Custodian Relationship Manager

The Custodian Relationship Manager serves as Vestmark 's primary liaison between our internal teams and our external partners across Custodians, Asset Managers and Technology Vendors. This role is responsible for maintaining and growing strategic relationships with major custodians through structured relationship building, proactive roadmap alignment, and technical integration oversight.

A critical and distinctive part of this role is building and owning the custodian playbook — a comprehensive, per-custodian operational guide that standardizes how Vestmark onboards new clients, configures integrations, and supports day-to-day operations across each custodial relationship.

Equally important is serving as the Vestmark champion for making it easier for advisors to do business with Vestmark , by ensuring that custodian infrastructure and Vestmark 's platform capabilities are seamlessly connected.

This is a highly cross-functional role that sits at the intersection of relationship management, technical program delivery, and operational coordination. The ideal candidate brings equal parts relationship acumen and technical fluency, and thrives in an environment that requires both strategic thinking and hands-on execution.

Key Responsibilities

Relationship Governance & Structured Engagement

Own and drive regular, structured relationship meetings with each major custodian and sponsor partner, tailored to the appropriate cadence per partner (e.g., monthly, quarterly, biannual)

Serve as the primary point of contact and face of Vestmark in all custodian-facing engagements

Build and maintain trusted relationships with key stakeholders across relationship management, trading technology, operations, and product teams at each custodian

Custodian Playbook Development & Ownership

Build and maintain a comprehensive, per-custodian playbook that serves as Vestmark 's authoritative operational guide for each major custodian relationship

Document custodian-specific requirements for trading connectivity and RIA account onboarding.

Define and publish standard implementation timelines by custodian and complexity level (e.g., standard equity, fixed income, multi-custodian) to set accurate expectations during the sales and onboarding process

Capture custodian-specific nuances — including lot selection methods, COAC authority settings, dividend payment configurations, proxy voting setup, and prime brokerage enrollment steps — so that Vestmark has a single source of truth across the organization when onboarding new clients

Partner with Advisory Solutions, Client Delivery, Operations and Production Support to validate and continuously improve playbook content based on lessons learned from live implementations

Ensure playbooks are versioned, maintained in a centralized and accessible repository, and shared cross-functionally as a standard onboarding resource

Advisor Experience: Marrying Custodian Setup with the Vestmark Platform

Act as the internal bridge between custodian-driven configuration and the Vestmark Advisor platform (VAS/Advisor Suite), ensuring that the advisor-facing experience reflects a clean, seamless connection to the underlying custodial infrastructure

Partner with Client Delivery and the Advisor Product teams to ensure that custodian integration details — trade routes, rep codes, account feeds, data adapters — are configured in a way that makes the Advisor Portal and Advisor Dashboard intuitive and immediately useful for advisors from day one

Collaborate with Advisory Consultants to develop advisor-ready quick start guides and custodian-specific onboarding kits that translate the technical complexity of custodian setup into clear, actionable guidance for advisors

Drive initiatives that reduce advisor friction at go-live — including IP whitelisting, user provisioning, account feed validation, and access to the Service Request Portal — so advisors can focus on managing client portfolios rather than navigating operational hurdles

Identify and escalate gaps where custodian setup requirements are creating downstream advisor experience issues (e.g., delayed account activation, reconciliation breaks, trading errors), and work cross-functionally to resolve them

Contact & Knowledge Management

Own and maintain a centralized master directory of key contacts at each custodian and sponsor, covering relationship managers, trading technology leads, operational contacts, and support teams

Ensure the contact directory is current, accurate, and accessible to relevant internal stakeholders across Vestmark

Client Onboarding Velocity & Go-to-Market Coordination

Partner with custodians to align on the pace and sequencing of new client onboarding onto custodial platforms

Coordinate go-to-market rollouts for new Vestmark clients being brought onto a custodian's infrastructure

Collaborate with internal teams to ensure smooth onboarding workflows, leveraging the custodian playbook to drive consistency and reduce one-off escalations

Escalation Management & Issue Resolution

Act as the primary escalation path between Vestmark and custodians when issues arise (e.g., file delivery delays, trading errors, adapter failures, FIX session disruptions, reconciliation breaks)

Coordinate cross-functionally to triage, investigate, and resolve issues with urgency and clear communication

Ensure timely follow-through and documentation of root cause and resolution

Partnership Performance Reporting & Continuous Improvement

Regularly measure and report on the status, activity, and outcomes of all partner relationships (custodians, asset managers, consultants, and technology vendors) to Vestmark leadership

Determine the efficacy of each partnership plan and make informed recommendations on prioritization, resource allocation, and whether additional stakeholders should be engaged

Proactively identify areas of weakness in partner-facing processes and recommend enhancements to improve the partner experience and Vestmark 's operational performance

Roadmap & Partnership Alignment

Engage custodians in forward-looking roadmap discussions, including new product rollouts, infrastructure modernization, API capabilities, and partnership opportunities

Document and maintain a running roadmap tracker for all custodian-driven milestones and Vestmark commitments

Identify and communicate strategic implications of custodian changes to internal leadership and relevant teams

Qualifications

Required

At least 5–7 years of industry experience in relationship management, partner management, or client-facing roles within financial services, fintech, or wealth management technology

Strong understanding of custodial operations, including trading workflows, file-based integrations (SFTP, FIX), custodial data adapters, and account data management

Demonstrated experience building operational playbooks or standardized processes in a financial services or fintech environment

Proven ability to translate complex custodian requirements into clear operational guidance for internal teams and end-user advisors

Demonstrated experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder, multi-party relationships at both a strategic and operational level — including custodians, asset managers, consultants, and/or technology vendors