Senior Product Manager - Digital Asset Custody

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.

Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure:
Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.

With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Role/ Department:

The Senior Vice President, Global Custody & Digital Asset Product Management is responsible for defining and executing the strategic roadmap for custody, digital assets, market infrastructure, and securities services solutions.

The role leads product strategy, innovation, regulatory readiness, and commercial positioning across traditional and emerging asset classes, ensuring the organisation remains competitive while delivering scalable, resilient, and client-focused services.

Working across Product, Operations, Technology, Risk, Legal, Compliance, and client-facing teams, the position drives capability development, market expansion, strategic partnerships, and transformation programmes that support growth, operational efficiency, and industry leadership

The key responsibilities of the role include:

Product Strategy & Leadership

• Define and maintain the strategic product roadmap for custody, settlement, safekeeping, fund services, and digital assets.
• Identify growth opportunities through market analysis, competitive benchmarking, client engagement, and industry trends.
• Develop business cases and investment plans to support future product capabilities.
• Work with the product lead to define product strategy for global custody, digital asset custody, asset safekeeping, settlement, and associated market infrastructure services.
• Evaluate industry changes including settlement modernisation, digital market infrastructure, tokenisation initiatives, and new market utilities.
• Support development of future-state operating models and service propositions.
• Drive innovation programmes across custody and post-trade services.

Digital Assets & Innovation

• With the product lead define the firm's digital asset custody strategy and product development activities.
• Assess emerging technologies, blockchain networks, tokenisation initiatives, and digital cash developments.
• Develop partnerships with digital asset technology providers and market infrastructures.
• Establish product roadmaps supporting tokenised securities, digital bonds, collateral mobility, digital cash, and future settlement models.

Regulatory & Governance

• Lead product responses to regulatory developments impacting custody and securities services.
• Ensure robust governance frameworks, operating models, controls, and risk management practices are maintained across products.
• Partner with Legal, Compliance and Risk teams to assess strategic implications of regulatory change.
• Support governance initiatives involving nominee structures, asset control frameworks and custody operating models.

Product Development & Delivery

• Translate strategic priorities into executable product initiatives and delivery programmes.
• Sponsor complex cross-functional programmes from concept through implementation.
• Define product requirements, commercial models, operating frameworks and client propositions.
• Monitor delivery against milestones, budgets and strategic objectives.

Client & Industry Engagement

• Engage directly with strategic clients, industry bodies, market infrastructures, regulators and strategic partners.
• Present product strategy and thought leadership to executive stakeholders and clients.
• Gather market intelligence to inform product priorities and investment decisions.
• Support sales, relationship management and business development efforts.

Skills/

Qualifications:

The successful candidate will benefit from having:

• Proven experience within custody, securities services, asset servicing, post-trade infrastructure or digital assets.
• Strong understanding of global markets, settlement, safekeeping, fund services and securities operations.
• Experience leading strategic product management and transformation programmes.
• Deep knowledge of emerging digital asset and tokenisation…