[Hiring] Senior Business Architect @Alpaca

Role Description

We're seeking a Senior Business Architect (Canada) for ACCC: someone who can go deep on brokerage operations across accounts, trading, clearing, settlement, custody, and asset servicing, and can turn that operating knowledge into clear requirements for Product and Engineering.

You are the bridge between how the Canadian brokerage actually works and the product roadmap. You lead structured discovery with counterparts and work out how partner firms, account opening, clearing, custody, and day-to-day operations fit together, then write that down as epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, edge cases, and open decisions.

Success is measured by:

• Requirements and designs teams can build without guessing.
• A clear split between what the system does and what people still do at launch.
• Solution options that Product and Engineering can sequence.
• A backlog tied to ACCC milestones and capabilities.

What You'll Walk Into:

• Operations scope: defining what ACCC must support across accounts, trading, clearing, settlement, custody, books and records, and asset servicing.
• Partner firm handoffs: what partners send us, what we send back, and who does what across accounts, trades, cash, and securities.
• Account and trade lifecycle: account opening, settlement in Canada through CDS, failed trades, transfers, and corporate actions such as dividends and splits.
• Platform gap analysis: comparing today's Alpaca platform with Canadian brokerage operations requirements to decide what we reuse, change, or build.
• Launch scope: separating what must work on day one from what follows, including registered accounts (TFSA, RRSP, RESP), more products, and more partner services.
• Open decisions: logging each one with an owner so it gets closed or consciously deferred.

What you’ll own:

• Requirements across ACCC’s brokerage operations, and what comes next:
• Map brokerage operations end to end across these areas: broker onboarding, account carrying, trade clearing/settlement, custody of cash/securities, books & records, financing (if in scope), corporate actions, transfers, exceptions, and reporting.
• Help define target operating models and capability designs: what the platform must do, what stays manual (for now), what is control vs. feature, what is Canada-specific vs. reusable globally.
• Turn regulatory and operational obligations into product requirements: what the platform must do, what stays manual (for now), what is control vs. feature, what is Canada-specific vs. reusable globally.
• Write epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, and edge cases that Product and Engineering can build against.
• Produce the artifacts teams actually use: process maps, capability matrices, requirement specs, data/field definitions, state machines, exception catalogs, RACI for build vs. run, and decision logs.
• Work with Product Managers and Engineering to sequence MVP → launch → scale: must-haves for go-live vs. post-launch backlog across these operating areas (e.g. additional account types, asset classes, IB services, automation).
• Interface across Product, Engineering, Ops, and Compliance: translate business need into buildable scope; escalate open decisions with clear owners and options.
• Run structured discovery: workshops, SME interviews, gap analysis vs. current Alpaca platform, peer operating models where useful.
• Keep requirements automation- and AI-aware: flag where STP, rules, and AI-assisted exception handling should be designed in—not bolted on later.
• Maintain a living requirements backlog tied to ACCC milestones, risks, and open decisions.

Qualifications

• Excited about what Alpaca is building and about standing up Canadian brokerage operations.
• Comfortable operating as a senior IC reporting to the President — driving clarity across Product, Engineering, Ops, and Compliance without needing a formal team.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, finance, or equivalent.
• 8+ years as a business architect, business analyst, consultant or in product operations within brokerage, clearing, custody, or capital markets.
• Comfortable translating brokerage operating processes and regulatory requirements into product language.
• Strong structured analysis: flows, entities, states, exceptions, controls, and what breaks if a step is missing.
• Clear writing: specs, diagrams, and decisions others can execute against.
• Collaborative with Ops SMEs, PMs, Engineering, and Compliance; curious enough to dig; disciplined enough to close loops.
• Bias to precision over vague “requirements fluff”.
• Judgment to tell a product change from an operating procedure or a policy decision.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across operations, product, engineering, and compliance.

Requirements

• Experience on a carrying, self-clearing, or custody build.
• Canadian dealer, carrying broker, or introducing broker experience.
• Prior business architecture or enterprise/solution architecture exposure in capital markets.
• Familiarity with CDS or Canadian settlement workflows.
• Experience with registered accounts or Canadian tax requirements (TFSA, RRSP, RESP).
• Background with API or platform brokerage products.
• Experience working at a fintech, startup, or greenfield launch.
• AI-native workflow: recurring use of tools like Cursor, Claude, or ChatGPT in spec drafting, discovery synthesis, and gap analysis.
• Experience shaping greenfield capability roadmaps with executive sponsors.

Benefits

• Competitive Salary & Stock Options
• Health Benefits
• New Hire Home-Office Setup: One-time USD $500
• Monthly Stipend: USD $150 per month via a Brex Card

Company Description

Alpaca is a US-headquartered, global leader in agent-first brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more.

Our global team is a diverse group of experienced engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals who are working to achieve our mission of opening financial services to everyone on the planet.

Alpaca is proudly backed by $400 million in funding from top-tier global investors.