Head of Market Risk

Polymarket•New York, NY

About The Position

Polymarket is looking for a Head of Market Risk to own the firm's market risk framework across both our Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO). This is a senior, hands-on leadership role responsible for identifying, measuring, monitoring, and controlling the market risks arising from cleared member portfolios and the risks the clearinghouse mutualizes as a central counterparty. The ideal candidate has direct trading and risk management experience and understands how markets behave under stress — how liquidity evaporates, how volatility regimes shift, and how macro events move prices. That intuition must be paired with the rigor to set, calibrate, and defend the margin and risk parameters that keep the FCM and clearinghouse safe, and the communication skills to translate complex exposures into clear, decision-ready terms for the Risk Committee, Board, regulators, and clearing members.

Requirements

Prior trading experience — direct experience trading and managing risk on a desk (derivatives, futures, options, fixed income, commodities, or equities), with an intuitive grasp of market microstructure, liquidity, and volatility dynamics
Expertise in managing risk at a DCO, FCM, or trading desk
Hands-on experience calibrating market-risk methodologies: VaR, Expected Shortfall, stress testing, scenario analysis, SPAN, or portfolio margining
Working knowledge of the regulatory landscape for FCMs and DCOs — CFTC regulations, DCO Core Principles, customer fund segregation, and related requirements
Exceptional communication skills — proven ability to present exposures, model results, and risk trade-offs clearly and credibly to a Risk Committee, Board, and regulators
10+ years in market or clearing risk, trading, or a closely related discipline, including time in a leadership or senior individual-contributor capacity
Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field (finance, economics, mathematics, engineering, or similar)

Nice To Haves

Experience at a clearinghouse (CCP), FCM, IB, or similar environment
Advanced degree (MBA, MFE, or graduate degree in a quantitative discipline) and/or FRM/CFA/PRM
Direct participation in a default-management event or industry default simulation

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end market risk framework for the FCM and DCO, including risk appetite, limit structures, escalation triggers, and the policies that govern them
Serve as the primary market-risk voice to the Risk Committee and Board, presenting exposures, limit utilization, stress results, and emerging risks in clear, actionable terms
Ensure the framework meets CFTC requirements and DCO Core Principles and stands up to regulatory and internal-audit scrutiny
Partner with the CRO/CEO on risk appetite calibration and ensure alignment between the FCM's proprietary and client-facing risk and the DCO's mutualized risk
Set, monitor, and tune initial and variation margin, add-ons, and concentration and liquidity charges across cleared products, calibrating parameters to prevailing and anticipated market conditions
Work closely with quants and developers to build an end-to-end risk platform implementing the DCO's risk methodology
React decisively to changing market dynamics — widening spreads, volatility spikes, gap risk around scheduled and unscheduled events — by adjusting parameters ahead of the risk
Oversee daily monitoring of house and member exposures, margin coverage, and limit breaches, and lead the response to intraday moves
Design and run stress tests, reverse stress tests, and scenario analysis — including extreme-but-plausible macro shocks — and size the guaranty/default fund and other financial resources accordingly
Contribute market-risk expertise to default management, including auction and liquidation of a defaulting member's portfolio, and participate in fire-drills and default simulations
Monitor macro and market events — central-bank decisions, economic releases, geopolitical shocks, expiries — and assess their impact on cleared portfolios and the FCM
Build and lead the market risk team, setting standards for analytics, monitoring, and reporting
Work closely with Clearing Operations, Membership, Compliance, Finance/Treasury, and Technology to embed risk controls into daily operations and system design
Engage directly with clearing members and large clients on their risk profile, margin requirements, and exposure concentrations