Trade Surveillance Analyst 1 — Financial Crimes Department
Alpaca provides developer APIs for stock, options, and crypto trading, enabling businesses and developers to build trading applications and automate investment strategies.
Projects
About Alpaca
Alpaca helps developers and businesses access financial markets through API-first infrastructure for stock, options, and cryptocurrency trading. Users can build algorithmic trading strategies, create investing applications, and integrate brokerage services into their platforms.
Skills
About the Role
You will join the Financial Crimes Department and support the firm's market-integrity, financial-crime, and compliance surveillance program. You will monitor trading activity, review alerts, and investigate suspicious or potentially manipulative trading behavior such as spoofing, layering, wash trading, front-running, and insider trading. You will use Surveyor by Trillium and internal systems to conduct near real-time and post-trade reviews, identify anomalies, and document investigative findings. You will escalate high-risk matters to AML leadership, Compliance, Legal, and Risk, support regulatory inquiries and audits, and prepare summaries and management reporting on surveillance activity. You will also help strengthen the surveillance framework by identifying emerging risks and control gaps in a fast-paced, technology-driven trading environment.
Requirements
- 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 indicators of market manipulation or suspicious activity
- Familiarity with market-abuse typologies including spoofing, layering, wash trading, front-running, insider trading, 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
- Ability to work independently while collaborating across teams in a fast-paced environment
- FINRA Series 7 license
- Experience using Surveyor by Trillium (nice-to-have)
- FINRA Series 24 (nice-to-have)
Responsibilities
- Develop, review, and test trade-surveillance scenarios, alert logic, escalation procedures, and control documentation
- Document and distribute procedures and processes to all stakeholders, ensuring updates at least once per year
- Monitor trading activity using Surveyor and internal systems to identify potential market abuse and suspicious trading
- Review and investigate trade-surveillance alerts involving spoofing, layering, wash trading, front-running, insider trading, and other suspicious patterns
- Analyze trading activity in the context of market events, client behavior, and transaction patterns
- Conduct real-time and post-trade reviews to detect anomalies and assess risk
- Document surveillance reviews, investigative steps, evidence, conclusions, and recommended next actions
- Escalate suspicious or high-risk matters to AML leadership, Compliance, Legal, Risk, and other stakeholders
- Coordinate with the AML Department on trading-related investigations and SAR considerations
- Support KYC/AML and transaction-monitoring processes by identifying financial-crime risk indicators
- Respond to internal escalations involving trading activity and potential policy violations
- Assist with regulatory inquiries, audit requests, and internal reviews
- Partner with Compliance, Legal, Risk, Technology, Operations, and business stakeholders to improve investigation workflows
- Identify emerging surveillance risks, suspicious-trading typologies, and control gaps
- Prepare summaries, metrics, and management reporting on surveillance activity and investigation outcomes
- Maintain knowledge of market-abuse risks, AML red flags, and regulatory expectations
Benefits
- Stock options
- Health benefits
- New hire home-office setup stipend of USD $500
- Monthly stipend of USD $150 via a Brex Card
