Managing Director, Business Excellence and Strategy

Your opportunity

MD, Business Excellence & Strategy_Schwab Asset Management

Reporting to the President & CEO of Schwab Asset Management, the Managing Director will lead efforts to define, manage and execute on our strategic vision and goals on behalf of our clients.  The MD and his her/team will support senior leaders and their teams in this critical effort while also ensuring the running of an efficient enterprise among the investment, product and sales teams in coordination with finance, technology, marketing, legal and compliance. This role will be a member of the senior leadership team for SAM and support the management of the SAM business in a focused lineup of ETFs, Mutual Funds and SMA strategies.  He/she and their teams will have responsibility for leadership.

The role will can be based in San Francisco, CA, Denver, CO or Dallas, TX

Key Outcomes:

• Define and communicate strategic objectives for each SAM business and their key partners and provide support for execution.
• Coordinate with internal partners in investment risk, policies and controls, legal and compliance ensuring we meet our obligations to the Board and Regulators.
• Develop and successfully implement innovative ideas for our products and strategies.
• Manage business activities ensuring projects and delivery stay on track and meeting our regulatory, compliance and risk obligations.
• Represent and support SAM senior leaders with key business partners, including investment risk, policies and controls, internal audit, legal and compliance as well as coordinating with other areas across Schwab.
• Work with senior leaders and business partners to synchronize work and team capacity planning and agree on goals, priorities and dependencies.
• Evaluate strategic opportunities for SAM vision and goals and propose sound and well-supported recommendations to senior leadership for decision-making purposes.
• Move strategic plans from initial vetting to implementation, advising the teams impacted by the inherent changes also required for its success including new client implementation; fund launches and key product initiatives among others.
• Coordinate with SAM Technology on the support and strategic vision for our systems and infrastructure across our business teams.
• Develop, execute and maintain detailed project plans which includes specific tasks, accountability and all sites involved on behalf of the investment, product and sales teams.
• Research issues and questions, gather and assimilate data, manage workflow and prepare recommendations and reports to the CEO.
• Connect and represent SAM with Managing Directors of the firm in other areas such as Digital Services, Schwab Bank, SPC, legal, compliance, finance, corporate strategy, etc.
• Collaborate with the CEO to explore new business opportunities and key areas for growth for the organization
• Implement ways to maintain workforce resilience and productivity, and preserve company culture, in a new hybrid and more adaptable working environment
• Foresee changes and opportunities within the areas of financial innovation, disruptive technology and an evolving regulatory environment and develop plans to proactively address them.

What you have

Required Experience:

• 10+ years of business and operational management leadership in an asset management environment of significant transformation and business complexity.
• Track record of leading a dynamic portfolio of strategic projects across disparate functions and enterprises.
• Strong planning, execution and problem-solving experience in complex multi-asset and multi-product asset management firms.
• Experience in managing critical processes on a day-to-day basis necessary to run the business from an investment, product and sales standpoint including understanding, addressing, escalating, resolving and reporting risk, compliance, regulatory, or operational issues affecting any part of the investment process across all sets of products.
• Solid understanding of the various business areas and their workflows and systems as well as hands on experience with risk, finance, operations, technology, compliance and legal teams.
• An undergraduate degree is required; advanced degree is preferred.

Preferred Experience:

• Ability to build strong relationships through collaboration across multiple levels of the organization motivating colleagues to get things done effectively; is sought out for counsel and feedback and contributes to cross-functional teams and initiatives.
• Purpose driven leader who displays confidence and courage in business and talent decisions, actions and communications with a demonstrated ability to take decisive action when needed including championing ideas, position or dissent.
• Ability to make significant progress with minimal direction and to make decisions, pivot, and structure pathways forward in the face of ambiguity
• Highly developed communication and presentation skills with the ability to communicate complex messages and trade-offs and tell a compelling story.
• Strong people leader who enables leaders and their high-performing teams
• Effective relationship builder – ability to partner cross-functionally, cross-enterprise and work effectively with various levels of the organization as well as various personality types
• Strong analytical and creative problem-solving skills
• Effective in managing business risk through assessing risk probability and impact, developing processes for risk mitigation and detection in rollout and test plans, and scenario planning.
• Strong preference for CFA.