Head of Risk Technology - Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund - CTO Visibility - Market Leading Compensation
A leading multi‑strategy alternative investment manager is seeking a Head of Risk Technology to own the design and evolution of its cross‑asset risk platform while leading a focused, high‑calibre engineering team. The environment is deliberately lean but resourced: the remit is to modernise and industrialise risk systems in a pragmatic way, with clear sponsorship from senior Risk and Technology leadership and an explicit mandate to prioritise depth and robustness over unchecked scope.
You will sit at the intersection of Risk, Front Office and Technology, with clearly defined accountabilities around platform reliability, delivery priorities and stakeholder engagement, rather than diffuse “own everything” expectations. Success is measured against agreed objectives for coverage, performance, stability and adoption, and you will have the autonomy to sequence work sensibly rather than react purely to ad‑hoc demands.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the architecture and technical strategy for market, liquidity and counterparty risk platforms, with a clear and realistic roadmap that is jointly agreed with the Chief Risk Officer and Head of Technology.
- Work closely with risk managers, quants and portfolio managers to translate risk methodologies (VaR, expected shortfall, factor and Greeks‑based risk, liquidity and concentration limits) into maintainable, well‑documented systems, with agreed sign‑off on requirements and changes.
- Lead the design and implementation of a coherent risk data model across asset classes, focusing first on the most material products and risk factors to avoid “boil the ocean” projects.
- Build and evolve risk analytics and calculation services that balance sophistication with operational simplicity, emphasising testability, observability and graceful degradation during market stress.
- Drive the roadmap for risk dashboards and visualisation tools, with an emphasis on real usage: partner with end‑users to iterate on UX and establish feedback loops, training and support to encourage adoption.
- Establish and enforce practical software engineering standards (testing, CI, code review, monitoring, SLAs, incident playbooks) that are appropriate for a lean team but still meet institutional expectations.
- Collaborate with data and infrastructure teams so that data quality, ingestion pipelines and reconciliations are treated as shared responsibilities, not problems handed solely to risk technology.
- Take structured ownership of production stability for risk systems, including clear on‑call rotations, sensible out‑of‑hours expectations and post‑incident reviews focused on systemic fixes rather than blame.
- Hire, mentor and retain a small, senior engineering team, giving them meaningful ownership of components while ensuring they are shielded from unnecessary noise and context switching.
- Evaluate build‑versus‑buy choices systematically, using criteria agreed with Risk and Technology leadership, and ensuring that vendor tools are integrated in ways that avoid long‑term lock‑in or opaque black‑box risk.
Candidate Profile
- Extensive experience (typically 10+ years) in risk or quant technology at a top‑tier hedge fund, proprietary trading firm, investment bank or electronic market‑maker, including a track record of delivering production platforms rather than only prototypes.
- Strong hands‑on engineering skills in at least one major language used for risk engines (e.g. C++, Java or C#), plus experience with Python or similar for data tooling, with the willingness to remain involved in design and code for critical components.
- Deep, practical understanding of market risk concepts (VaR, PnL attribution, stress testing, scenario design, sensitivities/Greeks, liquidity and basis risk) and how they feed into everyday decision‑making for CROs and PMs.
- Experience simplifying complex, legacy‑plus‑greenfield environments: you know how to progressively rationalise tactical tools and spreadsheets without attempting an unrealistic “big bang” rewrite.
- Demonstrated ability to set boundaries and priorities: comfortable saying “no” or “not now” to stakeholders when necessary, and skilled at explaining trade‑offs between speed, model sophistication and operational robustness.
- Proven leadership of small, senior teams in high‑stakes environments, including managing incident response calmly and fostering a culture of learning rather than blame when issues occur.
- Strong communication and relationship‑building skills, able to represent risk technology credibly to senior management and to secure buy‑in for platform and process changes.
- Appetite for operating in a collaborative, in‑office culture, with short decision lines and direct access to senior risk and investment leadership, and with a clear understanding of the personal accountability that comes with that.