Head of Client Relationships

This role provides senior leadership, strategic oversight and full commercial accountability for a portfolio of key FNZ clients, combining direct client ownership with leadership of Client Directors and matrixed delivery teams to drive sustainable revenue growth, margin performance, disciplined P&L management and exceptional client outcomes.

The Head of Client Relationships is accountable for the overall performance, growth, profitability and strategic development of a portfolio of FNZ clients. Operating as a player/coach, the role combines executive ownership of FNZ’s most strategic client relationships with leadership of Client Directors responsible for day-to-day account delivery, commercial performance and client advocacy.

The role provides strategic oversight across multiple clients, ensuring consistent, high-quality delivery of the FNZ platform services, alignment to FNZ’s go-to-market strategy, and achievement of financial, operational, regulatory and customer satisfaction outcomes. This includes ownership of portfolio P&L performance, revenue retention, growth pipeline, margin protection, cost-to-serve discipline and resolution of commercial risks.

The role holder acts as the senior client sponsor for priority accounts, executive escalations and commercial outcomes, while coaching and developing Client Directors to deliver predictable, scalable performance across the client portfolio, build trusted relationships with client executive teams, Boards and senior stakeholders, and create a high-engagement culture that improves both client and colleague advocacy.

The Head of Client Relationships works in close partnership with Service Delivery, Portfolio, Product and Commercial leadership to create a single, joined-up client view across relationship, commercial and delivery performance. The role is expected to operate hand-in-glove with the Delivery organisation, ensuring that client commitments, delivery capacity, change priorities, service performance and operational risk are reviewed collectively and acted on with clear ownership, pace and discipline.

Role Responsibilities

Portfolio & Customer Leadership

• Accountable for FNZ’s overall relationship, reputation and executive engagement across a defined portfolio of clients

• Sets and owns portfolio-level customer satisfaction, relationship health, executive engagement and improvement plans.

• Acts as senior escalation point for client issues, risks and commercials

• Ensures consistent client experience and engagement model across all accounts

• Builds trusted, senior-level relationships with client CEOs, COOs, CIOs, Board members and executive sponsors, ensuring FNZ is positioned as a strategic partner rather than a transactional supplier.

• Leads strategic account planning, relationship mapping and stakeholder engagement to improve advocacy, retention, growth and early identification of client risks.

• Owns improvement plans for client NPS, relationship sentiment and advocacy, using feedback, service insights and executive engagement to address root causes and strengthen client confidence.

• Engages clients proactively on customer outcome themes, including service quality, communications, foreseeable harm, vulnerable customer experience and the evidence required to support Consumer Duty governance.

Client Director Leadership & Capability

• Leads, coaches and develops Client Directors responsible for individual client relationships

• Sets clear expectations for performance, governance, commercial outcomes and client engagement

• Ensures Client Directors operate effectively as “mini-GMs” for their accounts

• Builds succession and capability depth within the client leadership community

• Creates a strong engagement culture across the client leadership community, setting clear purpose, role clarity, accountability and coaching rhythms to improve colleague experience and colleague NPS.

• Builds a performance environment where colleagues feel informed, empowered and supported to solve client issues, collaborate across the matrix and deliver consistently high-quality outcomes.

Delivery Governance & Matrix Leadership

• Accountable for end-to-end delivery outcomes across the client portfolio

• Provides governance and directional leadership across change and run activities

• Works closely with Delivery leadership to maintain a shared view of client priorities, delivery plans, service performance, delivery risks and dependency management across the portfolio.

• Co-owns delivery governance routines with Service Delivery Managers and Portfolio Directors, ensuring client commitments are translated into realistic plans, clear decision points, accountable owners and transparent progress reporting.

• Brings client context, executive stakeholder expectations and commercial implications into delivery prioritisation so that sequencing decisions balance client outcomes, risk, cost-to-serve and FNZ strategic value.

Holds matrix accountability over:

• Service Delivery Managers

• Portfolio Directors

• Ensures delivery priorities, capacity and sequencing are aligned to client commitments and FNZ strategy

• Intervenes early where delivery, quality or risk thresholds are breached

• Drives early, constructive intervention with Delivery where plans are off-track, risks are emerging or client confidence is weakening, ensuring recovery actions are agreed, communicated and followed through to closure.

Commercial & Financial Outcomes

• Accountable for cashflow, revenue, margin and growth across the client portfolio

• Owns forecasting, pipeline health and revenue risk mitigation at portfolio level

• Ensures Client Directors deliver quarter-on-quarter revenue and FUM targets

• Drives disciplined commercial governance, pricing consistency and deal quality

• Owns portfolio P&L performance, including revenue retention, expansion, margin improvement, cost-to-serve management, commercial leakage and profitability improvement plans.

• Maintains robust commercial discipline across renewals, change control, pricing decisions, contractual commitments and negotiation strategy.

• Provides clear portfolio-level financial reporting, including risks, opportunities, revenue conversion, margin movement and corrective actions required to deliver plan.

• Links commercial performance with relationship health, ensuring client NPS, colleague engagement and operational delivery indicators are reviewed alongside financial performance to support sustainable growth.

Strategic Growth & Go-to-Market Alignment

• Owns alignment of client strategy with FNZ’s go-to-market approach and target operating model

• Ensures clients are positioned into the correct delivery, service and commercial structures

• Partners with Product, Sales and Commercial teams to:

• Shape propositions

• Inform roadmap priorities

• Support new sales, migrations and expansions

• Identifies repeatable growth opportunities and scalable solutions across the client base

Risk, Regulation, Consumer Duty & Assurance

• Accountable for risk, compliance and regulatory outcomes across clients

• Ensures consistent risk visibility and reporting across the portfolio

• Ensures Consumer Duty is embedded across the client portfolio, with governance focused on the delivery and evidence of good outcomes for retail customers.

• Applies Consumer Duty principles to client discussions, ensuring FNZ supports clients in acting in good faith, avoiding foreseeable harm and enabling customers to pursue their financial objectives.

• Oversees portfolio engagement against the four Consumer Duty outcomes: products and services, price and value, consumer understanding and consumer support.

• Ensures client relationship plans include clear visibility of conduct risks, vulnerable customer considerations, customer communications, service performance and remediation actions where outcomes may fall below expected standards.

• Partners with Risk, Compliance, Service Delivery and Product teams to provide assurance that FNZ services, change activity and operational performance support clients’ regulatory obligations and customer outcome commitments.

• Provides assurance to clients and FNZ leadership on control effectiveness

• Oversees audit interactions and closure of findings across clients

• Proven experience leading multiple complex, enterprise-level client relationships or portfolios, including direct engagement with senior executives, Boards and strategic decision-makers.

• Demonstrated success managing and developing senior client leaders

• Experience operating in matrixed, complex delivery environments

• Strong commercial and strategic decision-making capability at enterprise level, with demonstrable ownership of revenue, margin, profitability, forecasting and P&L outcomes.

• Experience shaping or executing go-to-market strategy in complex services environments

• Experience managing commercial negotiations, renewals, pricing, change control and margin improvement in long-term, high-value client partnerships.

• Evidence of building trusted client relationships through transparent governance, proactive issue management, strong executive communication and consistent delivery of agreed outcomes.

• Practical understanding of FCA Consumer Duty requirements, including the Consumer Principle, cross-cutting rules, four outcomes and the need to evidence delivery of good retail customer outcomes through governance, management information and remediation tracking.

• Track record of improving engagement culture, colleague NPS and client NPS through clear leadership, strong communication, coaching, feedback loops and disciplined action planning.

Experience Required

• Significant experience leading strategic client relationships, account portfolios or customer-facing functions within a complex financial services, platform, technology or outsourcing environment.

• Proven track record of owning and growing large-scale client portfolios, including accountability for revenue, profitability, forecasting, commercial performance and client retention.

• Demonstrated success operating as a senior relationship executive with direct exposure to C-suite stakeholders, Boards and senior client decision-makers.

• Experience leading, coaching and developing senior customer, commercial or account management professionals, building high-performing teams and succession capability.

• Strong commercial acumen, including experience of pricing, contract negotiations, renewals, change controls, margin management and P&L ownership.

• Experience working within matrixed organisations, influencing delivery, product, operations and commercial teams to achieve client and business outcomes.

• Track record of leading through complex client situations, including executive escalations, service recovery, transformation programmes and commercial negotiations.

• Ability to balance strategic thinking with operational execution, turning broad commercial objectives into clear plans, governance and measurable outcomes.

• Strong understanding of risk, governance and regulatory requirements within financial services, including experience supporting regulated clients and delivering customer-focused outcomes.

• Experience using customer, operational and financial data to inform decision-making, prioritisation and portfolio performance management.

Desirable

• Experience within wealth management, banking, pensions, asset management or financial technology sectors.

• Knowledge of FCA regulatory requirements, including Consumer Duty and customer outcome frameworks.

• Experience managing multi-client portfolios across different market segments and business lines.

• Exposure to large-scale platform, outsourcing or business transformation programmes.

About FNZ

FNZ is committed to opening up wealth so that everyone, everywhere can invest in their future on their terms. We know the foundation to do that already exists in the wealth management industry, but complexity holds firms back. 

We created wealth’s growth platform to help. We provide a global, end-to-end wealth management platform that integrates modern technology with business and investment operations. All in a regulated financial institution. 

We partner with the world’s leading financial institutions, with over US$2.5 trillion in assets on platform (AoP).

Together with our clients, we empower nearly 30 million people across all wealth segments to invest in their future.