[Hiring] Trading Operations Lead @Mercury

Role Description

We’re looking for a Trading Operations Lead to own and scale the trading operations function powering Mercury’s SEC-registered investment advisor and FINRA-member broker-dealer. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone with deep brokerage and trading operations expertise who can both set the standard for how the function operates and step directly into complex operational work when needed. This role is ideal for someone who has operated in a detail-rich, regulated environment, has strong opinions about what good trading operations looks like, communicates clearly across technical and non-technical teams, and wants the opportunity to build and evolve the function rather than simply inherit it.

In this role, you will:

• Own the trading operations and supervisory framework, providing licensed principal oversight of order and trade activity across money market funds, mutual funds, ETFs, and fixed income.
• Oversee operational controls, reconciliations, exceptions, and escalations, partnering closely with Engineering and Product on system-managed workflows and with our carrying broker and other investment partners to investigate issues, resolve breaks, and ensure trading activity operates within established procedures and supervisory requirements.
• Own the trade surveillance and operational control framework, including licensed supervisory review where required, oversight of pre- and post-trade controls, best execution monitoring, trade breaks and errors, escalation and remediation, and evidence that required reviews and controls are operating as designed.
• Coordinate with Financial Crimes on surveillance alerts, suspicious activity escalations, and shared monitoring obligations.
• Own supervision of trading and order-flow reporting obligations, including CAT (all elements, including annual clock synchronization), CAIS, and TRACE, coordinating with our carrying broker and third-party reporting vendor.
• Ensure timely and accurate compliance with SEC Rules 606 and 607 and FINRA Rule 6151, and provide supervisory review of customer account statements and trade confirmations.
• Serve as the operational escalation point for trade errors, breaks, and settlement issues, coordinating investigation and resolution across Engineering, Product, Compliance, and our carrying and executing partners.
• Assess customer impact, and ensure recurring issues result in appropriate process or control improvements.
• Oversee trading-related books and records requirements, partnering with Engineering, Compliance, and our carrying broker to ensure required trade, order, allocation, and supervisory records are appropriately generated, retained, and retrievable.
• Own and maintain trading operations procedures and contribute to applicable Written Supervisory Procedures.
• Lead trading operations readiness for regulatory exams, audits, and internal testing, including producing operational evidence, supporting responses, remediating findings, and translating identified gaps into sustainable process or system improvements.
• Manage day-to-day operational relationships with our carrying broker, executing brokers, custodians, fund companies, and transfer agents.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering on system-managed trading workflows and controls.
• Build the reporting and operational visibility needed to oversee the trading function, including volumes, breaks and errors, aging exceptions, settlement performance, and control effectiveness.
• Partner with Compliance, Finance, Legal, Risk, Product, and Engineering on new products, partners, and regulatory changes.

Qualifications

• Hold active FINRA Series 7, Series 63, and Series 24 licenses (Series 99 or Series 57 a plus).
• 8+ years in trading, brokerage, or investment operations, including direct ownership of trade lifecycle, settlement, or trading control functions.
• Have hands-on operational experience across fixed income, mutual funds, and ETFs.
• Have built or materially improved a trade surveillance or operational control framework.
• Possess a strong working knowledge of the operational requirements under FINRA and SEC rules.
• Communicate clearly in writing — procedures, escalations, and post-mortems that a regulator, an engineer, and an executive can each read and act on.
• Be comfortable operating in ambiguity and at speed, and be willing to design the process rather than wait for one.
• Bring judgment about when to automate, when to add a control, and when to accept a manual step.

Nice to have

• Experience at a fintech or high-growth firm operating a broker-dealer or RIA at scale.
• Experience standing up a new product, partner, or clearing relationships from scratch.
• Comfort with SQL or working directly in internal tooling to investigate issues yourself.

Benefits

• Base salary, equity (stock options/RSUs), and benefits.
• Competitive salary and equity ranges within the SaaS and fintech industry.
• New hire offers based on experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity.
• Target new hire base salary ranges for this role:
• US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $135,000 — $168,700 USD.
• US employees outside of New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $121,500 — $151,800 USD.