Director - Index Governance & Due Diligence
Director - Index Governance & Due Diligence
Location: London
Sector: Global Investment Banking / Capital Markets
Reporting to: Senior Markets / Corporate Functions Leadership
The Opportunity
A leading global investment platform is strengthening its Index Governance and Due Diligence capability as part of a major growth phase across systematic strategies, indices and quantitative investment solutions.
This is a high‑impact leadership role sitting at the intersection of Markets, Index Administration, Risk, Legal and Regulatory Oversight, with genuine influence over how systematic products are governed, scaled and defended under increasing supervisory scrutiny.
The successful hire will play a pivotal role in shaping and safeguarding the firm's responsibilities as an Index Administrator, while enabling continued expansion of index‑linked and QIS activity.
This role combines strategic judgement, governance authority and deep capital markets insight. It is not a technology build role and does not require hands‑on quant modelling.
Purpose of the Role
- To own and continuously enhance the governance, due diligence and control framework supporting systematic indices and benchmark activity.
- To act as a senior authority on index administration obligations, ensuring regulatory compliance, robustness and auditability.
- To partner closely with Markets and Product teams to ensure growth is scalable, defensible and well‑controlled.
- To represent the business confidently under regulatory, audit and senior management scrutiny.
Key Responsibilities
Index & Benchmark Governance
- Ownership of governance frameworks supporting the firm's role as an Index Administrator.
- Chairing or leading oversight forums covering methodology approval, conflicts management and change control.
- Ensuring alignment with UK and international benchmark regulation and industry principles.
Due Diligence & Risk Oversight
- Design and execution of due diligence processes for new and existing indices.
- Assessment of methodology robustness, control design, data integrity and operational resilience.
- Oversight of outsourcing and third‑party service providers supporting index activity.
Regulatory & Audit Engagement
- Acting as a senior point of contact for regulatory reviews, supervisory enquiries and internal/external audits.
- Providing clear, well‑evidenced responses and leading remediation where required.
- Horizon scanning for regulatory developments and driving proactive change programmes.
Stakeholder Leadership
- Close partnership with:
- Markets and QIS desks
- Index operations and technology teams
- Legal, Compliance and Risk functions
- Ability to challenge constructively while enabling commercial objectives.
- Influencing at senior leadership and committee level.
Required Experience
This role is deliberately experience‑led rather than qualification‑driven.
Essential
- Senior experience within one or more of:
- Index administration and governance
- Systematic strategies / QIS oversight
- Market structure or benchmark regulation
- Markets‑aligned risk, governance or due diligence roles
- Direct exposure to benchmark / index frameworks, not just theoretical knowledge.
- Proven ability to operate under regulatory scrutiny.
- Credibility with senior Markets stakeholders.
Highly Desirable
- Experience within a global investment bank, index provider, exchange, asset manager or benchmark administrator.
- Exposure to governance of systematic or quantitative strategies.
- Board, committee or senior governance forum participation.
What This Role Is Not
To ensure clarity:
- This is not a pure quant research role.
- This is not a technology engineering position.
- This is not a traditional Compliance or Internal Audit role.
The role is about judgement, accountability and leadership, supported by strong technical and market understanding.
Why This Opportunity Stands Out
- Genuine influence over a strategically important business line.
- High visibility with senior regional and global leadership.
- A mandate to build and evolve, not simply maintain BAU controls.
- Exposure to some of the most complex and high‑profile systematic products in the market.
Ideal Candidate Profile (Summary)
- Senior, credible, calm under scrutiny.
- Comfortable saying "yes, but safely" and "no, with authority".
- Trusted by Markets, respected by control functions, defensible to regulators.
- Governance‑led, but commercially aware.
FAQs
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