Financial Risk Lead

DriveWealth•Chicago, IL

8d•$200,000 - $215,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Reporting to the Head of Risk Management, the Lead of Financial Risk owns second-line oversight of market, credit, liquidity, and counterparty risk across the firm. You will build the financial risk appetite and limit framework, establish the governance that sits around it, and carry meaningful visibility with executive leadership and the Board. This is a builder's role in an environment where the risk profile is still taking shape. Fractional inventory, multi-currency partner funding, stablecoins, and tokenized settlement do not map cleanly onto conventional broker-dealer risk methodology, and you will be expected to build defensible frameworks without waiting for the market or the regulators to settle the question. Success requires an independent, proactive leader who can quantify exposure credibly, challenge the first line without stalling it, and translate financial risk into decisions the business will act on. You will partner closely with Treasury, Trading, Operations, Finance, Engineering, and Compliance, which separately owns programs that integrate with the firm-wide financial risk framework.

Requirements

10+ years in financial risk management, with substantial experience at a broker-dealer, clearing firm, prime broker, or comparable regulated environment, and prior ownership of a risk program.
Direct experience across market, credit, liquidity, and counterparty risk, ideally including securities lending and margin.
Demonstrated experience building margin policy, stress testing methodology, and scenario design, not only running an inherited model suite.
Working knowledge of clearing and settlement mechanics, including NSCC and DTCC exposure and clearing fund dynamics.
Practical fluency with agentic AI applied to risk work, with real examples of what you have built or deployed.
Strong quantitative capability with the tooling to apply it: Python or SQL, comfort working directly with large datasets and BI and data visualization software.
Strong, practical understanding of SEC, FINRA, CFTC, and NFA requirements relevant to financial risk and net capital.
Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to write for a Board audience and the judgment to know when a number is the wrong answer.

Nice To Haves

Exposure to digital assets, stablecoins, or tokenized securities
Experience with event contracts, derivatives, or prediction markets
Experience in a global business with multi-currency funding exposure
Treasury or balance sheet management experience
Hands-on experience with risk analytics, exposure aggregation, or BI tooling
Relevant certifications: FRM, CFA, or comparable
Series 7, 24, 27, or 4
Advanced degree in a quantitative field

Responsibilities

Build and Own the Financial Risk Framework: Build the financial risk appetite statement, limit framework, and supporting policies from the ground up.
Establish and lead the financial risk forum, with clear decision rights and limit breach escalation that has teeth.
Own financial risk reporting to the Global Risk Committee and the Board.
Establish escalation protocols and independent challenge over first-line risk-taking.
Own the Margin Program: Build the enterprise margin policy, including decision authority, exception management, and supporting KRIs.
Establish margin portfolio stress testing and scenario design, and put it into practice through exposure limits and loss budgets.
Define risk mitigation practices for margin call sellouts, option expiration exposure, and concentrated position risk.
Protect Liquidity, Capital, and Market Access: Partner with Treasury on the liquidity risk framework covering intraday funding, clearing and settlement obligations, and stress scenarios including partner-driven withdrawal and redemption surges.
Own second-line oversight of market access and pre-trade risk controls, including credit and capital thresholds, order and position limits, and kill switch governance across partner integrations.
Partner with Finance and Regulatory Reporting to build objective, data-driven views of net capital, capital adequacy, and clearing fund and NSCC/DTCC exposure that drive action rather than readouts.
Own Counterparty, Credit, and Market Risk: Build the counterparty risk framework covering securities lending, clearing and settlement counterparties, banking relationships, and partner credit exposure, including due diligence, ongoing review, and concentration limits.
Own credit risk arising from margin lending and partner receivables.
Extend market risk coverage to exposures specific to our model, including derivatives trading, fractional share inventory and principal positions, and currency exposure from international partner funding, which requires bespoke treatment.
Build the Framework for Digital Assets and Tokenization: Own financial risk for digital asset and tokenized activity, including stablecoin reserve and redemption risk, issuer and custodian counterparty risk, and settlement risk in tokenized environments.
Assess how tokenized settlement changes liquidity, credit, and operational exposure relative to conventional clearing.
Develop a forward view of how the firm's financial risk profile shifts as these products scale, and bring it to the business early enough to shape the design.
Build the Analytics and Lead the Team: Hire and develop the financial risk team and build the quantitative capability to support the program as it matures.
Use agentic AI for continuous counterparty monitoring, automated exposure aggregation and limit breach detection, and faster scenario construction, so the team spends its time on judgment rather than assembly.
Scale the program through tooling leverage rather than headcount.