Head of Equities

The Cypress Group; New York (NY); On-site; USD 300,000 - 600,000; Full time

Job summary

The Cypress Group is hiring a Director-level Head of Equities, Exotics & Structured Products to lead a global team of 15-20 professionals driving pricing, issuance, trading, and risk management across structured notes and OTC derivatives.

This senior role emphasizes strategic leadership, electronic-trading modernization, and cross-functional collaboration with trading, structuring, sales, product, and technology. Some international travel is expected.

Qualifications

• Significant leadership experience within equities, equity derivatives, exotic products, or structured products.
• Deep knowledge of structured notes, OTC derivatives, pricing, issuance, trading, hedging, valuation, and risk.
• Experience leading the electronification or modernization of a structured-products or derivatives business.
• Deep understanding of electronic-trading architecture and workflows, including market connectivity, RFQ, order management, routing, automated market making, and algorithmic trading.
• Experience building or overseeing front-office pricing, trading, execution, or risk platforms.
• Strong understanding of real-time market data, pricing streams, position data, P&L, valuation, scenario analysis, and risk analytics.
• Experience with low-latency, low-touch, microservices, data-streaming, or distributed trading applications.
• Demonstrated success managing a global or geographically distributed team of comparable size and complexity.
• Experience partnering closely with traders, quantitative strategists, structurers, sales teams, and senior business leaders.
• Strong understanding of governance, controls, suitability, and regulatory considerations associated with complex investment products.
• Excellent judgment, executive communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Willingness to travel internationally on a limited basis.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a globally distributed team of approximately 15-20 professionals.
• Set the strategic direction for equities, equity derivatives, exotics, and structured-products capabilities.
• Drive the continued electronification and automation of the structured-products business.
• Oversee platforms supporting the pricing, issuance, trading, hedging, and risk management of structured notes, OTC derivatives, and other complex products.
• Develop and enhance electronic-trading capabilities, including direct market connectivity, request-for-quote workflows, order management, smart order routing, automated market making, and algorithmic execution.
• Partner with trading, structuring, sales, product, technology, operations, risk, and compliance teams to deliver scalable client solutions.
• Support the distribution of structured and complex products through retail, private banking, and wealth-management channels.
• Improve execution quality, pricing transparency, liquidity access, platform reliability, and operational efficiency.
• Lead the development of low-touch and algorithmic trading solutions capable of supporting increasing transaction volumes.
• Establish a cohesive global architecture across pricing, trading, issuance, execution, data, and risk platforms.
• Advance real-time data-streaming and analytics capabilities covering market data, reference data, pricing streams, trades, positions, P&L, valuations, and risk scenarios.
• Ensure platforms and trading workflows meet applicable suitability, product-governance, best-execution, security, regulatory, and control requirements.
• Evaluate trading venues, brokers, liquidity providers, market-data providers, and external technology partners.
• Provide senior leadership with clear reporting on platform performance, trading activity, business risk, and strategic priorities.
• Recruit, mentor, and retain high-performing professionals across multiple regions.

Skills

Leadership experience

Equities & derivatives knowledge

Electronic trading

Strategic direction

Regulatory governance

Education

Advanced degree in financial engineering/quantitative discipline

Job description

Head of Equities, Exotics & Structured Products - Director

The Opportunity

We are seeking a Director-level leader to serve as Head of Equities, Exotics & Structured Products. This individual will lead a global team of approximately 15-20 professionals responsible for the platforms and capabilities supporting structured products, complex equity derivatives, electronic trading, pricing, issuance, and execution.

The ideal candidate will combine deep capital-markets product knowledge with strong electronic-trading and technology leadership experience. This person should understand the complete structured-products lifecycle—from pricing and issuance through execution, risk management, and post-trade processing.

Experience supporting a direct-to-client retail, private banking, or wealth-management organization is strongly preferred. The role includes light international travel.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a globally distributed team of approximately 15-20 professionals.
• Set the strategic direction for equities, equity derivatives, exotics, and structured-products capabilities.
• Drive the continued electronification and automation of the structured-products business.
• Oversee platforms supporting the pricing, issuance, trading, hedging, and risk management of structured notes, OTC derivatives, and other complex products.
• Develop and enhance electronic-trading capabilities, including direct market connectivity, request-for-quote workflows, order management, smart order routing, automated market making, and algorithmic execution.
• Partner with trading, structuring, sales, product, technology, operations, risk, and compliance teams to deliver scalable client solutions.
• Support the distribution of structured and complex products through retail, private banking, and wealth-management channels.
• Improve execution quality, pricing transparency, liquidity access, platform reliability, and operational efficiency.
• Lead the development of low-touch and algorithmic trading solutions capable of supporting increasing transaction volumes.
• Establish a cohesive global architecture across pricing, trading, issuance, execution, data, and risk platforms.
• Advance real-time data-streaming and analytics capabilities covering market data, reference data, pricing streams, trades, positions, P&L, valuations, and risk scenarios.
• Ensure that platforms and trading workflows meet applicable suitability, product‑governance, best‑execution, security, regulatory, and control requirements.
• Evaluate trading venues, brokers, liquidity providers, market-data providers, and external technology partners.
• Provide senior leadership with clear reporting on platform performance, trading activity, business risk, and strategic priorities.
• Recruit, mentor, and retain high-performing professionals across multiple regions.

Required Experience

• Significant leadership experience within equities, equity derivatives, exotic products, or structured products.
• Strong knowledge of structured notes, OTC derivatives, complex products, pricing, issuance, trading, hedging, valuation, and risk.
• Experience leading the electronification or modernization of a structured-products or derivatives business.
• Deep understanding of electronic-trading architecture and workflows, including market connectivity, RFQ, order management, routing, automated market making, and algorithmic trading.
• Experience building or overseeing front-office pricing, trading, execution, or risk platforms.
• Strong understanding of real-time market data, pricing streams, position data, P&L, valuation, scenario analysis, and risk analytics.
• Experience with low-latency, low-touch, microservices, data-streaming, or distributed trading applications.
• Demonstrated success managing a global or geographically distributed team of comparable size and complexity.
• Experience partnering closely with traders, quantitative strategists, structurers, sales teams, and senior business leaders.
• Strong understanding of the governance, controls, suitability, and regulatory considerations associated with complex investment products.
• Excellent judgment, executive communication, and stakeholder‑management skills.
• Willingness to travel internationally on a limited basis.

Preferred Background

• Experience within a private bank, wealth manager, retail brokerage, direct‑investing platform, or other client-focused financial institution.
• Experience delivering structured products directly to retail, high-net-worth, or private banking clients.
• Background spanning both front-office business requirements and trading technology.
• Experience designing or scaling global platforms for structured-product pricing, issuance, trading, and distribution.
• Familiarity with both principal and agency execution models.
• Advanced degree in financial engineering, operations research, computer science, mathematics, engineering, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Relevant industry licenses or registrations.

Leadership Profile

The successful candidate will be a hands‑on, commercially minded leader who can connect product strategy, trading workflows, quantitative pricing, execution, and technology.

This individual should be equally comfortable discussing structured-product strategy with senior executives, pricing and risk with traders and quantitative teams, and platform architecture with engineering leaders. The role requires someone who can establish a long‑term global vision while remaining close enough to the business and technology to ensure strong execution.