Operations Specialist (Settlements & Buy-Ins)

APEX Fintech Services • Austin, TX

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

We're looking for a motivated self-starter to join our expanding Operations team in Dallas, Texas. As an Operations Specialist (Settlements & Buy-Ins) , you’ll be joining a team that executes on critical market-related and client-reporting functions. You will support the Settlements and Buy-ins teams by performing a variety of risk and regulatory functions. This is an opportunity to support Apex’s core products for our introducing broker-dealers.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, or a related field (or equivalent work experience) required
• 3+ years of prior experience in back-office brokerage operations
• FINRA SIE and Series 99 License(s) require (or willingness to obtain)
• High attention to detail with a proven ability to follow up and resolve complex issues across multiple stakeholders.
• Excellent organizational and time-management skills, with the ability to prioritize tasks and meet deadlines.
• Collaborative mindset with strong interpersonal and communication skills to work effectively across teams and functions.
• Proficient in Microsoft 365 (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• Displays relentless focus on customer service and customer satisfaction

Responsibilities

• Monitor and resolve critical settlement exceptions, failed trades, and buy-in events across custody, clearing, and settlement platforms.
• Ensure all settlement workflows, reconciliations, and cash/securities movements are processed accurately and efficiently, with issues escalated and resolved promptly.
• Serve as primary point of contact for client inquiries related to settlement status, trade breaks, buy-in notifications, and position discrepancies.
• Communicate proactively via email and phone with clients, custodians, and counterparties to resolve settlement issues and ensure superior service delivery.
• Maintain comprehensive knowledge of SEC Rule 204, Regulation SHO, settlement discipline requirements, and FINRA trade reporting rules.
• Ensure all settlement operations comply with regulatory standards while staying current on evolving settlement cycle changes (T+1) and industry best practices.
• Partner with Technology teams to identify automation opportunities, reduce manual interventions, and enhance system capabilities for settlement processing and exception handling.
• Analyze settlement workflows, buy-in procedures, and reconciliation processes to identify inefficiencies and operational risks.
• Design and implement process improvements that reduce settlement failures, minimize buy-in costs, and enhance operational scalability.
• Help maintain comprehensive Written Supervisory Procedures (WSPs)and desktop procedures.
• Ensure documentation supports operational consistency, audit readiness, and knowledge transfer across the team.
• Train, coach, and develop junior operations specialists and analysts in settlement operations, buy-in procedures, and regulatory requirements.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, technical excellence, and proactive problem-solving.
• Own the achievement and monitoring of Service Center SLAs , settlement fail rates, and buy-in resolution times.
• Drive performance improvements and ensure consistent target attainment.
• Act as liaison between Operations and Product/Technology teams to communicate settlement system requirements, prioritize enhancement requests, and validate system releases.
• Provide operational expertise to support platform upgrades and new product launches affecting settlement workflows.

Benefits

• We offer a robust package of employee perks and benefits, including healthcare benefits (medical, dental and vision, EAP), competitive PTO, 401k match, parental leave, and HSA contribution match.
• We also provide our employees with a paid subscription to the Calm app and offer generous external learning and tuition reimbursement benefits.
• At AFS, we offer a hybrid work schedule for most roles that allows employees to have the flexibility of working from home and one of our primary offices.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees