Head Trader

Lead Advisor; Detroit (MI); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Lead Advisor, a wealth management consulting and search firm, is seeking a Head Trader for a Michigan-based client to build and lead trading operations across multi-custodian platforms.

Reporting to the CIO, you will own trade execution, workflows, and governance, while shaping the platform for scalable, institutionally rigorous trading when volumes grow and complexity increases.

Qualifications

• Meaningful professional experience in an institutional buy-side trading environment.
• Hands-on experience executing trades and managing pre-trade and post-trade processes.
• Experience with block trading, trade allocation, and institutional trading workflows.

Responsibilities

• Own the full trade lifecycle across multiple custodians and trading desks.
• Lead or participate in design and improvement of trading workflows and technology.
• Develop and enforce trading policies, controls, and documentation.

Skills

Institutional buy-side trading

Trade execution

Pre-trade & post-trade

FIX connectivity

Algorithmic trading

Trading workflows

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Tools

OMS

EMS

PMS

FIX connectivity

Job description

Lead Advisor is a wealth management consulting and search firm. This role is for a client, an RIA, based in Michigan.

About CLIENT FIRM:

Our client is a rapidly growing registered investment adviser (RIA) managing approximately $1.1 billion in assets across a diverse client base, ranging from mass-affluent investors to ultra-high-net-worth families, multi-family offices, and sophisticated outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) relationships.

Our investment platform combines institutional investment management capabilities with the flexibility, entrepreneurial culture, and client focus of an independent advisory firm.

The firm currently operates across multiple custodial platforms, including Charles Schwab and Fidelity, with anticipated expansion to Goldman Sachs and Interactive Brokers. Our advisor network is expanding nationally, with significant concentrations in Michigan, Texas, and Connecticut.

With exceptional growth anticipated over the next 12 months, our client is seeking a Head Trader to build, refine, and lead our trading and trade operations capabilities through the next phase of the firm's evolution.

The Opportunity

This is a unique opportunity for an experienced institutional buy-side trader to play a foundational role in building a sophisticated, scalable trading platform within a rapidly growing investment management organization.

Reporting to and working closely with the Chief Investment Officer (CIO), the Head Trader will have primary accountability for the firm's trade execution, trading workflows, and associated trade operations.

Initially, the role will emphasize evaluating existing processes, identifying operational and execution inefficiencies, and implementing institutional best practices across a complex, multi-custodial environment.

As the firm grows, trading volume increases, and execution quality and market impact become more consequential, the role is expected to evolve toward greater direct trading responsibility, including the execution and management of larger and more complex orders.

This is a hands-on position for someone who wants to both design the trading infrastructure and operate it. The successful candidate must be equally comfortable evaluating trading technology, resolving a difficult custodian issue, and personally working a substantial institutional order.

Key Responsibilities

Trading & Execution Management

• Assume primary responsibility for the full trade lifecycle, including pre-trade checks and validation, order staging, routing, execution, allocation, confirmation, settlement coordination, and exception management.
• Execute and oversee trading across multiple custodians, trading desks, and, potentially, prime brokerage relationships.
• Manage block trading and account-level allocations, including orders transmitted through FIX connectivity and orders entered directly through custodial trading platforms.
• Apply sophisticated execution methodologies, including algorithmic trading, appropriate order types, and institutional execution best practices.
• Exercise judgment regarding when to work orders directly, use electronic execution algorithms, or engage custodian or broker-dealer trading desks.
• Develop and refine procedures for working large, sensitive, or less liquid orders while managing execution costs, liquidity, and market impact.
• Establish appropriate pre-trade and post-trade controls, escalation procedures, and execution-quality monitoring.
• Identify, investigate, and resolve trading exceptions, custodial discrepancies, failed trades, and other operational issues.
• Own the day-to-day reliability, accuracy, and effectiveness of the firm’s trading workflows.

Trading Infrastructure & Technology

• Conduct a comprehensive review of firm existing trading and trade operations infrastructure, workflows, controls, and technology.
• Identify opportunities to improve execution quality, scalability, automation, operational reliability, and efficiency.
• Evaluate existing and potential portfolio management systems (PMS), trading platforms, FIX connectivity, and related investment technology.
• Assess whether firm would benefit from a dedicated order management system (OMS), execution management system (EMS), or an integrated OMS/EMS solution.
• Evaluate the potential need for prime brokerage or other brokerage arrangements to support trade-away execution, clearing, settlement, and operational flexibility across custodians.
• Design practical, scalable workflows that accommodate continued AUM growth, increased trading complexity, and a geographically distributed advisor network.
• Lead or materially participate in the selection, implementation, integration, and optimization of trading technology.
• Develop institutional-quality trading policies, procedures, controls, and documentation appropriate for CLIENT FIRM’s business model and regulatory environment.

Custodian, Broker & Counterparty Management

• Serve as a primary trading and operational point of contact with custodians, executing brokers, trading desks, and other counterparties.
• Develop a detailed understanding of the capabilities, limitations, and operational nuances of each custodian and trading platform.
• Proactively challenge inconsistent or incomplete information from external providers, independently verify important representations, and pursue workable solutions to difficult operational problems.
• Escalate issues appropriately, identify alternative approaches, and advocate persistently for the firm and its clients.
• Help evaluate new custodial, brokerage, and execution relationships as the firm’s business expands.
• Build strong institutional relationships while maintaining independent judgment and a healthy skepticism of external assurances.

Investment Management & CIO Support

• Maintain and implement portfolio models under the direction of the CIO, who retains ultimate responsibility for investment strategy, portfolio construction, and model decisions.
• Support model implementation, trading associated with rebalancing activities, and the translation of portfolio decisions into executable orders.
• Bring broad financial product knowledge to special projects involving equities, fixed income, ETFs, mutual funds, liquid alternatives, commodities, futures, options, and other derivatives.
• Assist the CIO in evaluating investment implementation approaches, trading constraints, and operational considerations associated with new products and strategies.
• Support the CIO and advisors in preparing client investment proposals using established portfolio frameworks, templates, and analytical tools.
• Participate in cross-functional initiatives where trading knowledge, investment expertise, and operational problem-solving can improve client outcomes.

Qualifications & Experience

Required or Strongly Preferred

• Meaningful professional experience in an institutional buy-side trading environment, including an asset manager, hedge fund, institutional investment adviser, family office, OCIO platform, or sophisticated multi-custodial RIA.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience executing trades and managing the associated pre-trade and post-trade processes.
• Experience with block trading, trade allocation, order staging, and institutional trading workflows.
• Familiarity with FIX connectivity, electronic trading platforms, algorithmic execution, and broker or custodian trading desks.
• Understanding of the distinction between portfolio management, order management, execution management, and post-trade operational systems.
• Experience interacting with multiple custodians, executing brokers, or prime brokers, including resolving nonroutine operational issues.
• Strong understanding of execution quality, liquidity, market impact, order handling, and operational risk.
• Ability to independently evaluate trading technology and recommend practical infrastructure improvements.
• Broad familiarity with financial instruments and investment management practices.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills.

Particularly Valuable Experience

• Designing or upgrading institutional trading infrastructure.
• Implementing or integrating OMS, EMS, PMS, or FIX-based trading solutions.
• Managing trading across multiple separately managed accounts, custodians, and investment strategies.
• Working with high-net-worth, family office, or outsourced investment management platforms.
• Establishing prime brokerage or trade-away workflows.
• Supporting derivatives trading or complex investment products.
• Helping scale a trading function through substantial increases in assets, accounts, or trading volume.

We are open to candidates from traditional institutional buy-side environments who have not previously worked at an RIA. We place greater value on transferable institutional expertise, sound judgment, technical aptitude, and the ability to adapt to CLIENT FIRM’s operating environment than on prior experience with any particular advisory platform.

The firm believes that exceptional talent should participate meaningfully in the value it helps create.

In addition to competitive base compensation, the successful candidate will be eligible for a generous, performance-oriented incentive compensation package designed to align individual contributions with the firm’s long-term growth.

Depending on the candidate and the ultimate compensation structure, incentives may include:

• Individual performance-based compensation tied to trading execution, operational excellence, and infrastructure improvements.
• Incentives linked to the growth of assets under management or assets supported by the trading platform.
• Firm-level performance incentives and potentially equity or equity-linked participation.

The objective is to create a long-term partnership in which an exceptional trading professional can make a meaningful impact on CLIENT FIRM’s development and participate financially in its success.

Why CLIENT FIRM?

This position offers something uncommon in the investment management industry: the opportunity to combine the sophistication of institutional trading with the autonomy, visibility, and entrepreneurial upside of a rapidly growing independent investment management firm.

The right individual will have substantial influence over how trading capabilities are built, how they evolve, and how the firm scales to support a larger and more complex national platform.

For the right professional, this is an opportunity not merely to operate a trading desk, but to help build one, and to participate in the growth of the business it supports.

Illustrative first-year priorities

1. First 90 days: Map existing execution workflows, identify control gaps, assess custodial capabilities, and propose prioritized improvements.

2. Months 3-6: Evaluate OMS/EMS/PMS needs, FIX connectivity, trade-away arrangements, and execution policies. Begin implementing approved changes.

3. Months 6-12: Establish scalable trading workflows, measurable execution-quality reporting, and a repeatable operating structure capable of supporting increased AUM and trading volume.