Chief Operating Officer

Chief Operating Officer - Velox Clearing

Velox Clearing is a correspondent-clearing broker-dealer seeking an accomplished, hands-on Chief Operating Officer to lead and scale its clearing operations. This executive will oversee the day-to-day operational infrastructure supporting the clearing, settlement, custody, financing, and servicing of equity and listed-options activity.

The COO will be responsible for operational resilience, regulatory readiness, client service, controls, and continuous improvement across the firm. This role requires deep experience in U.S. broker-dealer clearing operations, including DTCC/NSCC/DTC and OCC processes, margin and collateral management, settlement funding, securities lending, corporate actions, and regulatory operations.

The successful candidate combines senior operational judgment with a willingness to engage directly in complex, time-sensitive matters. They will partner closely with the CEO, Finance, Compliance, Risk Management, Technology, and client-facing teams to support the firm’s growth while maintaining a strong control environment.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Leadership

• Lead and manage the Operations function, including staffing, workflows, supervision, training, business continuity, and succession planning.
• Establish, maintain, and enhance operating procedures, supervisory controls, service-level standards, escalation protocols, and operational risk controls.
• Build a culture of ownership, urgency, accuracy, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Develop operational KPIs, KRIs, dashboards, and management reporting to monitor productivity, error rates, aging exceptions, client service, settlement exposure, and control effectiveness.
• Present periodic operational performance, risks, capacity needs, and strategic initiatives to the CEO and executive leadership.

Clearing and Settlement

• Oversee daily clearing and settlement operations for equities, ETFs, listed options, and related products.
• Manage and supervise core DTCC/NSCC/DTC processes, including trade comparison and reconciliation, CNS settlement, securities movements, fails management, stock record and position reconciliation, ACATS/transfer activity, and deposit/withdrawal activity.
• Oversee OCC clearing and settlement activities, including options trade reconciliation, exercise and assignment processing, expiration processing, OCC margin-related operations, collateral movements, and exception management.
• Ensure accurate and timely processing of IPO allocations, new-issue allocations, restricted securities workflows, and related securities movements, as applicable.
• Maintain operational readiness for market volatility, high-volume days, corporate action events, settlement disruptions, and clearinghouse intraday requirements.

Margin, Collateral, and Liquidity

• Partner with Risk Management and Finance to oversee daily margin processes, including client margin calls, house and customer margin deficits, concentration-related requirements, collateral eligibility, and intraday exposures.
• Monitor and manage firm settlement obligations, clearing fund and margin requirements, collateral movements, financing needs, liquidity forecasting, and intraday funding requirements.
• Coordinate with Finance on cash management, bank balances, wire controls, payment approvals, settlement funding, and reconciliations.
• Oversee the movement and pledge of firm collateral to support regulatory capital, clearinghouse obligations, and operating liquidity needs.
• Escalate material settlement, margin, collateral, liquidity, customer debit, or concentration concerns promptly to executive management and the appropriate control functions.

Securities Lending and Corporate Actions

• Oversee securities lending and borrowing operations, including borrow availability, recalls, returns, marks, contract comparisons, collateral movements, and stock-loan reconciliations.
• Partner with Compliance and Risk Management on Regulation SHO controls, close-out requirements, locate processes, threshold securities monitoring, and related reporting or escalation.
• Oversee voluntary and mandatory corporate actions, including dividends, reorganizations, tender offers, mergers, conversions, rights offerings, spin-offs, and option-adjustment events.
• Ensure timely communication and processing of corporate-action elections and entitlements for introducing brokers and underlying customers.

Client and Market-Participant Management

• Serve as a senior operations contact for correspondent clients, executing venues, custodians, banks, clearing agencies, technology vendors, and other market participants.
• Strengthen operational client service, including onboarding coordination, account and operational setup, issue resolution, reporting, settlement support, and escalation management.
• Work with execution venues and technology providers to resolve trade breaks, connectivity issues, market-structure changes, and operational exceptions.
• Support the design and implementation of new client-facing and back-office products, processes, reports, integrations, and workflow enhancements.

Regulatory and Control Environment

• Maintain a thorough understanding of broker-dealer operational obligations and relevant regulatory requirements, including FINRA, SEC, DTCC/NSCC/DTC, OCC, and applicable exchange rules.
• Coordinate operational readiness for FINRA examinations, regulatory inquiries, clearing-agency reviews, audits, and client due diligence requests.
• Work closely with Compliance on operational components of books and records, customer protection, AML/KYC escalation, sanctions-related holds, suspicious activity referrals, and regulatory reporting.
• Partner with Finance and Compliance on operational aspects of SEC Rule 15c3-3, including reserve formula inputs, customer segregation, possession or control processes, securities deficits, and related reconciliations.
• Identify operational control gaps, perform root-cause analysis on significant errors or breaks, and drive sustainable remediation.

Technology and Process Improvement

• Partner with Technology to prioritize automation, data quality, workflow controls, operational reporting, reconciliation tools, exception management, and business-continuity capabilities.
• Translate operational requirements into clear business requirements, testing plans, control specifications, and implementation priorities.
• Improve straight-through processing, reduce manual touchpoints, and strengthen exception-based workflows without compromising controls.
• Support data-driven decision-making through SQL, relational databases, operational reporting, and analytical tools.

Qualifications

Required Experience

• Significant leadership experience in broker-dealer clearing operations, correspondent clearing, prime brokerage, carrying brokerage, or a comparable clearing and custody environment.
• Deep working knowledge of U.S. equity and listed-options clearing and settlement operations.
• Demonstrated experience with DTCC, including NSCC and DTC functions, and OCC clearing, settlement, exercise/assignment, and margin-related operations.
• Practical experience overseeing margin operations, settlement funding, collateral movements, cash management, securities lending, corporate actions, and trade/position reconciliation.
• Experience managing operational teams in a high-volume, deadline-driven, highly regulated environment.
• Experience working directly with FINRA, DTCC, OCC, banks, execution venues, vendors, auditors, and regulators.
• Demonstrated ability to identify operational, settlement, liquidity, credit, market, and regulatory risks and escalate issues appropriately.
• Strong record of improving workflows, controls, service levels, and operational scalability.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a correspondent-clearing or self-clearing broker-dealer environment.
• Familiarity with SEC Rule 15c3-3, customer protection requirements, reserve computations, possession or control, and related operational reconciliations.
• Working knowledge of Regulation SHO, stock-loan operations, ACATS, and securities transfer processes.
• Familiarity with AML/KYC operational controls, client onboarding, sanctions escalation, and suspicious-activity referral processes.
• Experience with clearing and operational platforms, reconciliation tools, market-data systems, and workflow-automation initiatives.
• Strong SQL skills or experience working with relational databases, data extracts, operational dashboards, and business-intelligence tools.
• Programming, automation, or systems-analysis experience is a plus.

Core Competencies

• Exceptional operational judgment and attention to detail.
• Ability to operate calmly and decisively during market stress, settlement events, high-volume days, and time-sensitive exceptions.
• Strong people leadership, coaching, and organizational-development skills.
• Ability to balance client service, commercial objectives, regulatory obligations, and prudent risk management.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex operational issues to executives, regulators, clients, and technical teams.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities, with an emphasis on root-cause remediation rather than temporary workarounds.
• High integrity, sound judgment, and commitment to a strong compliance and risk culture.

Education and Licensing

• Bachelor’s degree required; a degree in finance, business, accounting, economics, computer science, engineering, mathematics, or a related field is preferred.
• 10+ years of relevant broker-dealer, clearing, custody, or financial-market-infrastructure experience, including at least 5 years of meaningful management responsibility.
• FINRA Series 7 and Series 24 licenses required
• Additional FINRA registrations, such as Series 4, Series 27, are a plus
• Clean Form U4 and successful completion of all applicable background checks are required.

Position Details

• Full-time, senior leadership role.
• Onsite position in Miami FL
• Competitive compensation package commensurate with experience.
• Healthcare, dental, vision, life insurance, and long-term disability benefits.
• Opportunity to help shape the operational strategy, infrastructure, and growth of a correspondent-clearing broker-dealer.