Job Description

Are you a confident leader with deep expertise in master trading agreements and a passion for operational excellence? We’re seeking a Markets Contracts (MC) Lead to oversee our [Region] operations, managing a high-performing team of contract negotiators while delivering strategic improvements across our global footprint.

This is a critical leadership role within a complex, fast-paced regulatory landscape. You’ll play a central role in ensuring our clients can trade safely and efficiently across derivatives, repos, and securities lending — all built on a strong legal foundation.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & People Management

• Lead and develop MC Segment Cluster Leads across [Region]
• Oversee team productivity, outsourcing agreements (SLA), and staff development
• Ensure adherence to governance, reporting, and regulatory responsibilities

Strategy & Transformation

• Implement the global Target Operating Model (TOM) for Contracts across your region
• Identify and drive process improvement, standardisation, and efficiencies
• Align offshore and onshore teams for seamless client delivery
• Lead the delivery of change, remediation, and innovation projects across FMC

Business Partnership

• Act as a trusted business partner and first escalation point for contracts-related issues
• Engage with regional and cross-regional stakeholders to align MC processes
• Resolve operational challenges across MC, Legal, and the wider business
• Ensure all key performance indicators (KPIs) are met and exceeded

Process Oversight & Risk Management

• Champion consistency across jurisdictions while adapting to local needs
• Embed robust internal controls and risk management into daily practices
• Support regulatory readiness and maintain compliance with global standards

Leadership & People Management

• Lead and develop MC Segment Cluster Leads across [Region]
• Oversee team productivity, outsourcing agreements (SLA), and staff development
• Ensure adherence to governance, reporting, and regulatory responsibilities

Strategy & Transformation

• Implement the global Target Operating Model (TOM) for Contracts across your region
• Identify and drive process improvement, standardisation, and efficiencies
• Align offshore and onshore teams for seamless client delivery
• Lead the delivery of change, remediation, and innovation projects across FMC

Business Partnership

• Act as a trusted business partner and first escalation point for contracts-related issues
• Engage with regional and cross-regional stakeholders to align MC processes
• Resolve operational challenges across MC, Legal, and the wider business
• Ensure all key performance indicators (KPIs) are met and exceeded

Process Oversight & Risk Management

• Champion consistency across jurisdictions while adapting to local needs
• Embed robust internal controls and risk management into daily practices
• Support regulatory readiness and maintain compliance with global standards

Skills and Qualifications

Skills

• Customer-focused and commercially aware
• Strong operational leadership and people development abilities
• Skilled in process improvement and risk management
• Excellent communicator with cross-cultural collaboration experience
• Able to manage complexity, ambiguity, and competing prioritie

Qualifications

• Vast experience in financial services or relevant legal/contract negotiation roles
• In-depth understanding of ISDA, GMRA, GMSLA, and UMR/IM documentation
• Proven experience negotiating complex master trading agreements
• Strong grasp of legal risk and minimum acceptance criteria
• Confident working with stakeholders across jurisdictions and time zones
• Fluent English (written and spoken); additional languages are a plus

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.