Head of Trading Services

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Our purpose is to make it easy for people to save and invest for a better future. We are looking for great people to join us, so please come and invest in YOUR future  know that sometimes people can be put off applying for a job if they don't tick every box. If you're excited about working for us and have most of the skills or experience we're looking for, please go ahead and apply.

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About the Role
This is a senior leadership opportunity to shape the trading capability at the heart of HL's Brokerage business. As Head of Trading Services, you will lead the Dealing Desk, and own the service model, controls and performance across the full trading lifecycle. Your focus will be on ensuring clients receive fair, reliable and efficient access to financial markets across equities, ETFs, funds and other investment products.
Reporting to the Brokerage Director, you will own the day-to-day performance, control and continuous improvement of Trading Services. You will work closely with Product, Technology, Operations, Risk, Compliance, Partnerships and external execution partners to strengthen client outcomes, operational resilience and the overall trading proposition.
What you'll be doing
Set the Trading Services strategy and operating model, aligned to Brokerage growth, client needs, market developments, commercial priorities and the end-to-end service from order capture to fulfilment.
Lead the Dealing Desk, ensuring client orders are captured clearly, routed appropriately and fulfilled through fair, timely and accurate execution.
Maintain effective supervision, escalation and quality assurance across complex orders, large trades, periods of market volatility, trading issues and client-impacting events.
Develop high-quality services for complex and higher-value client needs, including worked orders, liquidity sourcing, price optimisation and dealer-assisted trading support.
Monitor execution quality, fill rates, order completion, pricing outcomes, order-routing performance, service standards and client-impacting issues.
Oversee best execution, Consumer Duty outcomes, trading controls and conduct, working closely with Operations, Risk, Compliance and relevant Best Execution forums.
Oversee broker, market maker and execution counter party performance, ensuring service levels, market access and liquidity arrangements support strong client outcomes.
Ensure Trading Services operates within defined control frameworks, risk appetite and operational resilience expectations, with effective incident response, root-cause analysis and remediation.
Provide business leadership and subject matter expertise for trading improvements, regulatory change, market access enhancements and order journey improvements.
Lead, develop and inspire a high-performing team of approximately 15 colleagues, creating a culture of client focus, operational excellence, commercial accountability, strong risk awareness and collaboration.
About you
Essential experience and capabilities
Senior leadership experience within retail brokerage, an investment platform, dealing, trading services or financial markets, with accountability for trading execution, dealing operations or client-facing trading services.
Deep understanding of retail brokerage execution models, market structure, order capture, routing, execution and the operational demands of high-volume trading environments.
Strong knowledge of equities, ETFs, funds and trade execution workflows, including electronic and dealer-assisted execution, worked orders, fulfilment and exception management.
Experience leading dealing, trading operations or execution support teams, with strong supervision, control, escalation, incident management and service performance disciplines.
Strong understanding of best execution, Consumer Duty, market conduct, operational resilience and execution-related risk and control frameworks.
Experience managing brokers, market makers, liquidity providers or execution counter parties, with a focus on service performance, execution quality and client outcomes.
Ability to use trading, execution and operational management information to assess service quality, strengthen controls and support commercial and client outcome decisions.
Strong commercial awareness, leadership, stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders, external partners and cross-functional teams.
Desirable experience
Experience delivering trading enhancements, regulatory change or operational improvements across Product, Technology, Operations, Risk and Compliance.
Experience shaping order capture requirements and validating order fulfilment processes.
A track record of building an inclusive, high-performing and client-focused trading function.
Interview process
This will be a 3-stage process consisting of a screening call with the hiring manager, a competency-based interview and a presentation-based interview.
Working Schedule
This role is…