Director, Global Licensing at Alpaca

Who We Are

Alpaca is a US-headquartered self-clearing broker-dealer and provider of brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more. Backed by Series C funding and over $170 million in total investment, Alpaca serves hundreds of financial institutions across 40 countries and supports over 6 million brokerage accounts. Our global team is distributed across the USA, Canada, Japan, Hungary, Nigeria, Brazil, the UK, and beyond. We are committed to open-source contributions and building institutional-grade APIs to open financial services to everyone on the planet.

Your Role

As Director, Global Licensing, you will lead Alpaca's global license strategy and execution across multiple jurisdictions, including new entity formation, application preparation, and end-to-end project management through regulatory approval. You will own the process of obtaining, establishing, and launching regulatory licenses across regions such as the U.S., Canada, U.K./EU, MENA, APAC, and LATAM, coordinating with internal and external stakeholders to achieve timely approvals.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end license applications and renewals across multiple jurisdictions, owning timelines, documentation, and approvals.
• Draft, maintain, and update policies, procedures, compliance manuals, and operational frameworks that align with local regulatory requirements.
• Develop business plans, governance structures, and regulatory strategies to support market entry and license execution.
• Prepare and submit application materials, including forms, disclosures, supporting documentation, and capital materials.
• Coordinate with Legal, Compliance, Risk, Finance, InfoSec, Product, regulators, and external counsel to ensure successful submissions and approvals.
• Manage license maintenance activities, including renewals, notifications, officer or ownership changes, and condition fulfillment tracking.
• Conduct market assessments and analyze licensing frameworks to recommend strategic sequencing of global license expansion.
• Maintain a centralized global license inventory and repository of approvals, conditions, and regulator correspondence, with periodic leadership reporting and dashboards.
• Support strategic initiatives and M&A by coordinating change-of-control or post-transaction regulatory approvals with local counsel and regulators.
• Monitor regulatory developments and provide early visibility and strategic guidance to leadership.

Regulatory Scope

Coordinate regulatory submissions for securities, crypto, and futures or derivatives licenses such as broker-dealer, investment dealer, crypto asset service provider, money transmitter, introducing broker, FCM, or equivalent, depending on jurisdiction.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• 7 - 12+ years of experience in international licensing and regulatory affairs within financial services, fintech, or digital assets, such as broker-dealer, FCM, crypto exchange, or payments firms.
• Proven success leading multi-jurisdiction license applications and regulator engagements across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
• Strong working knowledge of cross-border regulatory frameworks and authorities, for example SEC/FINRA, CFTC/NFA, CIRO, FCA, CNMV, MAS, ADGM, CMA, DFSA, ASIC, and similar bodies.
• Excellent relationship management skills with regulators and local counsel, and diplomatic communication skills for regulator-facing engagements.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex, high-stakes licensing projects end-to-end with minimal oversight.
• Strong drafting, organizational, and presentation skills with meticulous attention to accuracy.

Nice to Have

• Experience structuring new entities, advising on prudential capital and governance requirements, and managing post-approval conditions or renewals.

How We Take Care of You

• Competitive salary and stock options.
• Health benefits.
• New hire home-office setup: one-time USD 500.
• Monthly stipend: USD 150 per month via a Brex Card.

Equal Opportunity

Alpaca is an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce. We encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply and will make reasonable accommodations in the hiring process when requested.

How to Apply

Apply via the Alpaca Greenhouse application form. The form requests contact information, preferred name, country of residence, phone, resume attachments, and other details. Review the job posting page for instructions and submit your application through the provided form.