Operations Lead - Trading

About the Company

Sei Labs is a unicorn startup based in NYC building Sei, the fastest EVM blockchain in the world designed for trading. We're building a decentralized Wall Street. We're a lean, remote-first team that ships fast, takes full ownership of outcomes and builds from first principles.

Sei Labs is incubating a new US regulated exchange from zero to one. You'd be the first hire in your function, with the speed and ownership of a startup and the backing of an established company and an S-tier team (Robinhood, Coinbase, Google, etc.)

About the role

As Operations Lead, you will own the daily operating engine of our FCM: making sure every trade, position, margin call, cash movement and customer account is processed accurately, on time and under documented controls. You will be the first-line owner of the trade lifecycle and of back- and middle-office operations. You will work closely with Compliance, Risk, Finance and Engineering, with clear first- and second-line responsibilities. You will build the operating model, write the procedures and run them from day one. As volume grows, you will build the team under you.

What you'll do

• Trade lifecycle and clearing: own end-to-end trade flow, including trade capture and booking, DCM/DCO and other applicable clearing interfaces, and the daily clearing files, statements and confirmations. Make sure data flows in and out correctly.
• Reconciliations and exceptions: run daily trade, position, margin, fee and cash reconciliations, and drive breaks to resolution.
• Margin and positions: run margin processing, margin calls and settlement, and coordinate customer liquidations or position reductions with Risk when thresholds are breached.
• Treasury and customer funds: operate deposit and withdrawal flows across fiat and stablecoin rails, bank and depository movements, and dual-control approvals. Provide the reconciled cash, margin and customer-account data supporting Finance/CFO segregation and residual-interest calculations, and execute required funding movements under established controls.
• Account lifecycle and customer operations: own the handoff from KYC/AML approval into account opening, plus account maintenance, statements and tax-document workflows. Once live, own operational customer escalations.
• Vendors and resilience: own day-to-day relationships with clearing houses, banks, custodians, funding rails and back-office systems. Run SLAs, incident management and BCP/DR, and lead launch readiness.
• Controls and governance: write procedures, maker-checker controls, key risk and control indicators, and management reporting. Keep clear lines of responsibility with Compliance, Risk, Finance and Engineering.
• Regulatory credibility: explain and defend the operating model to regulators during registration and exams.

What you bring

• 6+ years of progressively responsible futures/clearing operations experience
• Hands-on, end-to-end trade flow experience: execution, clearing, settlement and reporting.
• Deep experience with position management and margin.
• Working knowledge of FCM obligations, including customer funds segregation, daily segregation computations and books and records.
• A clean regulatory record, with no NFA or FINRA disciplinary history.
• Strong process and control design skills, and comfort writing the playbook rather than following one.
• Data fluency (SQL or advanced Excel) and the ability to partner with engineers on automation.
• Autonomy and composure in a 0-to-1 environment where priorities shift often.

Nice to have

• Experience with fiat and stablecoin funding rails, or with crypto custody operations.
• Experience with 24/7 markets or perpetual futures.
• Risk operations exposure, such as pre-trade limits and liquidation workflows.
• Experience standing up a new FCM, broker-dealer or product line.
• Familiarity with back-office platforms such as FIS GMI, Rolfe & Nolan, Broadridge or ION, and with CME clearing tools.
• Series 3 or equivalent registration.

#LI-CG1