Chief Operating Officer (COO)

About the role

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) will sit on the Executive Committee and act as the co‑architect of Prescient Securities’ operating system, integrating front‑office, operations, technology, CRM and client experience. The role drives execution of strategy, scalability, control and superior client service.

Key responsibilities

• Lead cross‑asset, cross‑border operational interfaces with exchanges, custodians and infrastructure providers (JSE, A2X, ZARX, CTSE, Strate, prime brokers).
• Translate the 3–5‑year strategy into an operating model, systems roadmap and capability build.
• Oversee post‑trade, settlement, reconciliation and private client administration across equities, bonds, FX and derivatives, ensuring 95% intra‑day timeline compliance.
• Provide strategic oversight of technology platforms, ensuring production stability of trading, risk, settlement and client systems and responding to critical IT issues within five minutes.
• Own operational incident management, root‑cause remediation and compliance with venue rulebooks and regulatory requirements.
• Manage vendor relationships, cyber‑risk posture, SWIFT attestation, BCP/DR testing and third‑party risk registers.
• Ensure client‑asset segregation, custody integrity and delivery of a high‑quality client experience through CRM and service level agreements.

Required profile

• Minimum 10 years of senior operations or technology leadership experience in financial services.
• Proven ability to translate strategic objectives into operational and technology execution.
• Strong governance and risk‑management mindset with experience in regulatory environments (FSCA, COFI, JSE).

Required skills

• SWIFT messaging and attestation processes.
• Business continuity planning (BCP) and disaster recovery (DR) testing.
• Cybersecurity and information‑security governance.
• Vendor risk management and third‑party oversight.
• Post‑trade systems and settlement operations.