Executive Director, Credit Risk Management

What You'll Do:

This role will be primarily responsible for safeguarding OCC by ensuring that OCC only admits and transacts with clearing members and other counterparties that are financially and operationally sound and meet the expectations of OCC’s management, Board and supervisors.

Supervises a team of Managers and Associates responsible for identifying, measuring, monitoring, managing and reporting the various forms of credit risks introduced to OCC by counterparties. Ensure the department’s processes and controls are consistently followed and monitored for enhancement opportunities. Demonstrate understanding of OCC’s Framework for Risk Management and work with senior management in Financial Risk Management to ensure OCC is at the forefront of credit risk management capabilities. This person will continually assess current systems and capabilities supporting CRM processes and recommend to Management any enhancements necessary to be at the leading edge of credit risk management. This individual will lead or serve as the main stakeholder in projects related to those enhancements to ensure successful implementation and conclusion.

Awareness of overall financial industry trends, regulatory developments, OCC rules, and overall credit risk management best practices is necessary to lead OCC in the development of credit risk management frameworks, tools and solutions that both protect OCC from credit losses and provide the industry with greatest benefit. This role serves as a subject matter expert related to external inquiries of OCC from clearing members, banks and auditors (independent and regulatory). Ensure staff is communicating relevant credit risk information to various senior OCC staff, reviewing the sufficiency of controls, and ensuring coordination with other areas of the organization as necessary.

Lead and/or participate on internal Working Groups, interact with the Management Committee, the Risk Committee of the Board of Directors, Chief Risk Officer and regulators as needed. Works under a high demand for independent judgement.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each primary duty satisfactorily.

• Oversee, monitor and manage staffing engaged in evaluating the ongoing creditworthiness of counterparties and their compliance with OCC rules and other regulatory requirements, including analysis of financial statements to identify levels and trends in key metrics and ratios, awareness of material news and event disclosures, collaborative interaction with counterparties to identify root cause of issues or concerns, and escalation of counterparties requiring enhanced surveillance to department management.
• Oversee, monitor and manage staffing engaged in evaluating assessments of clearing members’ and other counterparties’ financial condition, risk management and operational policies, procedures, processes, staff, and systems to understand how the member is monitoring and mitigating its risk to OCC.
• Accountable for providing critical review and feedback on the output of CRM’s periodic exams of existing clearing members and other counterparties, escalating identified credit concerns to Management as needed.
• Provide expert credit input and effective challenge on all requests for new or expanded clearing member and other counterparty relationships, including recommendations for protective covenants, where necessary.
• Responsible for identifying and escalating to Management when clearing members or other counterparties may require enhanced credit surveillance and/or additional risk mitigation.
• Foster and maintain strategic relationships with senior staff of FRM, other departments and external stakeholders, demonstrating a high degree of executive presence.
• Oversee annual reviews of credit risk methodologies and practices, leading the evaluation of potential enhancements, identifying and escalating to Management any related budget needs.
• Establish both tactical and long-term goals for the CRM department in coordination with Management.
• Familiarity with financial mathematics including derivatives pricing models, statistics and probability theory, and other financial math concepts.
• Familiarity with econometrics and data analysis techniques including time series analysis, GARCH, fat-tailed distributions, and other related techniques.
• Identify and prioritize risk management needs and lead development of new credit risk management systems and overall capabilities.
• Work closely with senior leaders on projects and cross-department collaboration.
• Lead interactions with regulators, exchanges and other external parties on all formal exams of CRM or ongoing requests for information.
• Formulate risk management policies consistent with risk management best practices.
• Ensure departmental tasks are prioritized, assigned, and reviewed on a regular basis.
• Complete staff performance reviews and succession planning in accordance with OCC policies.
• Promote staff’s personal and career development, including the identification of training needs of staff and identification of internal mentors as needed.
• Participate in departmental and budget planning.
• Drive business results by continuously demonstrating a strong bias for action through ownership and accountability.
• Promote all culture, value, and competency initiatives, including a focus on achieving strong employee engagement results and leading efforts to address any significant gaps.
• Effectively challenge existing processes on an ongoing basis.
• Oversee remediation efforts related to regulatory or internal audit findings and observations. Ensure remediation addresses root cause, improves OCC’s residual risk and is completed in a timely manner.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Manage a team of credit risk professionals.

Qualifications:

The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the primary functions.

• [Required] Ability to critically assess counterparty credit analysis including a deep understanding of the CAMEL(S) rating methodology and other industry accepted credit rating methodologies.
• [Required] Ability to read and understand financial statements, brokerage statements, and accounting records.
• [Required] Extensive knowledge of SEC/CFTC regulatory rules and regulations related to credit risk management.
• [Required] Extensive knowledge of the financial services industry, including the financial, market, liquidity and operational risks of broker-dealers, futures commission merchants, commercial banks, pension funds, and financial market utilities.
• [Required] Strong understanding of securities markets, derivatives, and option trading strategies.
• [Preferred] Strong knowledge in asset classes like equities, interest rates, volatility, commodities, and foreign currencies.
• [Required] Familiarity with statistical concepts including VaR, Expected Shortfall, Student-T and Normal Distributions.
• [Required] Participate in OCC efforts for inclusion of new products in OCC’s clearing system, including model or methodology development, membership standards and regulatory approvals.
• [Required] Strong understanding of business collaboration with IT teams in requirements development and user-testing.
• [Required] Must be able to work in a team environment, be responsive to Executive Management.
• [Required] Must possess strong oral and written communication and presentation skills with both business and quantitative departments.
• [Required] Proven leadership and supervisory abilities.
• [Required] Demonstrated analytical and problem-solving skills and the ability to work in fast paced collaborative environment.
• [Required] Must be able to work under deadlines and manage multiple tasks.

Technical Skills & Background:

• [Required] Broad knowledge in mathematical finance, financial econometrics, derivative instruments, numerical methods, mathematical programming, risk management, with specialist expertise in several of these areas.
• [Required] Strong knowledge of spreadsheets, MS Excel preferred.

Certifications:

• [Preferred] CFA or FRM certification.

Education & Training:

• [Required] MBA or MS degree in Finance, Economics or equivalent discipline.
• [Required] Analytical and problem solving skills.
• [Required] Experience leading a team of experienced individuals and analysts.
• [Required] 15+ years of experience in Risk Management.
• [Required] Experience in financial services/ regulated capital markets infrastructure.
• [Preferred] Experience with an exchange, regulator or clearing house.
• [Preferred] Depth and breadth of experience in a highly regulated industry, like financial services, and an understanding of rules/regulations that govern them.

Who We Are:

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Founded in 1973, OCC is dedicated to promoting stability and market integrity by delivering clearing and settlement services for options, futures and securities lending transactions. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU), OCC operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. OCC has more than 100 clearing members and provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 19 exchanges and trading platforms. More information about OCC is available at www.theocc.com.

What We Offer:

A highly collaborative and supportive environment developed to encourage work-life balance and employee wellness. Some of these components include:

A hybrid work environment, up to 2 days per week of remote work.

Tuition Reimbursement to support your continued education.

Student Loan Repayment Assistance.

Technology Stipend allowing you to use the device of your choice to connect to our network while working remotely.

Generous PTO and Parental leave.

Competitive health benefits including medical, dental and vision.

Step 1:
When you find a position you're interested in, click the 'Apply' button. Please complete the application and attach your resume.

Step 2:
You will receive an email notification to confirm that we've received your application.

Step 3:
If you are called in for an interview, a representative from OCC will contact you to set up a date, time, and location.

For more information about OCC, please click here.

OCC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.