Who we are looking for
The Assistant Vice President, ETF Settlements is responsible for leading the day-to-day ETF settlement function and ensuring the timely, accurate, and controlled settlement of ETF creation and redemption activity.
The AVP will provide hands-on operational leadership across settlement processing, exception management, cash and securities movements, and failed-trade resolution. The role requires strong knowledge of ETF primary-market activity and U.S. securities settlement infrastructure, including NSCC, DTC, CNS and Authorized Participant (AP) workflows.
This individual will serve as a key escalation point for complex settlement issues and will partner closely with ETF Basket Operations, Fund Accounting, Custody, Corporate Actions, Claims, Client Service, Technology, APs, brokers and other internal and external stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities
ETF Settlement Management
•Lead daily settlement activities for ETF creation and redemption orders, including both in-kind and cash activity.
•Oversee the movement and settlement of securities and cash associated with ETF primary-market transactions.
•Monitor settlement activity throughout the day and ensure exceptions are identified, escalated and resolved promptly.
•Provide oversight of CNS and non-CNS settlement activity and other applicable DTC/NSCC workflows.
•Ensure settlement instructions are complete, accurate and released within applicable operational deadlines.
•Coordinate resolution of settlement differences with APs, brokers, custodians and internal operations teams.
•Maintain strong oversight of aged fails, pending transactions, unmatched activity and other settlement exceptions.
Exception & Risk Management
•Serve as an escalation point for complex or high-risk ETF settlement issues.
•Ensure aged breaks and failed settlements have clear ownership, documented follow-up and appropriate escalation.
•Investigate operational incidents and support root-cause analysis and corrective-action planning.
•Identify recurring errors, manual dependencies and control gaps and drive sustainable remediation.
•Maintain effective supervisory controls and evidence to support internal risk, compliance and audit requirements.
•Escalate material settlement risk, client impact and financial exposure to management promptly.
Team Leadership
•Manage and develop ETF Settlement staff, establishing clear responsibilities and accountability.
•Provide daily direction while developing employees' technical knowledge and independent problem-solving capabilities.
•Establish effective backup coverage and cross-training to reduce key-person dependencies.
•Review workload and staffing coverage to maintain appropriate support during high-volume periods and market events.
•Foster a strong culture of ownership, timely escalation, operational discipline and continuous improvement.
Client & Stakeholder Management
•Act as a senior operational contact for significant settlement issues and escalations.
•Partner with Client Service and ETF leadership to provide clear, timely and accurate updates on material issues.
•Build effective working relationships with APs, market makers, brokers and internal business partners.
•Participate in client and internal governance meetings as required.
•Ensure issues are communicated with appropriate context, ownership, impact assessment and remediation plans.
Required Qualifications
•Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
•Significant experience in securities operations, custody, asset servicing, ETF operations or a related financial-services environment.
•Strong understanding of securities settlement concepts and trade lifecycle management.
•Demonstrated experience managing operational exceptions, failed trades and counterparty escalations.
•Strong risk and control mindset with experience developing or maintaining operational procedures and supervisory controls.
•Proven leadership experience, including staff development, workload management and escalation management.
•Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
•Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively with senior management, clients and external counterparties.
Preferred Qualifications
•Direct ETF creation/redemption settlement experience.
•Working knowledge of NSCC, DTC and CNS processing.
•Familiarity with AP and market-maker operating models.
•Experience with ETF basket and PCF-related workflows.
•Knowledge of corporate-action impacts on ETF settlement, including dividends, splits, reverse splits and cash-in-lieu processing.
•Experience working with custody, fund accounting, corporate actions, claims and technology teams.
•Demonstrated success implementing automation, operational controls or workflow improvements in a high-volume environment.
Core Competencies
•ETF and securities settlement expertise
•Operational risk and control management
•Leadership and staff development
•Exception and aged-fail management
•Client and counterparty management
•Escalation and incident management
•Process improvement and automation
•Strong analytical judgment
•Clear executive communication
•Ability to operate effectively under tight market deadlines
About State Street
State Street is one of the largest custodian banks, asset managers and asset intelligence companies in the world. For more than two centuries, we've been helping our clients safeguard and steward the investments of millions of people. We provide investment servicing, data & analytics, investment research & trading and investment management to institutional clients.
Salary Range
$70,000 - $130,000 Annual. The range quoted above applies to the role in the primary location specified. If the candidate would ultimately work outside of the primary location above, the applicable range could differ.
Employees are eligible to participate in State Street's comprehensive benefits program, which includes: retirement savings plan (401K) with company match; insurance coverage including basic life, medical, dental, vision, long-term disability, and other optional additional coverages; paid-time off including vacation, sick leave, short term disability, and family care responsibilities; access to the Employee Assistance Program; incentive compensation including eligibility for annual performance-based awards (excluding certain sales roles subject to sales incentive plans); and eligibility for certain tax advantaged savings plans.
