Prime Services Risk Management

Jefferies is seeking a Risk Manager to join its Prime Services Risk Management team in New York. This is a newly created senior role reflecting the continued growth and strategic importance of the Prime Services franchise across the Americas and globally.

The SVP will provide senior risk oversight across the Americas Prime Brokerage and Delta One businesses, with cross-regional connectivity to the EMEA and APAC risk teams. The role sits at the center of the Prime Services franchise — partnering directly with trading and sales MDs, credit risk officers, and senior management to set risk appetite, govern margin and collateral frameworks, and ensure the business operates within sanctioned limits across all client types and product lines.

 

The successful candidate will combine deep Prime Brokerage risk expertise with strong leadership capability, the ability to drive methodology and analytics development, and the credibility to represent the risk function at senior governance forums and regulatory interactions. 

 

Key Responsibilities
Risk Oversight & Portfolio Management

• Provide senior risk oversight across the Americas Prime Brokerage and Delta One businesses, covering equity, equity derivatives, swaps, fixed income financing, and FX exposures.


• Monitor, manage, and analyse daily portfolio risk of the swap book and prime derivatives client base across equities, rates, and credit; identify, measure, and make financing decisions on material risk exposures.


• Manage risk across listed derivatives and OTC cleared products where relevant, including an understanding of FCM and broker-dealer obligations and applicable regulatory requirements.


• Monitor client exposure and collateral levels; lead margin call processes and ensure timely resolution of exceptions.


• Provide risk assessment for new client portfolios; track and evaluate new business initiatives raised by the Prime front-office team.


• Perform standard and ad-hoc risk reviews including stress testing, margin analysis, concentration review, and scenario analysis.

Margin & Methodology Leadership

• Collaborate on the development, enhancement, back-testing, and governance of IA margin models across Cash and Swap Prime Brokerage — including methodologies for L/S Equity, Macro, Event Driven, Special Situations, Vol Arb, Convertible Bond and Quant strategies.


• Drive ongoing improvements in stress testing frameworks, scenario analysis, collateral analytics, and margin adequacy reporting; ensure methodologies remain current with market evolution and regulatory expectations.


• Govern daily monitoring of margin template variance; develop and maintain early warning indicator dashboards and oversight processes.


• Approve adjustments to client trading margins and collateral terms in collaboration with credit risk officers.
  
  Cross-Functional Partnership.


• Serve as a senior Americas risk partner for Prime Services sales and trading MDs; collaborate on client onboarding, risk structuring, and portfolio margining solutions.


• Work closely with Credit Risk Officers to review and approve margin terms for hedge fund counterparties; sanction decisions for material trades and evolving exposures.


• Partner with the platform and technology teams to enhance risk systems, quantitative analytics infrastructure, and data quality


• Act as a senior escalation point for internal stakeholders, including risk information for senior management and client-facing risk queries.


• Communicate margin methodologies and risk management approaches clearly to existing and prospective clients; lead client-specific financing conversations and margin capability discussions alongside Prime Sales.


• Coordinate with EMEA and APAC Prime Risk leads on cross-border exposures, global governance forums, and consistent application of the global risk framework.

Governance, Reporting & Regulatory

• Prepare and present risk positions, limit utilization, and emerging concerns to the Head of Prime Brokerage Market Risk, CRO, and relevant Risk Committees.


• Sign off daily risk reporting; ensure accuracy, timeliness, and appropriate escalation of material moves.


• Serve as a senior point of contact for regulatory enquiries (SEC, FINRA, Federal Reserve) related to Prime Services risk exposures in the Americas, supporting the Head of Prime Brokerage Market Risk in regulatory interactions as required.


• Ensure adherence to and implementation of the global Prime risk framework; contribute to framework evolution as the business grows.

Team Leadership

• Help develop a team of VP- and analyst-level Prime Risk professionals globally.


• Set clear objectives, provide ongoing coaching, and build team capability in both quantitative risk techniques and business partnering.


• Foster a proactive, commercially aware risk culture that is disciplined in process and constructive in its engagement with the front office.

Required Skills & Competencies

• Demonstrated ability to lead a risk function and manage senior stakeholders, including MD-level trading and sales professionals, credit officers, and executive management.


• Deep expertise in Prime Brokerage and Delta One risk — margin mechanics, collateral management, counterparty credit exposure, and financing risk across equity and equity-linked products.


• Strong command of risk across equities, equity derivatives (swaps, futures, options), FX, rates, and securities finance products; listed derivatives and OTC cleared product knowledge is a strong advantage.


• Familiarity with CCP structures and exchange margin methodologies; experience engaging directly with CCPs on margin drivers is advantageous.


• Ability to own and lead development of margin methodologies and stress testing frameworks, not merely apply them.


• Technically capable of directing quantitative analysts and engaging critically with model output; hands-on analytical skills in Python and/or SQL are a strong advantage.


• Excellent written and oral communication; ability to distil complex risk positions into clear, actionable narratives for senior management and committees.


• Sound regulatory awareness — familiar with SEC, FINRA, and Federal Reserve expectations for Prime Services risk management in the US.


• Proven ability to operate under time pressure, make independent decisions, and escalate appropriately in fast-moving market conditions.


• High level of commercial awareness and understanding of the Prime Services business model, client base (hedge funds, family offices, institutional), and competitive landscape.
  
   

Experience & Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in Prime Brokerage risk management, hedge fund credit/margin risk, listed derivatives risk, or closely related capital markets risk roles at a bank, prime broker, FCM, or major financial institution.


• Demonstrated progression to a senior risk leadership role with team management responsibility.


• Master's degree or equivalent in Finance, Financial Engineering, Mathematics, Economics, or a related quantitative field preferred.


• CFA and/or FRM designation is an advantage.


• Proficiency in Python and/or SQL; ability to build or direct development of risk analytics tools.


• Familiarity with prime brokerage platforms, risk systems (e.g. Advent, Imagine, proprietary risk engines), and Bloomberg.


• Experience working across multiple geographies or in a global risk coordination capacity is preferred.
  
   

Primary Location Full Time Salary Range of $250,000 - $300,000.