Lead Supervisor - PISCES

Salary:  National £57,600 to £73,000 & London £63,300 to £80,000 per annum – Salary offered will be based on skills and experience

Are you interested in joining a team that will help shape and deliver the future supervision of a new type of Trading Venue at the FCA?  

The Role

We are working closely with the Government to develop the legal and regulatory framework for the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES), which will be established under the new ‘FMI Sandbox’ provisions in Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (FSMA 2023).

This sandbox is to facilitate an innovative new secondary market for private companies to offer intermittent trading of their shares. This will provide more efficient and regular liquidity events for private company shareholders and new eligible investors.

Through our work, we aim to advance market integrity, investor protection and effective competition in the interests of consumers.  You will use your analytical skills to identify risk in the business models and strategies of the firms in the portfolio.  Our team members have diverse backgrounds including regulation, trade associations, market structure, and trading.  If you have a similar interest of, or experience within, wholesale markets combined with excellent communication skills and are keen to develop your career, this could be the job for you!

What you will be doing

We are looking for a talented individual to drive setting up and supervising firms applying to be operators of intermittent trading venues under the PISCES regime. The role sits within the Flexible Trading Venues team within the Trading Venues & Corporate Finance Firms Department of the FCA.  

Your role will contribute to setting the FCA’s PISCES supervisory strategy from a Wholesale Markets perspective and supervising PISCES trading venues. You may also be required to contribute to the broader work of the Flexible Trading Venues supervision team, which includes overseeing trading venues (Recognised Investment Exchanges, Multilateral Trading Facilities and Organised Trading Facilities) offering markets in a variety of financial instruments including equities, derivatives and commodities. 

This is an exciting opportunity in a ground-breaking project, duties will include but not be limited too:

• Working with other team members (including seniors) to help drive the design, development and delivery of our supervision strategy for PISCES firms

• Work with PISCES applicant firms, and with the FCA’s Authorisations and Policy teams, to determine whether and how FCA’s criteria for entry are met

• Once authorised, direct engagement with PISCES venues to improve our understanding of firm specific issues and the markets they operate within

• Deal with complex issues and cases and be expected to work alone making informed supervisory judgements and recommendations by applying your regulatory knowledge and experience

• Provide support and guidance to team members and may have some management responsibility overseeing resource within the PISCES portfolio as the strategy develops

• Support wider team workstreams relating to MTF/OTF firms, for example developing reactive cases and providing input into new applications

What will you get from the role?

• Experience driving forward an important FCA initiative pursuant to the broader agenda of capital markets reform

• An opportunity to work with a team and wider department at the forefront of the FCA’s work in this area

• An in-depth, cutting edge insight into the regulated industry and the relevant regulations and legislation

• Satisfying, worthwhile and responsible work with the opportunity to use and develop your skills in complex situations

• A challenging, interesting and varied portfolio of work, working with colleagues from across the department and other parts of the FCA

• Work in a high-energy and stimulating department, within a supportive team environment that continually seeks to develop individuals

• A future career path that offers opportunities for progression across the organisation

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifestyle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash. Core benefits that you will receive as standard are: 

• 25 days holiday per year  

• Private healthcare with Bupa 

• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of your basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach the age of 35)

• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary 

• Income protection 

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.

The skills and experience you’ll have 

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role. 

Minimum

• Proven experience of working within either wholesale financial markets or private capital markets

• Experience of monitoring/supervising a firm’s compliance with regulatory requirements

Essential

• Strong verbal and written communication skills and the ability to present well-reasoned arguments in a clear and concise manner

• Strong analytical capability with a proven ability to quickly and clearly draw out key implications from a broad and varied range of information

• Good relationship management skills to enable credible engagement with internal and external stakeholders

• The ability to proactively drive and/or manage workflow, working flexibly alongside a range of stakeholders

• The ability to use sound judgement alongside a flexible and adaptable approach

• Self-starter with proactive approach to acquiring skills

• Curiosity with an enthusiasm for learning and sharing knowledge

• The ability to prioritise competing objectives and to collaborate to build a shared agenda

• Proven organisational and time management skills

About the FCA 

The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here. 

The FCA's Values & Diversity 

Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our lead associate role.  

Flexible working  

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements.  Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares.  We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking. 

Multilocation

As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices.  This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.  

Useful information  

Applications for this role close at midnight on 13th October

This role is graded as Lead Associate - Regulatory

What to expect from our interview process  

The process will involve the below stages:

• A 30-minute case study completion followed by a 30-minute discussion on the case study

• If successful in passing the case study you will be invited to a 60-minute competency interview

Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role.

Recruitment Timetable   

Advert closing Date: 13th October 

Case study completion and discussion: 23rd-25th October

Final Interview: 30th & 31st October

Please make the recruiter aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time.

Got a question?  

If you are an external candidate and you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Aaron Ward on [email protected]

If you are an internal candidate and you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Lucy Matthews on [email protected]

Please note that all applications must be submitted through our online portal before the closing date, applications sent via email will not be accepted.

Application support

We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.   

If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible.