Job Description

Who We Are:

Alpaca is a US-headquartered self-clearing broker-dealer and brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, ²⁴⁄₅ trading, and more. Our recent Series D funding round brought our total investment to over $320 million, fueling our ambitious vision.

Amongst our subsidiaries, Alpaca is a licensed financial services company, serving 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, totalling over 9 million brokerage accounts.

Our global team is a diverse group of experienced engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals who are working to achieve our mission of opening financial services to everyone on the planet. We’re deeply committed to open-source contributions and fostering a vibrant community, continuously enhancing our award-winning, developer-friendly API and the robust infrastructure behind it.

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’re a dynamic team of 230+ globally distributed members who thrive working from our favorite places around the world, with teammates spanning the USA, Canada, Japan, Hungary, Nigeria, Brazil, the UK, and beyond!

We’re searching for 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 roll-out 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

Alpaca is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce.

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