Chief Operating Officer (COO) — Forex/CFD Brokerage

We’re seeking a hands-on COO with deep Forex/CFD brokerage experience to scale a multi-jurisdiction operation (UAE + international). You will own day-to-day execution across trading operations, risk, client lifecycle, payments, and service quality—while ensuring strict regulatory compliance and profitable growth.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Leadership

• Own E2E operations: onboarding → funding → trading → risk → withdrawals → retention → complaints.

• Design and enforce SOPs, SLAs, and internal controls across all departments; drive a metrics-first culture.

• Lead daily ops stand-ups and weekly performance reviews (KPI dashboards).

Trading & Risk

• Oversee Dealing Desk (A/B-book policy), exposure limits, auto-hedging, LP routing, symbol settings, markups, swaps.

• Optimize execution quality (slippage, rejection, latency) and spreads vs margin targets.

• Approve exception handling (outages, fat-finger, pricing disputes), lead monthly P&L & risk committees.

Technology & Platforms

• Govern MT4/MT5 admin, bridge/aggregator, liquidity/prime broker integrations, FIX/API, pricing streams.

• Coordinate with IT for uptime/DR/BCP; manage incident post-mortems and platform change management.

Payments & Finance Ops

• Own payment flows (PSPs, crypto rails, bank wires), reconciliation, chargebacks, risk rules, and treasury routing.

• Reduce unit costs (PSP fees, card acceptance rates, FX conversion), improve straight-through processing.

Client Experience & Growth Enablement

• Partner with Sales/Marketing on funnels, onboarding speed (KYC < X hours), NPS, retention and upsell programs.

• Implement VIP/IB/affiliate operating frameworks with transparent rebate/commission controls.

Compliance & Governance

• Ensure day-to-day alignment with UAE SCA requirements and other licenses (e.g., FSA Seychelles, FINTRAC Canada, etc.).

• Enforce AML/CFT, market abuse, best execution, TCF, complaint handling, adverse media, SAR/STR escalation.

• Maintain internal audit readiness, board reporting, policy library, and regulatory correspondence.

People & Culture

• Build, mentor, and performance-manage high-caliber teams; implement shift models (24/5 or 24/7 as required).

• Set clear OKRs; align compensation/bonus with risk-adjusted profitability and client outcomes.

Nice to Have

• Multi-jurisdiction rollout experience (GCC, EU, Africa, LatAm, or Asia).

• Experience integrating CRM/Back-office and BI tools.

• Familiarity with prop-trading overlays, PAMM/copy trading, and asset-management modules.
  

Core Competencies

• Operational Excellence • Risk Discipline • Regulatory Rigor • Financial Acumen

• Process Design & Automation • Cross-functional Leadership • Vendor/Liquidity Negotiation

• Crisis Management & Incident Response • Clear, concise communication (Board-ready)

Required Experience

• 8–12+ years in FX/CFD brokerage, with 5+ years in Ops/Risk leadership; prior COO / Head of Operations / Director of Trading Ops strongly preferred.

• Proven expertise with MT4/MT5, bridges/aggregators (oneZero, PrimeXM, Centroid, Gold-i), LP/Prime relationships, and execution analytics.

• Hands-on with A/B-book strategy, exposure caps, and P&L stewardship.

• Strong regulatory track record (UAE SCA or equivalent Tier-1/2 regimes), AML frameworks, audits, and remediation.

• Payments stack know-how: PSPs, card acquiring, crypto rails, treasury, reconciliation, chargebacks.

• Data-driven operator: builds dashboards, interrogates metrics, and scales processes.