Head of Securities

Summary:

The Head of Securities owns Unlimit's securities business end to end: trading, custody, clearing and settlement, and the controls around them. The role reports to the CEO of the investment firm entity (or COO), leads the securities operations team, and is the senior point of contact for brokers, custodians, exchanges and the regulator on securities matters.

Key responsibilities:

Strategy and business

Set and deliver the securities business strategy, product scope and annual budget.

Build and manage relationships with executing brokers, custodians, CSDs, exchanges and liquidity providers.

Evaluate new instruments, markets and venues, and lead their onboarding.

Operations

Oversee the full trade lifecycle: order handling, execution, confirmation, clearing and settlement.

Run daily reconciliations of positions, cash and securities across custodians and internal books.

Manage corporate actions, settlement fails, breaks and exceptions to resolution.

Ensure safeguarding of client financial instruments and funds 

Risk, compliance and regulation

Ensure the securities business complies with MiFID II/MiFIR, CySEC rules, MAR, CSDR and EMIR as applicable.

Own best-execution policy and monitoring, and transaction reporting (RTS 22) accuracy.

Work with Compliance, Risk and AML on market abuse surveillance, client categorisation and suitability/appropriateness.

Define and maintain operational controls, KPIs, procedures and the securities risk register.

Act as key contact for internal and external audits and regulatory inspections.

Technology and change

Own requirements for OMS, back-office and reconciliation systems; drive automation and STP.

Lead integration projects with new counterparties and venues.

People

Lead, hire and develop the securities team; set objectives and run performance reviews.

Report to senior management and the Board on performance, incidents and risk.

Requirements:

10+ years in securities operations, brokerage or custody, with 4+ years leading a team.

Hands-on knowledge of the trade lifecycle across equities, fixed income and ETFs; derivatives a plus.

Strong working knowledge of MiFID II/MiFIR, CySEC regulation, CSDR and client asset safeguarding.

Experience with custodians, prime brokers and settlement systems (e.g. Euroclear, Clearstream, DTC, SWIFT ISO 15022/20022).

Track record of building controls, reconciliations and procedures that pass audit and regulatory review.

Degree in finance, economics, accounting or a related field.

Fluent English; Greek or Russian an advantage.

Able to meet CySEC fit-and-proper requirements; holder of the CySEC Advanced Certificate, or willing to obtain it.

Experience with tokenized securities