Trade Surveillance Analyst 1 — Financial Crimes Department
Your Role:
Alpaca is seeking a Trade Surveillance Analyst to join the Financial Crimes Department and support the firm’s market-integrity, financial-crime, and compliance surveillance program. This role will be responsible for monitoring trading activity, reviewing alerts, investigating suspicious or potentially manipulative trading behavior, and escalating matters that may involve market abuse, fraud, insider trading, wash trading, spoofing, layering, front-running, information-barrier concerns, or other suspicious trading patterns.
The analyst will use Surveyor by Trillium and Alpaca’s internal systems to conduct near real-time and post-trade reviews, identify anomalies, document investigative findings, and support internal escalations, regulatory inquiries, and matters that may require suspicious-activity reporting. The role combines strong investigative judgment, trade-surveillance expertise, AML & Fraud awareness, and the ability to operate in a fast-paced, technology-driven trading environment.
Things You Get To Do:
Development, review, and test trade-surveillance scenarios, alert logic, escalation procedures, and control documentation
Make sure procedures and processes are well documented, and distributed to all stakeholders. Ensuring updates are properly accounted for as needed but no less than once per year
Monitor trading activity using Surveyor and Alpaca’s internal systems to identify potential market abuse, suspicious trading, unusual order behavior, and other conduct risks
Review and investigate trade-surveillance alerts involving potential spoofing, layering, wash trading, front-running, insider trading, manipulative order activity, information-barrier issues, or other suspicious trading patterns
Analyze trading activity in the context of market events, client behavior, account activity, transaction patterns, and relevant internal information to determine whether activity is reasonable, unusual, or suspicious
Conduct real-time and post-trade reviews to detect anomalies, assess risk, and determine whether escalation is appropriate
Clearly document surveillance reviews, investigative steps, evidence reviewed, rationale, conclusions, and recommended next actions
Escalate suspicious or high-risk matters to AML leadership, Compliance, Legal, Risk, and other appropriate internal stakeholders
Coordinate with the AML Department on trading-related investigations, including matters that may require suspicious-activity review or SAR consideration
Support KYC/AML and transaction-monitoring processes by identifying trading behavior that may indicate financial-crime risk, account misuse, fraud, market manipulation, or other suspicious activity
Respond to internal escalations involving trading activity, account behavior, customer activity, or potential violations of firm policy
Assist with regulatory inquiries, audit requests, internal reviews, and other examinations related to trade surveillance, AML, and market-integrity controls
Partner with Compliance, Legal, Risk, Technology, Operations, and business stakeholders to strengthen Alpaca’s surveillance framework and improve investigation workflows
Identify emerging surveillance risks, suspicious-trading typologies, control gaps, and opportunities to improve the quality and effectiveness of the trade-surveillance program
Prepare clear summaries, metrics, and management reporting related to trade-surveillance activity, alert trends, escalations, and investigation outcomes
Maintain strong knowledge of relevant market-abuse risks, AML red flags, trading behaviors, and regulatory expectations applicable to Alpaca’s business
Who You Are (Must-Haves):
5+ years of experience in Fintech trade surveillance, AML investigations, transaction monitoring, financial-crime compliance, brokerage compliance, market surveillance, risk, investigations, or a related control function
Experience working at a broker-dealer, fintech, trading platform, exchange, introducing broker, clearing firm, market maker, proprietary trading firm, crypto trading or other regulated financial institution
Strong understanding of trading activity, order behavior, market structure, customer activity, and potential indicators of market manipulation or suspicious activity
Familiarity with market-abuse typologies, including spoofing, layering, wash trading, front-running, insider trading, unusual price or volume activity, and manipulative order behavior
Ability to review trading data, identify behavioral patterns, investigate exceptions, and form well-supported conclusions
Experience documenting investigations in a clear, concise, and audit-ready manner
Strong analytical skills, sound judgment, attention to detail, and ability to prioritize multiple reviews or investigations
High integrity, discretion, and ability to handle confidential information appropriately
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex trading activity to AML, Compliance, Legal, Risk, Technology, and business stakeholders
Ability to work independently while collaborating across teams in a fast-paced environment
FINRA Series 7 license
Who You Might Be (Nice-to-Haves):
Experience using Surveyor by Trillium for trade surveillance, alert review, investigation, or escalation workflows
FINRA Series 24