Head of Wealth Management Automation Strategy & Execution

Location: Chicago, IL

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.

Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.

With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Position Summary

The Head of WM Automation Strategy & Execution leads a business-aligned team responsible for improving how Wealth Management work is performed through process redesign and leveraging automation, agents, and disciplined execution. The role serves as the Wealth Management ACE Team Lead, translating business priorities and operational pain points into scalable, well-controlled solutions that simplify workflows, reduce manual effort, enhance management information, improve consistency, and create measurable capacity and business value.

This leader owns the team operating model, talent, portfolio processes, and delivery discipline. The role aligns Wealth Management priorities with enterprise AI, automation, technology, data, risk, and governance frameworks while ensuring that agents and automations are designed, approved, implemented, supported, measured, and retired responsibly across their full lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Operating Model

Lead, develop, and manage the Wealth Management Automation Strategy & Execution team, including the business-embedded ACE Team responsibilities, with clear roles, decision rights, performance expectations, and development plans.

Develop deep understanding of Wealth Management client servicing, banking, trust, investment, and operational workflows to identify opportunities that improve productivity, partner experience, scalability, and client outcomes.

Establish and continuously improve the team operating model, capacity plan, delivery standards, governance routines, and engagement model with Wealth Management practices, COO, Data, and Technology partners.

Build a culture of business ownership, disciplined problem solving, experimentation, accountability, reuse, documentation, risk management, and continuous improvement.

Recruit, coach, and retain professionals with complementary capabilities across process improvement, automation, agent development, product ownership, business analysis, change, and program execution.

Serve as the senior escalation point for portfolio, delivery, risk, adoption, support, and resource issues.

Productivity, Automation & Portfolio Leadership

Lead the Wealth Management productivity, automation, and agent strategy, identifying and prioritizing opportunities to simplify processes, improve client and partner experiences, reduce risk, and create measurable business value.

Lead the Wealth Management ACE Team and serve as the primary liaison to enterprise, Byron, Power Platform, Copilot Studio, and related enablement teams, ensuring responsible and scalable adoption of automation, analytics, and agent-based solutions.

Partner with business leaders to assess operational challenges, perform root-cause analysis, redesign workflows, and implement sustainable solutions that leverage automation, agents, and process improvement methodologies.

Drive standardization, reuse, and adoption of enterprise-approved capabilities while tracking business outcomes, including productivity gains, cycle-time reduction, quality improvements, risk reduction, workflow consistency, and organizational capacity creation.

Promote project discipline across the portfolio, including charters, business cases, plans, dependencies, budgets, risks, issues, decisions, and executive reporting.

Partner with change and communications teams to build readiness, training, adoption, feedback, and reinforcement into delivery plans.

Partner with business and technical support teams to ensure seamless support for partners.

Enterprise Alignment, Governance & Risk Management

Own the end-to-end portfolio management process, including intake, triage, prioritization, roadmap development, backlog management, resource planning, and investment decisions for process improvement, automation and agent opportunities.

Provide transparent portfolio leadership through executive reporting, value realization measurement, risk escalation, stakeholder alignment, and prioritization decisions that balance strategic value, business impact, cost, capacity, readiness, and risk.

Lead the governance, risk, and operating framework for Wealth Management productivity, automation, and agent initiatives, ensuring alignment with enterprise strategy, architecture, security, data governance, lifecycle controls, and regulatory requirements.

Serve as the primary liaison across Technology, Data, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Information Security, Privacy, and enterprise governance teams to manage approvals, dependencies, controls, audit readiness, and issue resolution.

Stakeholder Partnership & Business Consulting

• Serve as a trusted advisor to Wealth Management leaders on productivity, process design, automation, AI, and execution choices.
• Translate business needs into clear requirements and connect technical possibilities to practical Wealth Management outcomes.
• Build strong partnerships across front office, middle office, operations, technology, data, risk, compliance, and enterprise functions.
• Champion solutions that improve both partner experience and client outcomes without weakening controls or creating unsustainable operating models.

Required Skills & Competencies

• Proven ability to build, lead, and develop high-performing teams.
• Strong Wealth Management or financial-services business acumen, with the ability to understand client, partner, operational, regulatory, and control needs.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and drive outcomes through informal authority in highly matrixed organizations.
• Working knowledge of artificial intelligence, agents, low-code automation, workflow tools, data integration, and responsible AI practices.
• Demonstrated process-improvement expertise, including structured problem solving, root-cause analysis, workflow redesign, standardization, and benefit measurement.
• Strong portfolio, program, and project management capability, including intake, prioritization, resource planning, governance, dependency management, and execution.
• Sound risk judgment and experience operating in a regulated environment with technology, data, privacy, security, compliance, and operational-risk requirements.
• Ability to connect strategy to execution, manage ambiguity, and make balanced decisions across value, feasibility, risk, cost, and speed.
• Exceptional executive communication, facilitation, influence, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to translate between business and technical teams and to challenge proposed solutions constructively.
• Analytical mindset with focus on measurable outcomes, adoption, value realization, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required; advanced degree or relevant professional certification preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in financial services, Wealth Management, operations, business transformation, process improvement, automation, AI, technology enablement, or program leadership.
• Demonstrated experience leading people and complex cross-functional portfolios or programs in a large, regulated organization.
• Experience delivering automation, AI, digital workflow, or low-code solutions from intake through production and ongoing support.
• Experience partnering with Technology, Data, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Information Security, Privacy, and enterprise governance teams.

Salary Range

$137,400 - 240,400 USD

Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.

Work Authorization

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa).

Working with Us

As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.

Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.

Reasonable Accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [email protected], or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.