Senior Brokerage Operations Associate (Canada)
Your Role:
We're seeking a Senior Brokerage Operations Associate (Canada). An experienced individual contributor who has lived dealer, clearing, and custody reality and designs every process as if manual work is temporary.
You turn CIRO-aligned operating requirements into scalable, automated, auditable workflows that Product and Engineering can build against. You partner closely with the ACCC President / UDP, Compliance, Product, Engineering, and global Ops. Someone who influences through expertise, crisp documentation, and decision logs, not through a team.
Success is measured by launch readiness, STP and control quality, registered-account / tax operability, and systems others can run and not by headcount or heroic spreadsheet ops.
What you'll walk into:
You won't be starting from zero. You'll be owning live problems:
Getting ready to open: figure out how we open and maintain accounts, process trades, and hold client cash and securities on day one. Build that for ACCC rather than copying a manual process from another firm.
Working with partner brokers: define how a partner firm and ACCC split the work on accounts, trades, and holding client assets, so it still works as volume grows.
After the trade: settlement in Canada (through CDS), trades that fail to settle, and corporate actions such as dividends and splits. Automate the routine cases and keep a clear list of exceptions, instead of running the book in spreadsheets.
Registered accounts and tax: TFSA, RRSP, RESP, and similar accounts. Cover who can open them, contribution rules, what a security cost, tax withheld on dividends and other income, and the reports clients and partners need.
The day after launch: written steps for daily work, checks that our records match the custodian and the market, contacts at vendors and custodians, and a plan if a system or vendor fails. Have these ready before real client volume shows up.
Building Canada: clear handoffs between product, engineering, and operations teams.
What you’ll own:
Account lifecycle & client/introducing-broker servicing (onboarding handoffs, KYC/AML ops interfaces, maintenance, transfers)
Trade lifecycle (capture, affirmation, clearing, settlement, fails, breaks)
Custody & asset servicing (segregation, security movements, corporate actions, cash)
Books & records, reconciliations, exception management, and operational controls
Registered accounts & tax ops: TFSA, RRSP, RESP and related wrappers; tax lots / cost basis; withholding; local reporting partners need to stay compliant
Day-2 production ops: runbooks, escalations, vendor/custody interfaces, BCP/DR operational playbooks
How you’ll work:
Translate Canadian reality into runnable process — CIRO-aligned dealer/clearing/custody expectations, introducing–carrying dynamics, custody controls, and operational risk into SOPs, RACI, controls, and exception paths Product and Engineering can build against
Automation-first by default — redesign high-volume / high-risk / high-friction work for straight-through processing, rules, exception queues, and measurable SLAs, instead of spreadsheet heroics
AI-first operating lens — Prototype and productize AI-assisted ops (exception triage, recon investigation, SOP Q&A, control-testing support, runbook copilots) with human oversight where risk or regulation requires it
Go-live and beyond — Readiness for ACCC launch and early production; continuous improvement after go-live
Raise the bar without managing a team — Coach partners through expertise, crisp documentation, and decision logs; leave systems others can run
How we'll measure success:
Launch readiness gates met with documented controls, SOPs, RACI, and runbooks Product / Eng / Ops can execute against
STP, exception, and reconciliation aging targets defined and trending the right way post go-live
Registered-account and tax workflows ready when partners launch, rather than added later
Specs and decision logs that remove re-discovery for Product and Engineering
Systems and playbooks others can run after you, so knowledge sticks in the org and not only in one person's head
Who you are (Must-haves):
10+ years deep, hands-on Canadian brokerage operations experience at a CIRO dealer, carrying broker, custodian, clearing firm, or brokerage ops function in Canada
Fluent in the plumbing: clearing / settlement, custody, CDS / CDSX (or equivalent), fails, corp actions, tax, cash / securities ops, account servicing, introducing / carrying arrangements
Demonstrated depth in at least two of: clearing / settlement; custody & asset servicing; books & records / reconciliations; registered accounts & tax
Regulatory-literate (CIRO / provincial securities / CSA context). You design operable controls, and you are not the UDP or compliance sign-off owner
Builder: you've redesigned and shipped process + tooling changes that stuck, not only run BAU
Practical with automation and AI (workflow automation, rules engines, RPA, or AI-assisted ops). You know where AI helps and where controls must stay deterministic
Exceptional written communication: SOPs, RACI, decision logs, and requirements that cross-functional teams can ship against
Who you might be (Nice-to-haves):
Greenfield Canadian dealer / clearing / custody stand-up
API-first or broker-as-a-service / correspondent platforms
US and Canada dual-entity operations
Deep CDS / CDSX or Canadian market-infrastructure experience
Registered-account or Canadian tax-ops stand-up (TFSA, RRSP, RESP, tax lots, withholding, reporting)
AI-native ops workflow: recurring use of tools like Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, or custom agents for SOP drafting, exception synthesis, and prototyping