Managing Partner – Operations Advisory — Retail Bank

The mandate

A listed advisory platform has a successful operations practice known for diagnosis, benchmarking and target-state design. Clients now expect partners to remain accountable through implementation and realised benefit, particularly as retail banks face deteriorating asset quality.

The Managing Partner – Operations Advisory will influence client work associated with approximately US$77,500 million in loans and deposits and lead around 1,125 employees and material partners. The remit spans proposition, origination, engagement governance, delivery methods, partner economics, alliances, quality and talent. Accountability runs to the Global Managing Partner and regional partner council.

The practice proposition will be rebuilt around client events rather than generic efficiency. Asset-quality pressure affects underwriting, collections, hardship, complaints, provisioning interfaces and customer treatment. The Managing Partner will define where the firm has evidence and specialist depth to help, and where it should partner or decline work.

Outcome-linked transformation begins with a joint baseline. Client and advisory teams need agreed volumes, cost, customer, risk and cash measures, plus ownership of data gaps. A proposal should state which decisions belong to the client, what the engagement controls and which external assumptions may alter value. Ambiguity cannot be resolved later by marketing language.

Commercial models will match influence. Fixed, milestone and outcome-linked fees can all be appropriate, but each requires measurable acceptance, attribution and downside. The appointee will avoid incentives that encourage premature benefit claims, unsafe cost removal or selection of an easy measure over the client’s real problem.

Delivery governance must expose variance early. Senior partners remain responsible for scope choices, stakeholder alignment and quality while empowered teams run daily work. Independent challenge will test methods, control consequences and benefit evidence. Red status should trigger a decision, not a rehearsed explanation before a steering committee.

Scalable delivery intellectual property should accelerate judgement rather than replace it. Diagnostic data models, journey methods and implementation playbooks need version ownership, client-context limits and evidence from actual use. Reuse should reduce time and improve consistency; it must not produce identical answers to unlike institutions.

Asset-quality engagements require careful conduct. Collections or operating improvements must protect hardship, vulnerability, complaints and fair treatment. The practice will integrate risk and legal expertise from design, not add a review after workforce and technology choices are fixed.

Benefits will be followed beyond recommendation. Capacity, roles, contracts, systems and cash should reconcile to the approved case. The firm should know whether apparent savings came from sustainable redesign, delayed hiring or transferred work. Post-engagement reviews will inform partner performance and future pricing.

The practice organisation will develop implementers as well as advisers. Directors need authority with clients, partners must delegate deliberately and succession should reduce dependence on a few originators. Alliances and contractors require clear quality, knowledge and conflict standards.

Why this seat is open

This planned replacement provides an agreed four-to-six-month handover with the incumbent. The transition protects live client commitments while allowing the next leader to reshape investment and delivery responsibility before expansion resumes.

What you will own

• Reposition operations advisory around measurable client transformation outcomes.
• Influence work linked to a US$77,500 million retail-banking perimeter.
• Build asset-quality propositions across underwriting, servicing and collections.
• Design commercial models with fair attribution and controlled downside.
• Strengthen delivery governance, independent quality and benefit evidence.
• Lead approximately 1,125 employees and partners with deeper succession.
• Scale reusable methods without substituting templates for judgement.
• Give the investment committee credible expansion and capacity gates.

The first 12 months

The first 90 days should reconcile client pipeline, delivery portfolio, benefits and partner capacity. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to the practice shift, including client executives, former clients, risk leaders, partners, directors and alliance providers. Assess leadership and agree investment thresholds.

Months four to nine should launch outcome-linked offers, reset troubled engagements and codify proven implementation methods. Fill capability gaps and establish post-engagement value review. First value may be stronger conversion, improved collection, avoided delivery loss or a client benefit independently validated.

By year end, executive sponsorship, realised benefits and scalable delivery methods should show repeatable gains. The practice case must remain within 10% of approval and forecasts should reconcile pipeline, cash, clients and people for three quarters. Critical issues need independent closure evidence; severe escalation may not remain open beyond 30 days.

What the partner council will measure

• Contracted work tied to explicit operating and asset-quality outcomes.
• Benefits realised after client cost, customer and control consequences.
• Engagement contribution after write-offs, partner time and working capital.
• Reuse and effectiveness of implementation methods across distinct clients.
• Retention above nine in ten for pivotal advisers and ready cover for seven in ten direct roles.
• Repeat board sponsorship based on delivered outcomes, not diagnostic volume.

The person

You are a Managing Partner, Operations Practice Leader or Operating Partner with 28 or more years in banking advisory or adjacent regulated transformation. You have moved a practice beyond recommendations and can evidence client outcomes that survived after your team left.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or equivalent client-value portfolio has been at least US$44,950 million, and you have led 800 or more people. Evidence must show sustained results over two reporting periods.

You understand retail lending, asset quality, servicing, collections and conduct. You can originate at board level, govern difficult delivery and distinguish your contribution from client management or favourable market movement.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is US$600,000–850,000 plus annual incentive and long-term equity. The advisory role is onsite in New York, supports international relocation and permits a structured client and conflict transition up to six months.

Confidentiality

The firm, incumbent, clients and engagement evidence remain confidential. Identifying information follows reciprocal interest and conflict review under a mutual undertaking.