Trade Surveillance, Futures Compliance, Compliance

Position Description

We are hiring for a Trade Surveillance, Futures Compliance role responsible for monitoring trading activity across LME and ICE Futures Europe products using Nasdaq SMARTS to detect potential market abuse and rule breaches. The role involves analysing alerts with strong market insight, incorporating trading patterns, e-communications, and external market context to assess risk. You will support escalation processes and regulatory reporting, including STOR assessments under UK MAR, while maintaining clear and audit-ready documentation. The position also contributes to ongoing surveillance enhancement through model calibration, data quality oversight, and continuous improvement initiatives. Collaboration with Compliance, Risk, and Front Office stakeholders is key to ensuring effective governance and adherence to regulatory standards.

Key Areas of Responsibilities

1. Trade Surveillance Using Nasdaq SMARTS. Perform daily market‑abuse surveillance using the Nasdaq SMARTS platform across LME and ICE Futures Europe products, reviewing automated alerts for potential indicators of market manipulation, insider dealing, and other abusive behaviours and exchanges rules breaches.
2. Alert Investigation and Analysis. Analyse alerts applying sound judgement to distinguish genuine risk from false positives.
3. Market Context and Product Expertise. Apply strong understanding of commodities market structure, relevant to LME and ICE Futures Europe contracts when assessing alerts.
4. Escalation and Suspicious Transaction and Order Report (STOR) support. Escalate suspicious activity in line with internal governance procedures, supporting Compliance with documentation, investigation summaries, and input to STOR assessments under UK MAR.
5. E‑Communications Surveillance. Review and investigate audio and electronic communications alerts (email, voice, chat platforms) in coordination with trade alerts, focusing on potential misuse of inside information, market manipulation intent, or improper information sharing.
6. Cross‑Product and Cross‑Source Analysis. Correlate trading behaviour with e‑communications, market news, physical market events, and position data to conduct holistic investigations, particularly for intra‑group and cross‑border trading activity.
7. Calibration Feedback and Model Improvement. Provide qualitative feedback on alert performance, contributing to SMARTS calibration, back‑testing, and periodic review exercises, and any ad hoc projects.
8. Data Quality and Surveillance Integrity. Identify potential data quality, timeliness, or completeness issues impacting surveillance effectiveness and work with Technology, Operations, or Compliance to resolve surveillance‑relevant data concerns.
9. Documentation and Audit‑Readiness. Maintain clear, concise, and regulator‑ready case documentation, ensuring investigations, rationale, and outcomes are fully recorded and retrievable for internal review, audit, or regulatory requests
10. Regulatory Awareness and Standards Adherence. Stay up to date with UK MAR, FCA Market Watch publications, exchange rules (LME and ICE Futures Europe), and internal policies and procedures, ensuring surveillance activity aligns with regulatory expectations and industry best practice.
11. Stakeholder Interaction. Engage proactively with Compliance, Risk, Front Office supervision, and (where applicable) outsourced surveillance teams, contributing to clear communication, consistent standards, and continuous improvement of the surveillance framework.
12. General compliance support to derivative trading and clearing activities. Collaborate with the business, other departments and external counsels to ensure effective governance of the company’s futures business.
13. Ad hoc tasks to support the Compliance function.

Requirements

1. Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business, Law, Mathematics or Economics
2. Minimum 3 years’ of relevant experience in financial services in Market Abuse Surveillance, preferably with demonstrable experience of the Commodities and financial derivative markets
3. Demonstrable familiarity with surveillance systems such as Nasdaq SMARTS
4. A working knowledge of the relevant regulations, FCA, Exchanges rules and industry practices applicable to futures and derivative trading and clearing activities
5. Strong analytical and organisational skills
6. Strong attention to details, proactive mindset and a team player
7. Strong data handling skills
8. Excellent communication skills both verbal and written