As highlighted in the Chancellor’s recent Mansion House speech, the FCA is developing the legal and regulatory framework for the new Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES).  This is a new type of UK trading venue that will allow unlisted companies to trade their shares in a secondary market.  PISCES will provide more efficient and regular liquidity events for private company shareholders and new eligible investors.

PISCES will operate in a regulatory sandbox, which will be established under the ‘Financial Market Infrastructure Sandbox’ provisions in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023.

Through our work, we aim to advance market integrity, investor protection and effective competition in the interests of consumers.  Your role will help set the FCA’s PISCES supervisory strategy from a Wholesale Markets perspective and supervise PISCES trading venues. You may also be required to contribute to broader work in our supervision team, which oversees trading venues (Recognised Investment Exchanges, Multilateral Trading Facilities and Organised Trading Facilities) offering markets in a variety of financial instruments, including equities, derivatives and commodities. 

This is an exciting and unique role for anyone with experience in wholesale markets, and it offers an opportunity to shape and deliver the supervision environment for an innovative new market segment.

What you will be doing

We are looking for a talented individual to lead the set-up of the new PISCES supervisory framework and supervise firms applying to join the sandbox.  You will use your skills to identify risks in the business models and strategies of firms applying to join the PISCES initiative.  This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a ground-breaking project, and you will:

• Work with other team members and senior management to help drive the design, development and delivery of our supervision strategy for PISCES firms.
• Work with PISCES applicant firms and with the FCA’s Authorisations and Policy teams to determine whether and how our criteria for authorisation are met.
• Engage with authorised PISCES venues to improve our understanding of the firms and their markets.
• Deal with complex issues and cases, and make informed supervisory recommendations by applying your regulatory knowledge and experience.
• Provide support and guidance to team members and oversee resources within the PISCES portfolio as the strategy develops.
• Support the supervisory team’s activities relating to Muli-Lateral Trading Facility/Organised Trading Facility firms, for example, by developing reactive cases and providing input into new applications.

The role sits in the Flexible Trading Venues supervision team, in the Trading Venues & Corporate Finance Firms Department of the FCA.  Our team members have diverse backgrounds including regulation, trade associations, market structure, and trading.

What will you get from the role?

• Experience driving forward an important FCA initiative, supporting our broad agenda of capital markets reform
• An opportunity to work with a team and department at the forefront of the FCA’s work in this area
• An in-depth insight into the relevant regulations and legislation and how they apply to the industry
• Satisfying, worthwhile and responsible work with the opportunity to use and develop your skills in complex situations
• A challenging, interesting and varied portfolio of work, working with colleagues from across the department and other parts of the FCA
• A high-energy and stimulating workplace in a supportive team environment that continually seeks to develop individuals
• A future career path that offers opportunities for progression across the organisation

Our competitive, flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package tailored to suit your lifestyle. You can use the package to subscribe to additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or top up your base salary. Core benefits that you will receive as standard are: 

• 25 days holiday per year  
• Private healthcare cover 
• A non-contributory pension of between 8% and 12% of your basic salary, depending on age
• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary 
• Income protection cover

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month, with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.

The skills and experience you’ll have 

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering the scheme who best meet the minimum criteria for a role. 

Minimum

• Proven experience working within either wholesale financial markets or private capital markets
• Experience in monitoring/supervising a firm’s compliance with regulatory requirements

Essential

• Strong verbal and written communication skills and the ability to present well-reasoned arguments in a clear and concise manner
• Strong analytical capability with a proven ability to draw out quickly and clearly key implications from a broad and varied range of information
• Good relationship management skills to enable credible engagement with internal and external stakeholders
• The ability to proactively drive and manage workflow, working flexibly alongside a range of stakeholders
• The ability to use sound judgement alongside a flexible and adaptable approach
• Self-starter with a proactive approach to acquiring skills
• The ability to prioritise competing objectives and to collaborate to build a shared agenda
• Proven organisational and time management skills

About the FCA 

The FCA regulates the conduct of 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here. 

The FCA's Values & Diversity 

Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisation. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our lead associate role.  

Flexible working  

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements.  Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares.  We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking. 

Multilocation

As part of the FCA’s ongoing commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices.  This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.  

Useful information  

Applications for this role close at midnight on 1st December

This role is graded as Lead Associate - Regulatory

What to expect from our interview process  

The process will involve:

• Completing a 30-minute case study, followed by a 30-minute discussion on the study
• If successful in passing the case study, you will be invited to a 60-minute competency interview

Your recruiter will discuss the process with you in detail during the screening for the role.

Recruitment Timetable   

Advert closing Date: 1st December

Case study completion and discussion: 11th-13th December

Final Interview: 18th-20th December

Please let the recruiter know if you are going to be unavailable on any date during this time.

Got a question?  

If you are an external candidate and you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Aaron Ward at aaron.ward@fca.org.uk

If you are an internal candidate and you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Lucy Matthews at lucy.matthews@fca.org.uk

Please note that all applications must be submitted through our online portal before the closing date. Applications sent via email will not be accepted.

Application support

We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.   

If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible.