Head of Digital US

About Tonic

Tonic is an expertise-led Capital Markets Consultancy, unlike other consultancies…..in a good way.

Well actually, in lots of ways.

But mainly because we leverage genuine expertise across the front-to-back trade lifecycle to provide a superior service model for our clients.

Today Tonic deploys our expertise-led model to lead a growing book of work for our clients across high-growth domains including collateral, digital, securities finance, post-trade, risk, treasury, legal, sustainability and More.

Our transformation and cross-domain expertise, combined with our client-focus, means that we accelerate business objectives and financial benefits for our clients.

MORE Expertise. MORE Trust. MORE Achieved.

Role Purpose

At Tonic we’re growing quickly. Driven by our growing reputation as expertise-led leaders across Capital Markets, we continue to expand our global team.

This is where you come in, to join our Leadership Team as Head of Digital US, based in New York, Boston or New Jersey.

The Digital domain is focused on applications of the below to our core domains:

• Tokenised Real World Assets (Bonds, Equities etc.)
• Digital Cash (Stablecoins, CBDCs, tokenised deposits)
• Crypto (BTC, ETH, etc.)
• AI and Machine Learning

This role will lead the US side of our Digital domain, working closely with our Head of Digital UK at Tonic – activities include:

1. Leading US Digital business development
2. Building out Digital capabilities, with expertise-led service offerings that meet our clients’ evolving needs
3. Performing high-quality client delivery, as a Senior Advisor/SME
4. Leading and growing our US Digital team

You will also play an integral role in the definition of future company strategy and direction, ensuring that we build out our internal capabilities in line.

You will collaborate closely with the Tonic Co-Founders, Domain Heads (including Head of Digital UK), Head of Client Management and the rest of the Tonic team.

Responsibilities

• Lead our Digital Business Development in the US

The Head of Digital will have overall responsibility for growing our Digital practice across the US.

Sales Generation

• Ongoing relationship management with Tonic’s key stakeholders (existing clients & targets)
• Identification of Digital sponsors within our existing clients
• Leveraging of industry network for new sales opportunities
• Identification of new Tonic sales targets, across firms, divisions and individuals
• Cross-sell Tonic’s wider set of domain and service offerings

Sales Execution

• Lead Digital service proposals and bids for new work
• Manage the delivery of high-quality service proposals, including services, plans, teams and commercials
• Contribute towards Client Statements of Work, for contracted services

Build Partner Relationships

• Upfront and ongoing identification of key vendors and industry partners within the Digital domain
• Relationship generation and building with targeted vendors, to establish:
• Sales referrals
• Joint service offerings
• Joint marketing opportunities
• Other partnership opportunities

Marketing & Events

• Raising Tonic’s Digital footprint, via key marketing and events vehicles, such as:
• Representation at industry event panels
• Speaking on webinars and podcasts
• Thought leadership creation e.g. website blogs, podcasts, videos, etc
• Website content, leveraging service deck and thought leadership materials
• Ongoing LinkedIn content creation
• Build Out Our Digital Capabilities

Our Head of Digital US will help build a market-leading Digital service suite, led by market research, service definition and internal education.

Industry Research

• Ongoing market research across our Digital domain, to better understand our clients’ and the broader market’s service needs. Research outputs should include:
• Industry challenges (per sub-domain and organization type)
• Regs, market developments, technology, best practice, etc
• Tonic service opportunities and targets
• Tonic resource needs
• Industry outreach should include ongoing collaboration with:
• Tonic clients
• Other custodians/sell-side/buy-side firms
• Market vendors (technology/central infra & service providers/other)
• Industry bodies

Tonic Service Definition

• Bring new Tonic Digital services to the market, driven by client and market needs
• Focus on service offerings for:
• Digital
• X-domain Tonic service offerings
• A key output will be the Tonic service decks
• Problem statement, key impact areas, key challenges, Tonic services

Training & Development

The Head of Digital US will be part of ongoing internal Digital education, upskilling the of the wider Tonic team on the latest Digital Asset use cases, trends, vendors and regulations.

• Performing High-Quality Client Delivery

The Head of Digital US will perform an ongoing SME delivery role to make valuable contributions to client delivery success.

• Perform billable client delivery engagements, as Senior Tonic SME. Roles will likely include:
• Senior Advisor
• SME
• Lead Consultant
• Creation of high-quality deliverables within Tonic client engagements, including but not limited to:
• Advisory services
• Vision & strategy
• Industry benchmarking
• Industry surveys
• Training materials
• Client content materials e.g. sales & marketing, product guides, service onboarding guides
• Health Checks (accelerated current state analysis & recommendations)
• Vendor assessment advice
• Target operating model advice (process, tech, data, people, governance, etc)
• Perform quality assurance reviews of artefacts produced by other Tonic team members, to ensure Tonic’s high-quality delivery standards are met.
• Growing our Digital Team

The Head of Digital US will incrementally take on more Management responsibilities within the growing Digital practice, including team recruitment, management and development, to protect our expertise-led USP.

Recruitment

• Identify Tonic resource needs for US Digital service proposals and client opportunities
• Contribute to Tonic job specifications, alongside our Talent Lead
• Take an active role in recruiting new consultants via:
• Interviews
• Assessment design
• Assessment review and scoring

Team Management

Build a motivated and energetic US Digital team to perform high-quality delivery engagements, in line with client service needs, via:

• Management of growing US pool of Digital consultants
• Oversee the US Digital team performance, including appraisals, performance reviews and development

Additional Tasks

Any additional duties as they arise as part of company growth, to be agreed on an ad-hoc basis. 

Required Skills & Experience

Domain

• 20+ years’ dedicated experience within the Financial Services industry
• Digital industry practitioner, with 5+ years dedicated experience within the Digital domain
• Varied Trad-Fi and Digital experience, across multiple different firms and sectors, including sell-side, buy-side and custodians
• Extensive knowledge of Digital Asset applications across core industry domains (Collateral, Sec Finance, Custody, Clearing & Settlement etc.):
• Tokenised Real World Assets (Bonds, Equities, Funds etc.)
• Digital Cash (Stablecoins, CBDCs, Tokenised Deposits)
• Crypto (BTC, ETH, etc.)

Sales & Relationship Management

• Strong network across the Digital domain.
• Previous direct experience working in a sales and/or relationship management capacity

Transformation

• 10+ years dedicated experience within transformation roles, leading and supporting major change programs across business and technology
• Experience of rolling out best practice transformation frameworks across multiple organisations
• Successful leadership of high-profile, high-complexity transformation programmes within tight timeframes
• Proven business transformation specialist with previous experience across multiple change roles:
• Senior Advisor/SME
• Lead Consultant
• Business Analyst
• Project Manager

Content

• Capable of articulating business use cases and new regulations into easy-to-consume summaries and visual artefacts
• Comfortable producing high-quality content and artefacts across:
• Tonic services
• Thought leadership
• Training materials
• Client content materials e.g. sales & marketing, product guides, etc
• Project documentation i.e. executive decks, business cases, vendor recommendations, etc

Personal

• Confident and strong communicator, both verbal and written, with all levels of stakeholder (internal and client)
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
• Pro-active, forward-looking mentality, focused on upfront planning and regular re-baselining to ensure we hit our goals
• Highly organized individual, who continually reprioritizes key focus areas and deliverables
• Team leadership, management, and delegation skills
• Comfortable being accountable for key decisions and managing a growing team
• Experience building a highly motivated team, by giving them the frameworks to follow, combined with the autonomy to grow
• Experience establishing and improving team appraisal frameworks
• Quick-thinker able to quickly diagnose potential problems and define suitable mitigation techniques and solutions
• Strong attention to detail, in all aspects of a leadership role within a growing firm
• Strong Microsoft Office application skills (Excel, Word, PowerPoint and/or equivalent planning tools)
• The candidate will need to be highly proficient with PowerPoint, which is our go-to means of sharing information with clients

Desirable Skills & Experience

• Direct consultancy experience, ideally within a big 4 firm
• Business development / relationship management experience
• Experience working within a smaller, growing organisation
• Knowledge of AI and Machine Learning

Qualifications

• A first level university degree, 2:1 (or equivalent)
• Relevant financial and transformation qualifications