Head of Operations – NTAM Technology

Northern Trust • Chicago, IL

4d • $205,700 - $360,100 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Head of Operations Technology is a strategic technology executive responsible for defining and executing the technology vision, transformation strategy, and delivery roadmap supporting Northern Trust Asset Management's Operations, Administration, Client Reporting, Regulatory, and Client Servicing capabilities. This role operates at the intersection of business and technology, partnering with executive leadership to translate strategic priorities into scalable technology solutions, enterprise platforms, and measurable business outcomes. The position has accountability for technology strategy, portfolio execution, organizational leadership, modernization, AI adoption, operational resilience, and financial stewardship across a diverse global technology portfolio. As a senior technology leader, this role builds and develops high-performing organizations, fosters innovation, and creates trusted partnerships across business, operations, architecture, data, risk, and technology teams to accelerate growth, improve efficiency, enhance client experience, and maintain regulatory compliance.

Requirements

• 15+ years of leadership in enterprise-scale technology organizations within asset management, investment banking, or related financial services.
• 7+ years of people leadership, including global management of managers.
• Hands-on experience with the investment operations lifecycle: trade management, portfolio accounting, performance measurement, regulatory reporting, and client reporting.
• Experience with two or more of the following platforms: Eagle, BlackRock Aladdin, Sylvan, State Street FundConnect, Kurtosys, Snowflake.
• Proven track record of successfully leading digital strategy and transformation for a major organization.
• Experience building green-field applications on cloud (Azure preferably) from the ground up using open architecture (React, Java microservices, workflow engines).
• Experience engaging with senior executives, global regulators, audit, and risk committees.
• Deep knowledge of asset management across public and private markets.
• Strong command of financial services regulatory landscapes and technology frameworks.
• Experience scaling AI and advanced technologies within an investment business.
• Strong understanding of the value of data, bringing it to life, and leveraging modern tools, platforms, AI, and cloud to deliver the best experience.
• Exceptional ability to influence senior stakeholders and communicate at the executive level.
• Proven success leading in complex, highly matrixed global organizations.
• Strong people leader with a focus on talent development, culture, and organizational effectiveness.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience required.
• Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa).

Nice To Haves

• MBA or advanced degree preferred.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute multi-year technology strategies, investment priorities, funding decisions, and capability roadmaps aligned with business growth, operational excellence, regulatory requirements, and client outcomes.
• Lead the modernization and transformation of strategic business platforms supporting client onboarding, reporting, investment operations, regulatory reporting, revenue oversight, and managed account capabilities.
• Drive modernization, automation, cloud adoption, SaaS platforms, AI, and modern engineering practices to improve scalability, resiliency, productivity, and client service.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior business, operations, product, and technology leaders, influencing organizational strategy, technology direction, and measurable business outcomes.
• Lead global engineering, architecture, DevOps, quality, and software delivery teams.
• Build high-performing leadership teams through coaching, mentoring, succession planning, and talent development.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, collaboration, diversity, and continuous learning.
• Drive agile operating models that improve organizational effectiveness and business outcomes.
• Provide oversight for a complex portfolio of business-critical platforms, products, and transformation initiatives, ensuring governance, financial accountability, predictable delivery, and effective risk management.
• Drive predictable delivery of strategic initiatives while balancing business priorities, vulnerability management, technical debt reduction, and operational stability.
• Manage portfolio risk, dependencies, resource allocation, vendor relationships, and stakeholder expectations to deliver successful business outcomes.
• Champion AI, automation, analytics, and emerging technologies to improve productivity, decision-making, operational efficiency, client outcomes, and competitive differentiation.
• Establish reusable AI capabilities, governance frameworks, engineering standards, and scalable adoption models across business functions.
• Promote data as a strategic asset by advancing data quality, analytics, transparency, and self-service capabilities.
• Drive enterprise architecture alignment, build-versus-buy decisions, technology lifecycle management, platform simplification, vendor strategy, and reduction of technical debt.
• Advance DevOps, automation, quality engineering, secure development practices, and modern delivery methodologies to improve engineering productivity and platform reliability.
• Ensure compliance with audit, cybersecurity, risk, resiliency, governance, regulatory, architecture, and security standards across the technology portfolio.
• Drive operational excellence and business value through platform modernization, automation, process optimization, and data-driven performance management.
• Provide stewardship of technology investments, operating budgets, capital allocations, and outcome-based performance measures.
• Evaluate investment opportunities and prioritize initiatives based on business value, risk reduction, scalability, operational efficiency, and client impact.

Benefits

• retirement benefits (401k and pension)
• health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability)
• paid time off
• parental and caregiver leave
• life & accident insurance
• other voluntary and well-being benefits
• discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior