Senior Principal, Trade & Settlements

Role Summary

The Senior Principal - Trade & Settlements is the senior architecture leader accountable for defining and governing the technology architecture for Settlements Modernization. The role will establish the target-state architecture, transition roadmap and architectural guardrails required to move from a distributed settlement landscape toward an integrated, scalable global settlement ecosystem.

As the modernization matures, the remit will expand from settlement architecture to end-to-end Trade & Settlements architecture, providing architectural direction across trade capture, routing and orchestration, core processing/books and records, market and settlement access, data, reporting, controls, and downstream integrations.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the target-state architecture for Settlements Modernization, including current-state assessment, transition states, capability decomposition, application dispositioning and convergence roadmap.
• Provide end-to-end architecture leadership for the strategic settlement platform and its ecosystem, with TCS BaNCS GSP as the future settlement platform and controlled coexistence with legacy capabilities during phased market migration.
• Translate business, operational, regulatory, resilience and client requirements into architecture principles, reusable patterns, integration contracts and non-functional requirements.
• Define clear domain boundaries and architecture across trade capture, sanctions and sufficiency checks, FX initiation, settlement processing, market/depository connectivity, reconciliation, exception management and reporting.
• Drive simplification and rationalization of the Trade & Settlements application landscape, supported by evidence-based capability mapping, interface analysis and disposition decisions.
• Establish architecture governance for solution designs, APIs/events, data models, security, resilience, observability, cloud adoption and technical debt; ensure design decisions are documented and traceable.
• Partner with product, engineering, operations, risk, information security, infrastructure, data and enterprise architecture teams to ensure modernization decisions work across technology and the operating model.
• Own architectural readiness for market and regulatory change, including evolving settlement cycles and depository/market infrastructure transformations.
• Guide engineering teams through modernization execution. Resolve cross-domain architectural issues, identify dependencies early and provide pragmatic decisions that balance strategic direction with delivery risk.
• Develop architecture talent and a strong community of practice across Trade & Settlements, raising standards for design quality, documentation and technical decision-making.
• Evolve into the principal architecture authority for overall Trade & Settlements, ensuring coherent architecture and investment choices across the complete trade lifecycle.

Expected Outcomes

• A documented and governed target architecture for Settlements Modernization with clear transition states and migration guardrails.
• Reduced architectural fragmentation through reusable integration, data and platform patterns and explicit application dispositioning.
• Improved resilience, control transparency, scalability and data availability across settlement processing.
• A coherent multi-year Trade & Settlements technology roadmap aligned to business capabilities and market change.
• Faster, higher-quality architecture decisions with clear ownership, design traceability and measurable reduction of avoidable technical complexity.

Qualifications / Experience

• 18+ years of Extensive experience in enterprise, solution or domain architecture for complex, regulated financial-services platforms, with substantial hands-on technology leadership experience.
• Deep knowledge of securities post-trade processing and settlement, including settlement lifecycle concepts, exceptions, reconciliations, market/depository connectivity and global custody operating models.
• Demonstrated experience leading legacy modernization and platform transformation involving phased migration, coexistence and application rationalization.
• Strong architecture capability across distributed systems, APIs and event-driven integration, data architecture, cloud/platform engineering, security, resilience, observability and non-functional design.
• Ability to connect architecture choices to business outcomes, operational risk, client impact and delivery economics; comfortable communicating with engineering teams through executive leadership.
• Proven ability to influence across organizational boundaries without relying solely on direct authority, and to make decisions in complex environments with competing priorities.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Domain / Technology Experience

• Experience with global custody, asset servicing, broker/dealer, market infrastructure or other high-volume post-trade environments.
• Exposure to TCS BaNCS or comparable enterprise securities-processing platforms is advantageous.
• Understanding of settlement market infrastructures and standards such as DTCC, CREST and ISO 20022 is desirable.
• Experience defining architecture roadmaps across large application estates and governing modernization from current state through target state.

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic architecture leadership with strong engineering depth.
• Enterprise thinking and ability to optimize across domains rather than within a single application.
• Decisive, evidence-based judgment with a strong risk and control mindset.
• Clear executive communication and ability to simplify complex architecture choices.
• Strong partnership orientation, technical mentorship and accountability for outcomes.

Salary Range

$164,600 - 288,000 USD

Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.

Work Authorization

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa).

Working with Us

As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.

Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust's history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.