Head of RIA & Family Office Research Distribution

Job Description:

At Piper Sandler, we connect capital with opportunity to build a better future. 

We believe that diverse teams with unique backgrounds, skills and experiences yield more innovative solutions. This is reflected in our commitment to engage, hire, and retain bright, committed people to work in partnership within an inclusive environment that allows each person to achieve personal success and add value to our teams and communities.

We are currently looking for a Head of RIA & Family Office Research Distribution to join our Equities team. Location is negotiable as the role can be sat in any one of our offices.

Position Overview

We are seeking a senior business development professional to lead our sales effort with registered investment advisors, multi-family offices, single-family offices, and other wealth management institutions.

The Head of RIA & Family Office Research Distribution will be responsible for developing and executing a comprehensive strategy to expand the reach, relevance, and commercial value of the firm’s investment research within the advisor and family office communities. This individual will build senior-level relationships, identify new business opportunities, increase engagement with our research platform, and work closely with research analysts, sales professionals, corporate access, marketing, and senior leadership.

The ideal candidate will bring a strong understanding of the RIA and family office landscape, established relationships with investment professionals, and a demonstrated ability to sell differentiated investment research and ideas in a consultative, relationship-driven manner.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and lead the firm’s overall strategy for distributing investment research to RIAs, family offices, wealth managers, and other non-traditional institutional investors.
• Build and maintain relationships with CIOs, portfolio managers, investment committee members, research directors, and other senior decision-makers.
• Identify, prioritize, and pursue new business opportunities across the RIA and family office channels.
• Clearly articulate the value proposition of the firm’s research, including sector expertise, differentiated insights, thematic work, corporate access, and investment ideas.
• Create customized engagement strategies based on each client’s investment process, portfolio structure, research needs, and buying preferences.
• Coordinate meetings, calls, conferences, events, webinars, and other touchpoints between clients and the firm’s research analysts and investment professionals.
• Partner with institutional sales, equity research, corporate access, marketing, and senior leadership to ensure a coordinated approach to client coverage.
• Develop and maintain a pipeline of prospective clients and opportunities, including tracking activity, engagement, and conversion.
• Gather market intelligence and client feedback to help shape the firm’s research product, content strategy, and distribution model.
• Increase awareness and utilization of the firm’s research among the RIA and family office communities.
• Support the development of new products, services, and commercial models tailored to wealth management and family office clients.
• Represent the firm at industry conferences, investment forums, allocator meetings, and other relevant events.
• Ensure all client activity and communications comply with firm policies, applicable regulations, and research distribution requirements.
• Establish performance metrics and regularly report on business development activity, client engagement, revenue opportunities, and results.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in institutional sales, research sales, asset management distribution, wealth management, or a related financial services role.
• Demonstrated experience selling investment research, investment products, or financial services to RIAs, family offices, private wealth managers, or other sophisticated investment organizations.
• Established relationships with senior professionals across the RIA and family office ecosystem.
• Strong understanding of how RIAs and family offices source, evaluate, and utilize investment research.
• Proven track record of developing new relationships and generating revenue through consultative, relationship-based sales.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to translate complex investment views and research into clear, relevant, and actionable client discussions.
• Highly self-motivated, entrepreneurial, organized, and comfortable operating in a growth-oriented environment.
• Strong collaboration skills and the ability to work effectively with research analysts, salespeople, executives, and internal partners.
• Willingness to travel as needed for client meetings and industry events.
• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree or relevant professional designation is a plus.
• FINRA licenses may be required depending on the scope of the role.

Preferred Experience

• Existing relationships with independent RIAs, large multi-office RIA platforms, multi-family offices, single-family offices, outsourced CIOs, and private wealth managers.
• Experience building a new sales channel or expanding an existing distribution business.
• Familiarity with equity research, alternative investments, capital markets, or institutional investment products.
• Experience working with research marketplaces, investment platforms, or third-party research distribution models.
• Understanding of the regulatory and compliance considerations associated with investment research distribution.

Success Measures

Success in this role will be measured by the individual’s ability to:

• Build a qualified and measurable pipeline of RIA and family office prospects.
• Establish new senior-level client relationships.
• Increase engagement with the firm’s research and investment content.
• Generate new revenue and expand existing business.
• Develop a repeatable and scalable coverage model for the RIA and family office channels.
• Strengthen collaboration between research, sales, corporate access, marketing, and senior leadership.
• Position the firm as a trusted source of differentiated investment insight for advisors and family offices.

Personal Attributes

The successful candidate will be:

• Relationship-oriented: Builds long-term trust and credibility with clients.
• Commercially driven: Identifies opportunities and consistently converts relationships into business.
• Entrepreneurial: Comfortable creating structure, pursuing new ideas, and developing an emerging channel.

As a leading investment bank, we enable growth and success for our clients through deep sector expertise, candid advice and a differentiated, highly productive culture.

In equities, our sales & trading teams facilitate public offerings in our core sectors and dedicate significant levels of firm capital to ensure the highest aftermarket support. We are a market maker and/or transact in 2,500 securities, offering traditional, algorithmic and program trading approaches. Our 50+ senior analysts produce industry-leading, deep-sector research on more than 900 stocks under coverage, including one of the largest small/mid cap coverage universes on the Street. We also empower our investors with focused, best-in-class macro research. Our Institutional Investor top-ranked analysts utilize independent processes that provide impartial insights into economic trends, energy, portfolio strategy, technical analysis, policy actions and political developments. Learn more about our equities team here.

Piper Sandler values a strong culture dedicated to the emotional and physical well-being of our employees. Learn more about our commitment to our employee’s health, well-being, our benefits program and how we are here for our employees and their families today, tomorrow and beyond here.

The anticipated starting base salary for individuals expressing interest in this position is $200,000 per year.  Placement with this salary is dependent upon level of experience, location and other factors.  This position is eligible for annual incentive compensation which will be a part of the total compensation. Total compensation for this position will be competitive with the market.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, marital status, status as a protected veteran or status with regard to public assistance.

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