Global Settlements Associate 1 - Alpaca

About Alpaca

Alpaca is a US-headquartered, global leader in agent-first brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more.

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 10 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 $400 million in funding from top-tier global investors including Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, Social Leverage, Horizons Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, SBI Group, Derayah Financial, Unbound, Peak XV, Elefund, and Y Combinator.

Your Role

Global Equity Settlement

• Own the end-to-end global equity settlement process, partnering with our custodian, counterparties, and internal stakeholders to ensure timely and accurate settlement across multiple international markets.
• Ensure transactions are accurately recorded across internal and external systems to facilitate successful settlement.
• Monitor daily settlement activity and proactively identify transactions at risk of failing.
• Investigate and resolve settlement exceptions, trade discrepancies, and failing transactions.
• Review buy-ins, settlement penalties, and aged fails while coordinating remediation efforts with counterparties and our custodian.
• Monitor trade matching through SWIFT and settlement platforms, ensuring counterparties affirm and match trades within required market deadlines.

Trade Exception Management

• Investigate and resolve trade mismatches, including:
  • Settlement instruction discrepancies
  • Quantity and price differences
  • Allocation issues
  • Counterparty booking errors
  • FX and market-specific settlement exceptions
• Partner closely with trading, finance, compliance, counterparties, and custodians to drive timely resolution of settlement issues.
• Escalate complex settlement discrepancies and operational risks to the Director of Brokerage Operations when appropriate.

Cash & Position Reconciliations

• Perform daily reconciliations of securities positions and cash balances across multiple global markets and currencies.
• Investigate and resolve cash and stock reconciliation breaks between internal ledgers and external custodians.
• Produce reconciliation reports identifying money differences, position discrepancies, and operational exceptions.
• Ensure all reconciliation breaks are researched, documented, and resolved within established service levels.

Operational Risk & Regulatory Controls

• Ensure operational processes comply with applicable SEC, FINRA, and global market regulations.
• Support compliance with SEC Rule 15c3-3 by helping maintain proper possession and control of customer securities.
• Identify operational risks and escalate issues that may impact clients, settlement, or regulatory obligations.
• Maintain complete and organized operational records supporting audits, examinations, and regulatory reviews.
• Assist the Director of Brokerage Operations with Internal Audit requests, regulatory examinations, and remediation efforts.

Reporting & Process Improvement

• Produce timely, accurate, and meaningful operational reporting on settlement activity, aged fails, reconciliation breaks, and operational metrics.
• Prepare work papers, operational summaries, root cause analyses, and management reporting.
• Identify recurring operational issues through trend analysis and recommend improvements that reduce risk and increase efficiency.
• Update operational procedures, controls, and documentation as business processes evolve.
• Support the implementation of policy frameworks while serving as a resource for operational policy questions.

Automation & Strategic Initiatives

• Partner with Engineering and Product teams to automate manual operational workflows and improve settlement processes.
• Leverage SQL, Metabase, AI tools (such as Cursor and ChatGPT), and reporting platforms to enhance operational efficiency and analytics.
• Participate in cross-functional projects supporting new products, international market expansion, and operational scalability.
• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives that enhance the client experience while reducing operational risk.

Collaboration

• Work cross-functionally with Brokerage Operations, Trading, Finance, Compliance, Engineering, and Customer Operations to ensure seamless post-trade processing.
• Foster an environment of teamwork, accountability, and continuous learning.
• Support department initiatives and perform additional responsibilities as business needs evolve.

Who You Are (Must-Haves)

• 2+ years of experience supporting brokerage operations with a focus on global equity settlements
• Strong understanding of securities settlement lifecycles within a broker-dealer or carrying firm
• Experience working with third-party clearing firms and global custodians
• Knowledge of U.S. broker-dealer operations and financial industry regulations
• Familiarity with BNY Nexen or similar global custody settlement platforms
• Working knowledge of SWIFT settlement messaging (MT54x series), Euroclear, DTCC, and international settlement practices
• Experience settling securities across global markets, including Europe and Asia (Hong Kong, South Korea, and other international markets)
• Strong expertise performing cash and position reconciliations across multiple currencies and markets
• Experience investigating trade mismatches and collaborating directly with counterparties to resolve settlement issues
• Ability to analyze operational data, identify trends, and make sound decisions based on available information
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills
• Strong organizational skills with exceptional attention to detail
• Ability to manage multiple priorities while working independently in a fast-paced environment
• Comfortable working remotely while collaborating across distributed teams
• Working knowledge of SQL, Metabase, or similar reporting and data analysis tools
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and Google Workspace
• Adaptability to evolving regulatory requirements and business priorities
• Possess the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam and Series 99 license (or higher), or obtain the Series 99 within 180 days of hire

Core Values

• Stay Curious: Continuously learning and seeking opportunities to improve
• Have Empathy: Collaborating with teammates, clients, and partners
• Are Accountable: Taking ownership of outcomes and following through on commitments

Nice-to-Haves

• Associate's or Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related discipline
• 5+ years of experience in brokerage operations, reconciliation, settlements, accounting, banking, or financial services
• Experience with DTCC U.S. equity settlement processing
• Knowledge of tokenized securities or digital asset settlement
• Experience using AI-powered productivity tools (Cursor, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot) to automate workflows or enhance data analysis
• Experience supporting automation initiatives in partnership with Engineering teams
• Series 7 or additional FINRA licenses
• Experience working within a high-growth fintech or electronic brokerage environment

Benefits & Perks

• 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