Trade Surveillance Lead

Trade Surveillance Lead

Toronto, ON (Hybrid) | Contract | Capital Markets Compliance

Only candidates with valid work authorization in Canada may apply.

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Trade Surveillance Lead to drive the implementation, enhancement, and ongoing effectiveness of trade and e-communications surveillance programs within a capital markets compliance environment. Acting as the primary liaison between Compliance, Trading, Technology, and vendor teams, you will lead surveillance platform initiatives across multiple asset classes and jurisdictions, ensuring monitoring controls meet regulatory expectations and deliver high-quality, actionable alerts.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the implementation and enhancement of trade surveillance platforms (e.g., Nice Actimize, Trading Hub/MAST, Behavox) across multiple regions and asset classes, including Listed and OTC Derivatives and FICC products.
• Act as the business lead between Compliance, Trading, Legal, Operations, and Technology/Compliance Engineering teams, translating regulatory and business needs into clear requirements.
• Own requirements gathering, business requirements documents (BRDs), user stories, process flows, and target operating models (TOMs) for surveillance initiatives.
• Lead data validation and data mapping initiatives covering trades, orders, positions, products, accounts, and counterparty data feeding surveillance models; identify and resolve data discrepancies.
• Develop and execute test strategies and test cases (SIT/BAT/UAT) for new surveillance modules, alert workflows, thresholds, and platform releases, and coordinate defect resolution with stakeholders.
• Conduct alert parameter reviews, threshold tuning, and recalibration exercises to optimize alert quality and reduce false positives.
• Perform quality assurance reviews of surveillance alerts and lead annual effectiveness testing of supervision processes and controls, identifying and remediating gaps.
• Support the onboarding of new brokers, trading venues, and products into surveillance coverage.
• Participate in vendor assessments and selection for trade and e-comms surveillance solutions, including requirements definition, demos, and final recommendation reports.
• Design and deliver training programs to improve surveillance team productivity and monitoring effectiveness.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in capital markets compliance, regulatory controls, or trade surveillance, with hands-on business lead experience on surveillance implementations.
• Strong knowledge of trade and e-communications surveillance monitoring, market abuse/market conduct risks, and alert adjudication workflows.
• Product knowledge across Listed and OTC Derivatives and FICC (Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities).
• Experience with major regulatory frameworks and initiatives such as Dodd-Frank (including Volcker Rule), MiFID, SEC/CFTC requirements, IIROC/CIRO rules, and position limits.
• Proven ability to author BRDs, user stories, process flows, and test documentation, and to lead SIT/BAT/UAT cycles end to end.
• Experience working within Waterfall, Agile, and Scrum delivery methodologies.
• Strong stakeholder management skills across first and second lines of defense, with the ability to work with front office, compliance, and technology partners.

Preferred Qualifications

• Banking domain experience, ideally within a Canadian or global bank's capital markets or global banking and markets division.
• Hands-on experience with surveillance platforms such as Nice Actimize, Trading Hub (MAST/TEAM), or Behavox.
• Exposure to AML/KYC, e-comms surveillance vendor selection, or regulatory trade reporting programs.
• Working knowledge of SQL, Python, or data analysis tools for surveillance data validation.
• Familiarity with tools such as JIRA, Confluence, HP ALM, Bloomberg, and MS Office/Visio/Excel (VBA).

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Economics, Finance, Business, or a related field; relevant securities or compliance certifications are an asset.