Head of Operations - Digital Asset Hedge Fund

Role Overview

The Head of Operations is responsible for the integrity, resilience, and scalability of the firm’s end-to-end operating model, covering execution through settlement, reconciliation, NAV support, reporting, treasury, and investor operations.

This role sits at the centre of the platform and owns the operational system that enables efficient trading at scale while meeting institutional expectations across controls, transparency, and risk management.

The role leads both Middle Office (control) and Operations (execution) as a single integrated function and serves as the primary escalation owner for operational incidents, market events, and counterparty or custody issues.

Key Responsibilities

End-to-End Operating Model Ownership

• Own and continuously evolve the operating model across:
• Trading & execution (exchanges, brokers, OTC)
• Post-trade operations, settlements, custody, and treasury
• Reconciliations (positions, cash, P&L, fees)
• Define and enforce operational accountability across Middle Office and Operations, including documented procedures, controls, and runbooks.
• Ensure workflows scale effectively across strategies, venues, and jurisdictions.

Leadership of Middle Office & Operations

• Lead Middle Office and Operations as a single, integrated operating system.
• Establish performance standards, control expectations, and escalation frameworks.
• Hire, develop, and retain high-calibre operational talent aligned with a trading- and technology-centric culture.
• Drive execution discipline through daily cadence, break management, control cycles, and continuous improvement.

Control Framework & Governance

• Ensure robust controls across:
• Trade capture and lifecycle integrity
• Position and cash reconciliations
• Wallet management and approval processes
• Transfers, limits, and data integrity
• Reporting accuracy and transparency
• Own and maintain operational governance artefacts, including:
• Evidence logs and control checklists
• Exception reporting
• Incident playbooks and escalation matrices
• Build “audit-ready by design” operational processes.

Operational Risk Management & Incident Oversight

• Act as the primary escalation owner for:
• Market disruptions and venue outages
• Transfer, settlement, or custody failures
• Operational breaches, limit events, and security incidents
• Lead cross-functional incident response across Trading, Technology, Risk, and Finance.
• Run post-incident reviews, remediation tracking, and institutional learning rollouts.
• Own operational risk assessments and mitigation frameworks.

Counterparty, Exchange & Custodian Oversight

• Own operational onboarding and readiness for:
• Centralised exchanges
• OTC counterparties
• Custodians and wallet providers
• Banks, trustees, administrators
• Define operational due diligence standards, including on-chain and wallet controls.
• Maintain monitoring frameworks covering SLAs, incident history, service quality, and periodic reviews.

Third-Party / External Manager Oversight

• Oversee operational integration and servicing for external manager relationships or outsourced functions.
• Ensure mandate compliance, operational risk standards, reporting controls, and escalation frameworks.
• Own third-party governance cadence, including controls, reporting, exception management, and reviews.

Investor Operations & Capital Flows

• Oversee subscription and redemption operations end-to-end:
• Investor onboarding workflows
• Wallet creation, whitelisting, and approvals
• Internal coordination and investor communications
• Ensure investor servicing is robust, timely, and institutional in standard.
• Support operational due diligence materials and transparency required by institutional allocators.

Key Qualifications & Experience

• 8–15 years of experience in hedge fund, proprietary trading, or digital asset trading operations.
• Direct ownership of the full trade lifecycle and institutional control frameworks.
• Strong understanding of:
• Multi-venue trading and execution models
• Custody structures and wallet infrastructure
• Reconciliation and operational control frameworks
• Operational risk management and incident response
• Experience building or scaling operations in systematic or high-frequency trading environments (digital assets strongly preferred).
• Comfortable operating in 24/7 market environments with strong escalation judgment and ownership mindset.
• Hands-on orientation with data, systems, workflows, and automation (not a purely managerial profile).