Team Leader – Fixed Income Reference Data

Job Title: Team Leader - Fixed Income Reference Data

Location: Vellore, TamilNadu

Experience: 6+ years (including 1-2 years of direct people leadership)

Function: Reference Data Operations - Fixed Income

About the Role

We are looking for a motivated and hands-on Team Leader to lead our Fixed Income Reference Data team in Vellore. In this role, you will be responsible for the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of fixed income reference data.

Beyond day-to-day data stewardship, you will drive process efficiencies, champion the use of automation and Generative AI tools, and contribute to exciting transformation projects. This is an opportunity for a leader who combines strong domain knowledge with a problem-solving mind set and a passion for building high-performing teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of reference data analysts, setting clear goals and conducting regular performance reviews.
• Allocate work effectively, manage capacity, and ensure coverage across global time zones.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive team culture built on accountability and continuous learning.
• Identify training needs and build team capability in data tools, domain knowledge, and automation.
• Oversee the setup, maintenance, and validation of fixed income security master data across government bonds, corporate bonds, municipals, agencies, securitized products, and money market instruments.
• Monitor data quality through KPIs, SLAs, and exception reports, and ensure timely resolution of data breaks.
• Act as an escalation point for complex data queries from internal stakeholders.
• Identify manual, repetitive processes and drive efficiency through automation, SQL-based controls, and Gen AI solutions.
• Lead or contribute to strategic projects such as system migrations, vendor on boarding, data quality frameworks, and new product setup.
• Build and maintain dashboards that give stakeholders clear visibility into data quality, volumes, and team performance.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement and document process changes and best practices.
• Partner with global teams across front office, operations, risk, technology, and compliance to understand and meet data requirements.
• Communicate clearly with senior stakeholders on performance, risks, issues, and project updates.
• Ensure adherence to data governance policies, controls, and audit requirements.
• Maintain and update SOPs, workflows, and documentation.
• Coordinate shifts and staffing based on workload.

Required Skills and Experience

• 6+ years of experience in financial services, with strong exposure to reference data, security master, or data operations, preferably in fixed income.
• 1-2 years of direct leadership experience managing a team.
• Solid understanding of fixed income instruments, their characteristics, and lifecycle events.
• Strong proficiency in SQL for data analysis, validation, and reconciliation.
• Hands-on experience with data visualization tools such as Power BI, Tableau, or Qlik.
• Practical experience using Generative AI tools to improve productivity and processes.
• Proven track record of delivering process improvements and efficiency gains.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage stakeholders across regions.
• A strong problem-solving mind set with attention to detail and the ability to perform root-cause analysis.
• A genuine team player who collaborates well across functions and geographies.

Good to Have

• Working knowledge of Python for automation, data processing, or scripting.
• Familiarity with market data vendor platforms.
• Exposure to data governance frameworks or data quality tools.
• Experience with Agile or project management methodologies.