How to get an operations job in banking and finance

27 August 2026

9 minute read

How to get an operations job in banking and finance

Operations deals with the core “plumbing” systems upon which financial services relies.
Operations jobs are dedicated to ensuring the efficiency and the accuracy of each element of a transaction.

Operations jobs have traditionally been seen as less prestigious than the “front-office” client-facing jobs like M&A or sales and trading. However, this is an increasingly outdated way of thinking about how banks work.

Rodney Sunada-Wong, a former chief risk officer at Morgan Stanley’s broker dealer business, says banks are like a human organism. In Sunada-Wong’s schema, senior management, risk and finance are the brain. Salespeople, traders, and investment bankers are the muscles. Technology is the skeleton and bones. Treasury is the lungs. And the operations division is the heart and circulatory system.

“All the parts have to work together,” says Sunada-Wong. “The better and more efficient your operations, the more profitable, and efficient your bank will be.” Banks recognize this, and getting operations right is increasingly important for profitability.

The nature of your job in operations will depend upon the area of the banking business that you support. For example, if you work in securities operations and support the trading floor your role will involve the settlement, clearance, and reconciliation (checking that buyers’ and sellers’ documentation match up) processes associated with all the traded instruments (e.g., equities or bonds). But, if you work in loan operations, you’ll be involved with all the administrative processes associated with the lending business from the time loan proceeds are dispersed to the borrower until the loan is repaid.

Similarly, investment banking operations jobs help with the running of the M&A and capital markets functions. Retail banking operations jobs are concerned with transactions involving individuals and are usually carried out at bank branches. Operations jobs can also be known as “back-office jobs.” In other words, you won’t be dealing with clients directly.

Operations jobs can be harder to get than you'd imagine. Data from Trackr last year, which tracked students attempting to enter the financial services industry, found that the average student applicant to a middle- or back-office (which includes operations) internship had a success rate of 1.4%, which was tougher than sales & trading (1.5%) or quant finance (1.8%)

If you want to work in operations, you have a number of options available to you.

Operations jobs in securities businesses

If you work in an operations job in a securities business, you’ll be supporting the trading floor. You might be working on:

Clearing: Updating accounts of trading counterparties, matching “buys” and “sells”, and arranging for settlement (ie. payment).

Settlement: Exchanging money and securities between the seller and the buyer on the trade settlement date.

Trade confirmations: Documenting the specific commercial terms of a transaction to which the parties agreed, including pricing.

Reconciliation: Ensuring that the “buys” match the “sells”, resolving errors, or checking the validity of transactions. Operations jobs in banks are about monitoring existing processes and procedures. They’re also about creating improvements and increasing efficiency. In the U.S., most are sponsored by their companies to sit for the Series 7 and Series 63 securities exams.

For a long time, securities operations jobs were the most numerous in investment banks. There were far more people processing transactions on the trading floor than working in sales and trading. These days, much of what happens in the operations division is now controlled by technology, but human beings are still needed to help with exceptions when processes don’t run smoothly. Those humans might not be in London or New York. Securities operations jobs are typically located away from large, expensive financial cities, in places where premises and people are usually less costly like Poland or India.

If you have a job in commodities operations, you’ll carry out many of the same processes as in securities operations – but you’ll also have to deal with the idiosyncrasies of the commodities markets. People with jobs in physical commodities operations need an understanding of what’s involved in buying or selling an actual barrel of oil, for example.

Loan operations jobs

Loan operations jobs ensure the accurate and timely operations of a bank’s loan process. This includes booking loans on the loan system, maintaining loan documents, verifying and auditing key data elements (including financial, tax, and business information, assembling and maintaining credit files on borrowers) managing loan collateral, exception resolution, and performing regulatory reporting. The loan operations function also performs loan research to resolve problems associated with borrowers or transactions, and processes loan payoffs.

Loan operations managers design and administer procedures and systems. They also ensure that each stage of the loan process is carried out in accordance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations, particularly in consumer loans where errors can be very costly.

Investment banking operations jobs

Investment banking operations jobs are about helping the front-office complete M&A and underwriting transactions. If you work in investment banking operations, you might be involved in the due diligence surrounding a deal or working on the graphics of a pitchbook.

In capital markets operations, your job will involve supporting the debt capital markets and equity capital markets units as they underwrite the launch of new securities. You’ll assist in data analysis, data presentation, documentation and due diligence and will ensure that the transaction proceeds smoothly. In many ways, your job will be similar to that of securities operations professionals – you’ll be expected to work on client onboarding, trade capture, settlement and clearance, and general client support.

Skills you’ll need for operations jobs in banks

Operations professionals need strong product and industry knowledge to facilitate transactions and address any processing problems.

They also need to be strong communicators, and capable of dealing with everyone from traders to auditors to investment bankers and need to describe complex processes in simple terms. They also deal extensively with other control functions, including compliance, credit, risk, and technology.

Technical skills are also a critical part of the operations skillset: operational processes are now controlled by complex technology systems and even if operations professional are not coding these systems yourself, they’ll need to understand them. That includes acting as a quarterback for AI agents that are increasingly doing their jobs.

Careers in operations can progress along several different paths. Many professionals find that they are called upon to broaden the scope of their activities as they progress. Others become specialists in a particular aspect of the operations process like settlement, clearance or project management.

How AI is changing operations jobs

Of all the fields of financial services, operations might have been one of the worst exposed to the rising capabilities of artificial intelligence. JPMorgan last year forecast a roughly 10% decline in operations headcount over the next five years, with AI increasingly handling routine processes. Marianne Lake, who made the announcement, even said that 10% was a conservative figure.

The profession also faces pressure to become faster. The UK, EU and Switzerland move to T+1 settlement in October 2027, meaning that trades must be settled one day after they are made, rather than the currently typical two. This leaves operations teams less time to identify and correct errors, and AI agents may increasingly be suited to this speed-sensitive work.

Finally, automation threatens traditional operations hubs such as India, Poland and parts of the US. BNY is already using AI “digital employees” for tasks such as payment validation, shifting human operators towards supervising and training automated systems rather than performing routine processes themselves. Operations employees in low-cost centres will be at risk of job losses.

Education & qualifications you’ll need for operations jobs in banking

Operations professionals are very different to other people in financial services that work closer to the money, and they therefore have different educational requirements. Basically – fewer specifics and requirements for degree topics and the likes.

When we analyzed the junior ranks of Goldman Sachs’ operations team for example, there was an extremely varied range of graduate backgrounds, with law, economics, history, business, and management science all represented.

In the past, financial services firms have recruited a wide variety of people for their operations positions - hedge fund DE Shaw, for instance, is known to have hired painters and poets. Fine arts masters aside, there’s also the Investment Operations Certificate (IOC) from CISI, although it’s primarily a UK-recognized qualification. It can also feed into CISI’s global operations management qualification, a Level 6 diploma, which is hypothetically equivalent to a bachelors degree.

Salaries & bonuses in financial services operations

Operations professionals are not paid very well compared to their peers in the front-office. This is because they are far from revenue generation – they are not bringing in paying clients. Additionally, unlike their peers in compliance or risk, they have a relatively process-driven role.

Generally, the operations professionals still working the United States are best paid. We found that they could earn up to $450k in total compensation, compared to $197k and $150k for senior professionals in Poland and India, respectively.

Our 2026 Compensation & Lifestyle Report found that not only do operations professionals earn the least of their peers per hour worked ($56), they also earn the least outright - $133k on average, compared to $313k on average in finance and $163k for control & support staff, on average.

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