Chief Operating Officer

Skills

About the Role

Lead the bank's operational infrastructure, custody and settlement functions, fiduciary and trust administration, regulatory readiness, governance reporting, vendor management, and operational resilience for a proposed national trust bank.

Requirements

• 10+ years of progressive experience in banking, trust, custody, or payments operations at a federally regulated financial institution.
• Experience at a national bank, federally chartered trust company, or equivalent institution under OCC supervision.
• Deep knowledge of 12 CFR Part 9, OCC safety and soundness expectations, and fiduciary examination standards.
• Experience managing trust or custodial account administration, asset segregation, periodic review, and fiduciary recordkeeping.
• Experience building or managing high-volume, control-intensive regulated banking operations.
• Experience working with a bank Board of Directors and preparing board materials, KPIs, and governance reporting.
• Strong understanding of banking controls, internal audit, and OCC examination processes.
• Experience managing third-party and vendor relationships under OCC risk expectations.
• Ability to build, lead, and develop high-performing regulated banking teams.
• Exceptional communication skills with experience presenting to boards, regulators, and senior stakeholders.
• Willingness and ability to travel for regulatory meetings, partner engagements, and bank business.
• Preferred: de novo bank or trust company experience, digital asset or stablecoin operations, fiduciary credentials, payments, settlement, or institutional custody experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead custody operations, settlement flows, reconciliation, reserve operations, and account administration.
• Design and maintain operational playbooks, standard operating procedures, and business continuity frameworks.
• Build and manage operational infrastructure from pre-opening through steady-state operations.
• Oversee readiness for new products, asset types, partner integrations, and operational scope changes.
• Establish SLAs, exception-handling protocols, and operational uptime standards.
• Serve as a designated Fiduciary Officer supporting fiduciary and custodial account administration.
• Oversee fiduciary recordkeeping, account setup, asset segregation, ledger accuracy, periodic reviews, and required documentation.
• Ensure compliance with OCC fiduciary standards and enforce safeguards, controls, conflict-of-interest, and asset segregation policies.
• Prepare and present Board and committee reports on fiduciary activity, operations, vendors, incidents, and risk metrics.
• Maintain audit-ready documentation for OCC examinations, fiduciary audits, and supervisory reviews.
• Implement OCC-aligned internal control systems across operations, custody, reconciliation, and settlement.
• Manage banking partners, custodians, technology vendors, due diligence, and SLA monitoring.
• Own operational continuity, incident response, crisis management, triage, and remediation.
• Lead development of high-performing operational teams and support executive strategy and organizational development.

Benefits

• Healthcare insurance covering roughly 100% of employee premiums and a portion of spouse and children premiums in the U.S.
• Vision and dental insurance in the U.S.
• Chance to earn equity.
• Maternity and paternity leave after six months.
• WeWork All Access Membership.
• WFH yearly stipend.
• Learning and development yearly stipend after six months.