Job Description

Job Summary
As the Trade Operations Manager at Standard Chartered, you will hold overarching accountability for the Trade Operations department. Your primary responsibility is to ensure that all departmental procedures strictly conform to group-wide standards, while carefully managing any country-specific process variations with appropriate dispensations in place. You will be key in identifying and mitigating risks by ensuring effective reporting, tracking, and remediation mechanisms are consistently applied. This role is instrumental in supporting the smooth, compliant, and efficient execution of trade activities, contributing to the broader operational excellence and strategic objectives of the bank.
In this position, you will act as a steward of quality control and risk management, championing continuous improvement and operational best practices. Through close collaboration with regional and group stakeholders, your efforts will enhance customer experience and service delivery within our trade operations function. This role offers a unique opportunity to drive impactful initiatives that ensure robust operational standards while fostering innovation in accordance with evolving regulatory landscapes.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership and Process Optimization:

• Lead the continuous review and assessment of trade operation processes to elevate efficiency, accuracy, and compliance across all transactional activities.
• Champion the implementation of automation technologies and process innovations that streamline the workflow and reduce operational risks.
• Facilitate the roll-out of service excellence and efficiency enhancement programs, sharing best practices throughout the regional network to harmonise operational delivery.

Client Experience and Service Excellence:

• Ensure a consistent and seamless client experience across all countries within the network by standardising product offerings, processes, and systems, eliminating trade transactions conducted outside authorised platforms.
• Develop and oversee a centralised client communication channel, promoting proactive, transparent digital interaction, especially for priority clients, to enhance satisfaction and reduce queries.
• Conduct regular service reviews and client engagements, leveraging insights from transaction analyses and client feedback to inform improvements and drive business growth.

Risk Management and Compliance:

• Perform thorough pre- and post-transaction reviews with the aim of minimising disruptive flows and maximising clean transaction flows.
• Track and remediate operational risks diligently, ensuring all issues are reported timely and escalated appropriately.
• Collaborate closely with senior management to align activities and initiatives with the bank's broader trade operations strategy and regulatory requirements.
• Undertake additional tasks delegated by the Head of Trade and Senior Management within regional and group trade operations, driving continuous improvement and value creation.

Skills and Experience
This role demands a dynamic suite of skills and experience, including:

• A good knowledge of Trade products, such as Documentary Products, Guarantees, Letters of Credit and Open account Financing.
• A minimum 6 years trade experience
• Strong capability in managing conduct to uphold ethical standards and compliance requirements.
• Expertise in identifying, assessing, and mitigating operational and transactional risks specific to trade finance.
• Proven leadership abilities to inspire collaboration and galvanize teams around shared goals.
• A solution-oriented mindset with an aptitude for spotting business opportunities and resolving complex problems effectively.
• Resilience in adapting to changing market and regulatory environments while sustaining high performance.
• Exceptional communication skills that facilitate clarity and understanding across diverse stakeholder groups.
• Track record of delivering sustainable results that balance operational excellence with customer satisfaction.

Qualifications

• Educational qualifications are expected at a minimum of matriculation, with tertiary education being advantageous.
• Professional training, particularly trade finance certifications, will be considered a strong asset and support your capability in this role.
• Proficiency in English is required to engage effectively with diverse stakeholders and ensure precise communication within our global network.

About Standard Chartered
We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.
Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.
Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What we offer
In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.

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Skills Required