Director of Trade Management Operations

Responsibilities

• Leadership & Team Building
• Recruit, build, and develop a high-performing back-office team spanning reconciliation, settlement, clearing, and custody operations
• Define team structure, roles, and responsibilities; establish clear performance standards and career development pathways
• Provide day-to-day management, coaching, and mentorship to staff at all levels
• Partner with HR on headcount planning, hiring, and workforce development as the business grows
• Serve as the primary escalation point for operational breaks, settlement failures, and counterparty disputes
• Back Office Operations
• Oversee all post-trade operations across asset classes including equities, options, exchange-traded derivatives, and FX
• Manage trade confirmation, settlement, and fail management across custodians, prime brokers, and clearing firms
• Coordinate give-up processing and submission workflows between executing brokers and the firm's designated clearing FCM, ensuring accurate and timely allocation of futures and options trades
• Supervise corporate actions processing, including voluntary and mandatory events, elections, and entitlement reconciliation
• Oversee margin and collateral tracking in coordination with the clearing FCM, Prime Brokerage, and Treasury
• Ensure all back-office functions adhere to strict settlement deadlines and operational SLAs
• Reconciliation
• Own end-to-end reconciliation across all business lines, including trade, position, cash, and asset reconciliation
• Oversee daily reconciliation of internal books and records against prime broker, custodian, and clearing FCM statements
• Manage position and cash reconciliation across exchange-traded products, ensuring alignment between the firm's records and clearing FCM-reported balances
• Ensure compliance with broker-dealer customer protection obligations under SEC Rule 15c3-3 and applicable FINRA rules
• Drive root cause analysis on recurring breaks and implement sustainable corrective actions to reduce break volumes over time
• Automation & Process Transformation
• Lead a strategic initiative to automate back office and reconciliation workflows, reducing manual processing and operational risk across the function
• Evaluate, select, and implement technology solutions including reconciliation platforms (e.g., AutoRek GMI, Broadridge) and back-office processing systems
• Define the target operating model for a scalable, automated back office and drive execution of the transformation roadmap
• Partner with Technology and Data teams to design automated break detection, exception management, and reporting workflows
• Establish KPIs and management dashboards tracking settlement efficiency, break aging, fail rates, and STP rates, with regular reporting to senior leadership
• Champion data quality and standardization initiatives to improve straight-through processing across the trade lifecycle
• Risk, Controls & Compliance
• Maintain a strong control environment consistent with SEC, FINRA, CFTC, and NFA requirements applicable to a non-clearing FCM
• Develop and maintain policies, procedures, and desktop guides for all back-office functions
• Partner with Internal Audit, Compliance, and Risk Management on control assessments, regulatory examinations, and audit responses
• Monitor regulatory developments impacting back-office obligations and proactively update processes and controls accordingly

Requirements

• 6-10 years of progressive experience in back-office operations at a broker-dealer, FCM, prime broker, or clearing firm
• Broad operational knowledge spanning settlement, clearing, custody, corporate actions, and reconciliation across multiple asset classes
• Familiarity with non-clearing FCM operations, including give-up processing, allocation workflows, and coordination with clearing FCMs
• Demonstrated experience managing and developing operational teams
• Proven track record leading process improvement or automation initiatives within a financial services environment
• Strong working knowledge of DTCC (DTC, NSCC, FICC) settlement processes and exchange-traded derivatives workflows
• Familiarity with regulatory requirements applicable to broker-dealers and non-clearing FCMs, including SEC Rule 15c3-3, FIN

Additional Information

Company Name: tastytrade Role: Director of Trade Management Operations Location: Chicago, IL - Hybrid (3 days/week in office) We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Director of Trade Management Operations to lead and transform our back-office function across our Broker-Dealer and non-clearing Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) businesses. This role carries broad ownership of post-trade operations - including trade settlement, clearing, custody, corporate actions, and reconciliation - while spearheading a firm-wide initiative to automate and modernize key back-office processes. The ideal candidate is an operational leader with deep capital markets expertise , a hands-on management style, and a proven ability to drive process improvement and build high-performing teams.

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