Chief Governance Officer

About Northern Trust:

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.

Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world’s most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Role/ Department:

The Chief Governance Officer – NTGS SE is responsible for ensuring that NTGS SE operates within a robust, coherent governance framework, aligned with CSSF expectations, EBA Guidelines on Internal Governance, and Northern Trust enterprise standards.

Reporting to the CEO, the role acts as a central coordination point for governance, strategy enablement, regulatory engagement on governance matters, and cross entity change.

The role bridges board oversight, management execution and supervisory expectations, ensuring governance arrangements are effective, well documented, proportionate and sustainable as the business evolves.
 

The key responsibilities of the role include:

The successful candidate will benefit from having:

Governance Framework & Oversight

• Design, maintain and continuously enhance the NTGS SE governance framework, including: 
• Organisational structure and role clarity
• Committee architecture, mandates and escalation pathways
• Allocation of responsibilities and accountability mapping
• Ensure governance arrangements are clear, transparent, consistent and proportionate to NTGS SE’s risk profile, size and complexity.
• Maintain core governance documentation required under CSSF Circular 12/552 (as amended) and EBA internal governance standards.

Board & Management Body Support

• Support the CEO, the Management Body and its committees in their supervisory and oversight responsibilities by: 
• Coordinating board and committee charters, calendars and governance policies
• Ensuring decisions are properly documented, traceable and aligned with strategy and risk appetite
• Supporting periodic governance self assessments and effectiveness reviews
• Provide governance related briefing and materials for: 
• Board and committee meetings
• Strategic reviews
• Regulatory interactions

Regulatory & Supervisory Interface (Governance Topics)

• Act as the primary coordination point for CSSF interactions on governance related matters, including: 
• Governance sections of regulatory submissions
• Responses to supervisory requests or inspections
• Coordination of remediation actions arising from on site reviews
• Ensure consistent, timely and high quality responses to governance related regulatory feedback, working closely with Compliance, Risk and Legal.

Strategic & Cross Entity Coordination

• Support the CEO in pan entity and cross jurisdictional initiatives, including: 
• Legal entity change initiatives
• Governance aspects of business expansion, restructuring or outsourcing
• Enterprise or EMEA wide programmes impacting NTGS SE
• Act as a key liaison point with EMEA and global stakeholders on governance, strategy enablement and structural matters.

Committees, Policies & Culture

• Oversee or coordinate governance related policies, including: 
• Conflicts of interest
• Related party transactions
• Committee governance
• Governance aspects of ESG and sustainability oversight
• Support the reinforcement of risk culture, conduct and “tone from the top”, ensuring governance principles are embedded across the organisation.

Proportionality & Continuous Improvement

• Document and evidence the application of the proportionality principle across NTGS SE governance arrangements.
• Ensure governance evolves appropriately in response to: 
• Business growth and new activities
• Regulatory developments (e.g. CRD VI, DORA, ESG expectations)
• Organisational or structural change
• Lead periodic governance gap assessments and enhancement plans.

Interaction with Control Functions

• Work closely with Compliance, Risk Management and Internal Audit, while: 
• Preserving clear separation of responsibilities
• Avoiding overlaps or gaps in governance ownership
• Ensuring coherent interaction between first, second and third lines of defence

Scope & Authority

• Operates with sufficient authority, independence and access to be effective.
• Has direct access to the CEO and Management Body on governance matters.
• Acts as a coordinator, challenger and facilitator.

Skills/Qualifications

Strong knowledge and expertise of: 

• Luxembourg banking governance requirements
• CSSF Circular 12/552 and EBA internal governance guidelines
• Legal entity governance and board operations
• Proven experience in governance, regulatory, strategy, risk or administrative leadership roles within financial services.
• Ability to operate effectively in a matrixed, international environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including regulator facing materials.
• High degree of judgement, discretion and adaptability.

Preferred:

• Experience working with credit institutions or systemically important financial groups.
• Exposure to pan European or cross border governance structures.
• Advanced degree or relevant professional qualification.

Working with Us:

As a Northern Trust partner, greater achievements await. You will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture in an organization where financial strength and stability is an asset that emboldens us to explore new ideas.

Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to assisting the communities we serve! Join a workplace with a greater purpose.

We’d love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of the world’s most admired and sustainable companies! Build your career with us and apply today. #MadeForGreater

Reasonable accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [email protected].

We hope you’re excited about the role and the opportunity to work with us. We value an inclusive workplace and understand flexibility means different things to different people.

Apply today and talk to us about your flexible working requirements and together we can achieve greater.

About Our Luxembourg Office

In 2024, the Northern Trust Luxembourg office celebrated their 20th anniversary, an important chapter in their history. Having opened in 2004 to support one client, they have since grown their client base substantially and increased their headcount significantly, which now stands at over 400.

From modern fully equipped meeting rooms to a vast canteen with a view over a vegetable garden, maintained by our team all year round, and a rooftop where beehives have been installed, this space is truly a source of pride for our team. Learn more.