Vice President, Equity Product Desk
Role Summary
Provide real-time execution support, risk oversight, and independent order validation across APAC execution workflows. Act as a dedicated secondary checker for orders, strengthening existing 4-eye controls through a formal Maker-Checker framework designed to reduce operational risk and ensure adherence to client instructions and market requirements.
Review order setup, routing instructions, algorithm selection, custom algo parameters, benchmark settings, and market-specific requirements to ensure orders are correctly configured prior to release. Work closely with Execution, Algo Development, Connectivity, Technology, Operations, Compliance, and local market counterparts to validate client requirements and resolve any operational or technical exceptions.
Serve as a central coordination point for client onboarding and market access, liaising with clients, internal onboarding teams, custodians, and local brokers to facilitate account openings, investor identification requirements, trading permissions, and market-specific documentation. Support proactive management of execution risk by monitoring market access, broker capacity, throughput constraints, and trading event preparedness across APAC markets.
Maintain oversight of live trading activity, communicate known issues and incidents, and help drive continuous improvement initiatives aimed at enhancing execution quality, operational resilience, and control effectiveness. Ensure all orders are routed and executed in accordance with client mandates, local exchange requirements, internal policies, and applicable regulatory obligations.
Key Responsibilities
- Perform independent validation of high-risk, complex, sensitive, and time-critical orders prior to market release, ensuring the accuracy of order details, algo selection, routing instructions, execution parameters, benchmark settings, and bespoke client instructions.
- Validate market-specific requirements and controls, including investor ID requirements, exchange restrictions, short-selling eligibility, foreign ownership limits, auction participation rules, regulatory obligations, and client-specific trading restrictions.
- Act as the primary liaison between clients, internal onboarding teams, local brokers, custodians, and execution teams to coordinate client onboarding, account openings, investor registrations, trading permissions, and other market-access requirements.
- Monitor live orders and execution workflows for exceptions, system alerts, routing issues, rejects, market access failures, and unintended trading behaviour, escalating and coordinating resolution where required.
- Coordinate with Desk Heads, execution teams, local brokers, and technology partners to monitor capacity, throughput, and market-access constraints, particularly around index rebalances, benchmark events, auctions, portfolio transitions, and periods of elevated trading activity.
- Support pre-trade readiness assessments and capacity planning exercises by gathering market intelligence, broker feedback, operational dependencies, and execution metrics to help identify and mitigate potential execution risks.
- Provide data collection, reporting, and operational coordination support for significant trading events, including portfolio transitions, index rebalances, benchmark trades, large program orders, and market-wide events.
- Act as the central communication and coordination point for known issues relating to execution, technology, market structure, connectivity, and broker services, ensuring stakeholders remain informed regarding active incidents, risks, workarounds, expected impacts, and resolution progress.
- Maintain comprehensive control logs, oversight records, audit trails, and supporting evidence for the Maker-Checker framework, ensuring adherence to governance standards and internal control requirements.
- Partner with Execution, Technology, Operations, Risk, Compliance, and COO teams to support incident reviews, root-cause analysis, corrective action tracking, and continuous improvement initiatives aimed at strengthening operational controls and execution processes.
- Contribute to the development and enhancement of operating procedures, onboarding standards, risk controls, and governance frameworks to support the continued growth and scalability of APAC execution services.
- Identify opportunities to improve workflow efficiency, automation, transparency, and control effectiveness through collaboration with business stakeholders, technology teams, and external service providers.
Key Qualifications
- Minimum 5+ years of experience in equities trading, execution services, sales trading support, market operations, electronic trading, prime brokerage, or a related front-office support function.
- Strong understanding of APAC equity market structure, exchange rules, trading workflows, order types, auctions, benchmark events, and market-specific regulatory requirements.
- Solid knowledge of electronic execution, algorithmic trading strategies, smart order routing, execution parameters, and broker connectivity frameworks.
- Experience supporting institutional equity trading workflows, including order management systems (OMS), execution management systems (EMS), and electronic trading platforms.
- Demonstrated experience operating within a controlled environment, including order oversight, operational risk management, trade controls, governance processes, and Maker-Checker frameworks.
- Ability to assess complex trading instructions and identify potential execution, operational, regulatory, or market access risks before order release.
- Experience managing incidents, exceptions, and escalations in a fast-paced trading environment, with the ability to remain composed under pressure and prioritize effectively.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to investigate issues, perform root-cause analysis, and drive process improvements.
- Proven ability to coordinate across multiple stakeholder groups, including clients, traders, brokers, operations, technology, compliance, risk, and onboarding teams.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to clearly communicate complex execution and market-related concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.