Market Risk Analyst at Alpaca

Who We Are: Alpaca

Alpaca is a US-headquartered self-clearing broker-dealer and brokerage infrastructure provider, offering services for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more. Our recent Series D funding round, bringing our total investment to over $320 million, fuels our ambitious vision. Through our subsidiaries, Alpaca operates as a licensed financial services company, supporting hundreds of financial institutions across 40 countries with our institutional-grade APIs. This includes broker-dealers, investment advisors, wealth managers, hedge funds, and crypto exchanges, collectively serving over 9 million brokerage accounts. Our global team is a diverse group of experienced engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals united by our mission to open financial services to everyone on the planet. We are deeply committed to open-source contributions and fostering a vibrant community, continuously enhancing our award-winning, developer-friendly API and its robust infrastructure. Alpaca is proudly backed by top-tier global investors, including Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, Social Leverage, Horizons Ventures, Unbound, SBI Group, Derayah Financial, Elefund, and Y Combinator.

Our Team Members

We are a dynamic team of over 230 globally distributed members who thrive working from our favorite locations around the world, with teammates spanning the USA, Canada, Japan, Hungary, Nigeria, Brazil, the UK, and beyond! We are seeking passionate individuals eager to contribute to Alpaca's rapid growth. If you align with our core values, Stay Curious, Have Empathy, and Be Accountable, and are ready to make a significant impact, we encourage you to apply.

About the Role

We are looking for a highly analytical and driven Market Risk Analyst to join our growing Risk team. As we expand our product suite into high-leverage and complex instruments, we need a specialist who can ensure our growth is sustainable and our exposures are rigorously managed. In this role, you won't just be 'watching the screens.' While your primary focus is Market Risk, you will be a member of a team building a world-class Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) function. You will bridge the gap between deep quantitative trading risks and the broader strategic risk landscape, providing generalist support across operational, liquidity, and credit risk domains.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Market Risk Management: Design, implement, and monitor risk limits for new products. Perform daily monitoring of Value-at-Risk (VaR), stress testing, and sensitivity analysis.
• Margin Architecture: Collaborate with Engineering and Product teams to refine and stress-test our Margin engine, ensuring margin requirements accurately reflect cross-product offsets and tail risks.
• ERM Framework Development: Assist in the design and rollout of the Enterprise Risk Management framework. This includes defining Risk Appetite Statements (RAS), maintaining the Risk Register, and developing Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) that span across the organization.
• New Product Approval (NPA): Act as the risk lead for the launch of new products, identifying unique risks associated with event-based binary outcomes and liquidity fragmentation.
• Stress Testing & Scenario Analysis: Develop forward-looking scenarios (including 'black swan' events) to assess the impact of market volatility on the firm’s capital and liquidity positions.
• Cross-Functional Support: Support the wider Risk team in Operational Risk assessments, internal audits, and regulatory reporting requirements.
• Automation & Reporting: Build automated risk dashboards and reporting tools using SQL/Python to provide real-time insights to the Chief Risk Officer and Senior Management.

What You’ll Need

• Experience: 2-5 years of experience in Market Risk, Middle Office, or Quantitative Analysis within a fintech, hedge fund, or high-frequency trading environment.
• Product Knowledge: Deep understanding of derivatives (Futures/Options) and margin mechanics. Experience with Prediction Markets or event-driven trading is a significant plus.
• ERM Familiarity: A solid understanding of the 'Three Lines of Defense' model and a desire to contribute to broader risk governance beyond just market data.
• Quantitative Skills: Proficiency in SQL and Python (or R) for data analysis. You should be comfortable handling large datasets and building your own risk models.
• Problem Solving: The ability to operate in a 'gray area' defining risk parameters for novel products that may not have established industry benchmarks.
• Communication: Ability to distill complex quantitative risks into actionable insights for non-technical stakeholders and executive leadership.
• Education: A degree in a quantitative field (Finance, Mathematics, Physics, Economics, or Engineering). Financial Risk Manager (FRM) or CFA designation is a plus.

Nice to Have

• Experience in a high-growth startup environment.
• Direct experience with SPAN or TIMS margin methodologies.
• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks (e.g., SEC/FINRA, CFTC, or international equivalents) regarding margin and capital requirements.

How We Take Care of You

• Competitive Salary & Stock Options
• Health Benefits
• New Hire Home-Office Setup: One-time USD $500
• Monthly Stipend: USD $150 per month via a Brex Card
• Paid Parental Leave

Everyone is Welcome - A Culture of Inclusion

Alpaca is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. Alpaca is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Alpaca will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations in the hiring process. We encourage deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, and deaf-disabled individuals to apply. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process or to perform essential job functions, please contact our HR team. We provide an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter where needed as a reasonable accommodation for the hiring processes.

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