Requires excellent communication skills and ability to manage stakeholders.
• Prior experience in vendor management and delivering large projects is essential.
• Needs to be resilient in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Identify and support strategic technological direction.
• Support budgeting and forecasting activities.
• Build and communicate delivery roadmaps.
• Ensure technology footprint is understood during change.
• Innovate new solutions to stay ahead of the competition.
• Oversee projects to ensure timely and on-budget delivery.

Skills

Detailed knowledge of FCM and Clearing products

Knowledge of vendor systems (ION, Broadridge)

Vendor management experience

Product Development Experience in Agile

Stakeholder management and business analysis

Excellent communication skills

Delivery focused

Architecting secure, scalable infrastructure

Job description

Marex is a diversified global financial services platform, providing essential liquidity, market access and infrastructure services to clients in the energy, commodities and financial markets.

The Group provides comprehensive breadth and depth of coverage across four core services : Market Making, Clearing, Hedging and Investment Solutions and Agency and Execution. It has a leading franchise in many major metals, energy and agricultural products, executing around 50 million trades and clearing 205 million contracts in 2022. The Group provides access to the world’s major commodity markets, covering a broad range of clients that include some of the largest commodity producers, consumers and traders, banks, hedge funds and asset managers.

Marex was established in 2005 but through its subsidiaries can trace its roots in the commodity markets back almost 100 years. Headquartered in London with 36 offices worldwide, the Group has over 1,800 employees across Europe, Asia and America.

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The Technology Department delivers differentiation, scalability and security for the business. Reporting to the COO, Technology provides digital tools, software services and infrastructure globally to all business groups. Software development and support teams work in agile ‘streams’ aligned to specific business areas. Our other teams work enterprise-wide to provide critical services including our global service desk, network and system infrastructure, IT operations, security, enterprise architecture and design.

The Business Technology function ensures delivery of Technology services to each Marex business area. We partner with the business to optimise their technology stack, prioritise their strategic technology roadmap and drive their software delivery lifecycle. We define and agree change initiatives with the organisation’s business areas and then coordinate delivery against specific acceptance criteria. Each Business Technology team is aligned to one of Marex’s business divisions and works with a corresponding Development team and Application Support team. A global team of implementation resources coordinate and support the technology business streams with delivery.

Based in London, the Head of Clearing Technology will be responsible for the delivery of Technology services to the Marex Clearing Business. The Clearing business line within Marex is responsible for the FCM offering of Marex. Marex is a leading non-bank FCM, providing comprehensive clearing and execution services for commodities, financial futures and options. The FCM has secure access to the majority of major exchanges and OTC markets. In addition, Marex Clearing operates as a US Broker Dealer for the clearing of Equities and Equity options. From the above it is understood that this role has global remit and will include close interaction with both UK and US clearing teams.

This role will work closely with the business owner and senior stakeholders of the clearing business to define the requirements for technology delivery. The role's other key interfaces are the Clearing business-aligned development and support functions, which have dual reporting lines to this role and a functional head ( Head of Development). The functional head will ensure that standards and processes are common across all business-aligned teams, whilst this role will own the delivery of service.

This ownership and engagement with the management team of Marex Clearing will allow this role to prioritise and deliver in alignment with the defined business priorities. The size and makeup of the business stream's Technology team will be agreed between this role and the Business Owner for CTO approval to ensure a level of service that meets the expectations of an established business that is seeking to enhance their electronic engagement with clients. This will strengthen those relationships and increase Marex's stickiness as a trading partner.

Responsibilities

• Identify and support strategic technological direction for the Marex Clearing business unit.
• Support Budgeting and Forecasting activities both with the Business Owner and the Technology organisation.
• Build and communicate roadmaps that show the high-level delivery approach over coming periods.
• Right-size the Technology footprint in Clearing with the Business Owner for a cost-effective service. This includes resourcing levels across the aligned business stream business technology, development and support teams.
• Work closely with senior stakeholders in the business to prioritise delivery and service from Technology.
• Retain alignment to the core Technology Strategy and ensure the Marex Technology footprint is understood during change. Prioritise existing vendors and systems where appropriate.
• Innovate new solutions, ensuring the business is always one step ahead of the competition.
• Contribute to the technical direction of the department. Research new concepts and technologies. Evaluate third party products and tools that are (or may be) used by the team.
• Create initiatives and epics that capture business deliverables with an agreed set of Acceptance Criteria (the contract). Report on the priority / progress / effort / cost of these epics / projects.
• Oversee projects to ensure they are run efficiently and delivered on time and on budget. Work closely with Implementation Manager(s) if applicable.
• Prioritise and drive the business requirements. Give regular status updates.
• Ensure delivered infrastructure and systems are of production quality and adequately documented for handover to the business and / or support functions.
• Maintain familiarity with the risk, regulatory, audit and compliance requirements that apply to the business. Ensure that technology employed adheres to required standards.
• Ensure delivered systems are secure, reliable and scale to meet the demands of a rapidly growing business.
• Help define best software development practices and processes. Ensure they are adhered to.
• Encourage an inclusive culture – with an appreciation of complete life cycle and consult all areas that are impacted by change.

Competencies

• A collaborative team player, approachable, self-efficient and influences a positive work environment
• Demonstrates curiosity
• Resilient in a challenging, fast-paced environment
• Ability to take a high level of responsibility in a fast-paced and high-volume environment
• Excels at building relationships, networking and influencing others
• Strategic collaborator with insight and agility, able to anticipate future challenges, ensuring operational effectiveness

Skills and Experience

Essential

• Detailed knowledge of FCM and Clearing products gained within a Financial Institution.
• Knowledge of vendor systems used within the Clearing space, ION, Broadridge.
• Vendor management experience – including delivery of large, vendor-centric projects.
• Product Development Experience in an Agile environment.
• Stakeholder management and business analysis.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Delivery focussed, displaying entrepreneurial and leadership skills.
• Resilient in a fast-paced environment – able to take responsibility.
• Architecting secure, reliable and scalable infrastructure and software.

Desirable

• Extended knowledge across multiple asset classes – commodities advantageous.
• Trade Lifecycle knowledge. Pre-trade, Trade, settlement / clearing, Risk. Full front to back.
• Experience of Trading Technologies, Pricing, Risk and algo trading.
• Project planning and coordination.
• Microsoft Technologies, Cloud services, hosting and deployment.
• Experience working in a regulated environment and knowledge of the associated risk and compliance requirements.

If you’re forging a career in this area and are looking for your next step, get in touch!

Marex is fully committed to being an inclusive employer and providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for all. We will provide reasonable adjustments to remove any disadvantage to you being considered for this role. We value the differences that a diverse workforce brings to the company. We welcome applications from candidates returning to the workforce. Also, Marex is committed to avoiding circumstances in which the appearance or possibility of conflicts of interest may exist within the hiring process.

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