Head of Risk & Compliance - MTF firm

Our client is an established and highly successful global fintech, a trusted technology partner to many of the world's largest capital markets firms, now establishing a regulated entity in Ireland. This is a rare greenfield leadership opportunity: building the risk and compliance function from the ground up for a Central Bank of Ireland regulated business operating a Multilateral Trading Facility, with a direct line to the Board and senior advisory reach across EMEA, the US and APAC.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the independent risk and compliance function for the regulated entity, acting as a senior advisor to executive management, the Board and group legal.
• Own the risk framework end to end, including risk appetite and tolerance, the universal risk register, KRI reporting to the Board, and annual review of the ICAAP and Recovery Plan.
• Design and implement a compliance monitoring programme from the ground up, with comprehensive policies, controls and written supervisory procedures.
• Act as the primary point of engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland, ensuring timely and effective responses to all regulatory inquiries.
• Oversee AML, market abuse and trade surveillance frameworks, including real-time monitoring of RFQ trading activity, and build a high-performing compliance team.

Requirements

• Proven experience building a compliance monitoring programme from scratch within a regulated trading or market infrastructure business.
• Strong knowledge of RFQ trading models and asset classes traded via RFQ (FX, rates, credit and other fixed income), plus exchange and trading venue rulebooks.
• Experience in live trade surveillance and market conduct oversight, with the ability to identify disorderly trading, anomalous system behaviour and integrity risks.
• Deep familiarity with MiFID II trade reporting and transparency requirements, and KYC/AML onboarding of member firms on an MTF.
• Track record of credible reporting to Boards on surveillance outcomes, conduct risk and control effectiveness; comfortable engaging directly with regulators.