Trade Operations Manager

Trade Operations Manager

Position Summary

A rapidly growing investment organization is seeking a Trade Operations Manager to oversee the operational infrastructure supporting cryptocurrency and derivative trading activities. This individual will play a critical role in ensuring the accurate processing, settlement, reconciliation, and reporting of trading activity across multiple venues and counterparties.

The successful candidate will partner with investment professionals, treasury, finance, compliance, and external service providers to maintain a controlled and scalable operating environment. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys building processes, improving workflows, and taking ownership of day-to-day market operations in a fast-paced environment.

Core Responsibilities

Trade Operations & Lifecycle Management

• Manage the operational processing of spot digital assets, futures, options, perpetual contracts, and related transactions.
• Validate trade details and ensure accurate booking across internal platforms.
• Reconcile internal records against broker, exchange, and counterparty confirmations.
• Investigate and resolve trade-related exceptions and discrepancies.
• Maintain complete transaction documentation and audit support materials.
• Monitor outstanding confirmations and coordinate timely resolution of breaks.
• Support allocation of transactions across approved entities, portfolios, and accounts.
• Ensure trade processing adheres to established valuation and reporting deadlines.

Settlement & Transfer Oversight

• Coordinate movement of digital assets, cash, collateral, and derivative-related payments.
• Prepare and verify settlement instructions while ensuring adherence to approval protocols.
• Review transfer details including wallet information, banking coordinates, counterparties, and transaction amounts.
• Monitor pending transfers and settlement status through completion.
• Escalate failed or delayed settlements and drive corrective action.
• Maintain proper segregation between transaction initiation, review, authorization, and release activities.
• Support the processing of option expirations, assignments, exercises, and settlement events.

Margin & Liquidity Operations

• Track collateral utilization, margin requirements, and available trading capacity across venues.
• Review margin calculations and coordinate related funding activities.
• Maintain visibility into pledged and available assets across custodians and counterparties.
• Assist with liquidity forecasting tied to open exposures and upcoming settlement obligations.
• Reconcile collateral balances and investigate valuation differences.
• Escalate funding shortfalls, collateral disputes, or unexpected margin requirements.
• Contribute to collateral optimization initiatives while maintaining risk controls.

Reconciliations & Exception Management

• Perform daily reconciliations of trades, positions, cash balances, collateral holdings, and P&L activity.
• Compare internal records against custodians, exchanges, brokers, banks, and external data sources.
• Investigate exceptions and track issues through resolution.
• Ensure lifecycle events such as expirations, rollovers, and position closures are accurately reflected across systems.
• Provide support for monthly accounting close, valuation review, audit requests, and financial reporting activities.

Counterparty & Account Administration

• Assist with onboarding new exchanges, brokers, custodians, banking partners, and market counterparties.
• Coordinate documentation, account setup, authorized-user maintenance, and operational readiness reviews.
• Maintain current records of approved accounts, wallets, counterparties, and access permissions.
• Support periodic reviews of user access and operational controls.
• Monitor changes to settlement procedures, service agreements, and operational requirements.
• Participate in counterparty due diligence and vendor oversight initiatives.

Process Improvement & Operational Controls

• Develop and maintain operating procedures, workflows, and control frameworks.
• Help establish effective governance around transaction approvals, access controls, and asset movements.
• Partner with technology teams to automate manual processes and increase efficiency.
• Participate in new product launches, trading initiatives, and platform implementations.
• Support business continuity planning and incident response testing.
• Document operational events, track remediation efforts, and strengthen internal controls over time.

Cross-Regional Operations Support

• Coordinate workflow and communication across global teams and trading schedules.
• Review outstanding settlements, unresolved exceptions, margin activities, and critical operational risks.
• Ensure continuity of coverage during periods of increased market volatility or elevated trading activity.
• Maintain clear ownership and escalation procedures across all stakeholders.

Reporting & Analytics

• Produce recurring operational reporting covering settlements, reconciliations, collateral exposure, and key risk indicators.
• Track operational metrics and service-level performance.
• Communicate material operational concerns and control issues to senior stakeholders.
• Assist with reporting requirements for management, auditors, and regulatory reviews.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in trade support, middle office, treasury operations, market operations, fund operations, or a similar environment.
• Background within hedge funds, asset managers, investment firms, broker-dealers, banks, proprietary trading firms, fintechs, or digital asset organizations.
• Strong knowledge of trade processing and settlement workflows across derivatives and cash markets.
• Experience supporting margin, collateral, cash movements, and position reconciliations.
• Familiarity with institutional cryptocurrency market infrastructure is highly desirable.
• Understanding of exchanges, custodians, brokers, counterparties, and settlement networks.
• Advanced Excel skills and experience working with large datasets.
• Exposure to SQL, Python, APIs, workflow tools, or operational automation solutions is a plus.
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, Information Systems, or a related field.

Preferred Traits

• Strong attention to detail and commitment to accuracy.
• Hands-on, process-oriented mindset with a focus on control and risk management.
• Ability to prioritize effectively in a time-sensitive environment.
• Problem solver who takes ownership and drives issues to resolution.
• Comfortable identifying process gaps and implementing improvements.
• Effective communicator capable of collaborating across investment, finance, technology, risk, and compliance teams.
• Adaptable and resourceful in a rapidly evolving business environment.
• High level of professionalism, accountability, and integrity.
• Comfortable supporting globally distributed teams and periodic after-hours market events.