Risk Manager - Active Trading at Clear Street in Chicago, IL

About Clear Street:

Clear Street is modernizing the brokerage ecosystem. Founded in 2018, Clear Street is a diversified financial services firm replacing the legacy infrastructure used across capital markets.

We started from scratch by building a completely cloud-native clearing and custody system designed for today’s complex, global market. Our platform is fully integrated with central clearing houses and exchanges to support billions in trading volume per day. We’ve agonized about our data model abstractions, created horizontal scalability, and crafted thoughtful APIs. All so we can provide a best-in-class experience for our clients.

By combining highly-skilled product and engineering talent with seasoned finance professionals, we’re building the essentials to compete in today’s fast-paced markets.

The Team:

Your team owns risk across Clear Street's business lines, playing a crucial role in the success of our growing business. As a Risk Manager on the Active business, you will contribute to creating, evolving, and executing risk frameworks and best practices tailored to the needs of individual professional and active traders. This is an impactful position that provides the opportunity to expand both your quantitative and client-facing skill sets, covering U.S. and international markets across multi-asset portfolios.

In this role, you will be responsible for:

Risk Monitoring & Oversight

• Monitor intraday and end-of-day risk exposures and margin requirements across Active client accounts, with particular attention to the concentrated, higher-velocity trading patterns typical of individual professional traders
• Track U.S. and international markets through OMS and risk systems, escalating material issues to senior management as needed
• Identify and respond quickly to outsized risk events, including large directional positions, concentrated single-name exposures, and leverage exceedances
• Ability to execute client liquidation trades for risk management purpose

Client Engagement

• Serve as a primary risk point of contact for Active clients, conducting account reviews, discussing margin requirements, and advising on portfolio risk in a manner appropriate for professional individual traders
• Communicate critical risk observations clearly and directly to clients, balancing firm risk discipline with a service-oriented approach suited to the Active client profile
• Support client onboarding by reviewing trading history, strategy profiles, and risk parameters to set appropriate account-level risk limits

Margin & Methodology

• Develop and maintain robust margin, risk, and stress-testing methodologies calibrated to the Active book, accounting for the trading behavior, product mix, and leverage profiles of individual professional traders
• Assess and refine margin requirements across equities, options, and other products traded by Active clients
• Support ongoing initiatives related to the development and enhancement of the firm's risk and margin platforms

Reporting & Infrastructure

• Generate and automate ad-hoc and recurring reporting to surface key risk factors and exposures across the Active client base
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders — including Technology, Product, and Operations — to improve risk management infrastructure and margin capabilities specific to the Active business
• Contribute to risk policy development and documentation as the Active business scales

Requirements:

• At least five (5) years of professional experience in trading risk, margin, brokerage risk, or a related role covering equities and listed derivatives — sell-side, buy-side, or at a retail/active trading platform
• Minimum of eight (8) years of overall professional experience in financial services
• Prior exposure to individual trader or active/retail brokerage risk is a strong plus; familiarity with the risk profiles and behaviors of high-frequency or professional individual traders preferred
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Mathematics, or Financial Engineering required
• Master's degree or CFA/FRM designation preferred
• Solid understanding of equity and listed options products, including options pricing fundamentals and associated Greeks
• Familiarity with regulatory margin frameworks applicable to individual accounts, including Reg T, portfolio margin, and intraday trading rules
• Proficiency in Python and SQL preferred
• Familiarity with industry-standard tools such as Bloomberg, ICE, FactSet, or equivalent
• SIE, Series 7, Series 57 required
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to engage confidently with individual professional traders, internal stakeholders, and regulators
• Proactive, collaborative, and a strong team player with a high sense of ownership
• Demonstrated project management experience and the ability to work closely with engineering and cross-functional teams
• Analytical and detail-oriented, with strong quantitative aptitude
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment where client interactions are frequent and time-sensitive

We Offer:

The Base Salary Range for this role is $120,000-$160,000. This range is representative of the starting base salaries for this role at Clear Street. Where a candidate falls in this range will be based on job related factors such as relevant experience, skills, and location. This range represents Base Salary only, which is just one element of Clear Street's total compensation. The range stated does not include other factors of total compensation such as bonuses or equity.

At Clear Street, we offer competitive compensation packages, company equity, 401k matching, gender neutral parental leave, and full medical, dental and vision insurance. Our belief has always been that we are better as a business when we are all together in person. As such, we are requiring employees to be in the office 4 days per week. In-office benefits include lunch stipends, fully stocked kitchens, happy hours, a great location, and amazing views.

Our top priority is our people. We’re continuously investing in a culture that promotes collaboration. We help each other through challenges and celebrate each other's successes. We believe that modern workplaces succeed by virtue of having high-performance workforces that are diverse — in ideas, in cultures, and in experiences. We put in the effort to make such a workplace a daily reality and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. #LI-Hybrid