Director, Corporate Actions

Director, Corporate Actions

Full-Time 117000 - 143000 £ / year (est.) Working from home possible
Alpaca

At a Glance

  • Tasks: Lead global Corporate Actions, ensuring accurate processing and compliance across markets.
  • Company: Join Alpaca, a leading brokerage innovating financial services for everyone.
  • Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, stock options, and a monthly stipend for home office setup.
  • Other info: Embrace a culture of curiosity, empathy, and accountability while driving innovation.
  • Why this job: Make a significant impact in a fast-paced, tech-driven environment with a diverse team.
  • Qualifications: 8+ years in Corporate Actions with leadership experience in financial institutions.

The predicted salary is between 117000 - 143000 £ per year.

Who We Are

Alpaca is a US-headquartered, global leader in agent-first brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more.

Amongst our subsidiaries, Alpaca is a licensed financial services company, serving hundreds of financial institutions across 40 countries with our institutional-grade APIs.

This includes broker-dealers, investment advisors, wealth managers, hedge funds, and crypto exchanges, totalling over 10 million brokerage accounts.

Our global team is a diverse group of experienced engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals who are working to achieve our mission of opening financial services to everyone on the planet.

We're deeply committed to open-source contributions and fostering a vibrant community, continuously enhancing our award-winning, developer-friendly API and the robust infrastructure behind it.

Alpaca is proudly backed by $400 million in funding from top-tier global investors including Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, Social Leverage, Horizons Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, SBI Group, Derayah Financial, Unbound, Peak XV, Elefund, and Y Combinator.

We're a dynamic team of 400+ globally distributed members who thrive working from our favorite places around the world, with teammates spanning the USA, Canada, Japan, Hungary, Nigeria, Brazil, the UK, and beyond!

We're searching for passionate individuals eager to contribute to Alpaca's rapid growth.

If you align with our core values—Stay Curious, Have Empathy, and Be Accountable—and are ready to make a significant impact, we encourage you to apply.

Your Role

The Director of Global Corporate Actions will own the function end-to-end across U.

S. and international markets.

This leader will be accountable for daily production, supervisory controls, team performance, incident management, and the systems and operating model required to scale Corporate Actions globally.

  • Lead Alpaca’s Corporate Actions organization across mandatory and voluntary events, including dividends, splits, mergers, exchanges, tenders, rights, redemptions, spin-offs, elections, and security lifecycle changes.
  • Establish and own the supervisory framework governing Corporate Actions, including clear maker-checker standards, control gates, reconciliations, exception management, escalation thresholds, and evidence of review.
  • Hold the team accountable for accurate, timely processing and ensure no material event progresses without required supervisory and system checks.
  • Own material Corporate Actions incidents from containment through root cause analysis, remediation, and permanent control or system improvement.
  • Partner with Security Master, Trading, Ledger, Product, Engineering, and Operations leadership to eliminate recurring failure modes and strengthen front-to-back controls.
  • Drive automation, observability, reconciliation, and exception tooling to reduce manual processing and improve scalability.
  • Build a common global operating model across markets, custodians, depositories, currencies, tax regimes, deadlines, and local market conventions.
  • Develop the Corporate Actions team, strengthen subject-matter depth and succession coverage, and reduce reliance on tribal knowledge.
  • Supervisory Controls & Systems Oversight

The Director will own the end-to-end Corporate Actions control framework, ensuring events are accurately validated, reconciled, processed, synchronized across systems, and formally closed.

Responsibilities include

  • Establishing controls over event terms, Security Master data, eligible positions, expected entitlements, elections, withholding, cash, stock, fractions, and exceptions.
  • Ensuring customer-impacting events are appropriately pre-processed and reconciled before market or payment deadlines where settlement timing creates risk.
  • Overseeing accurate, controlled booking of entitlements, including retries, reversals, manual adjustments, and exception handling.
  • Ensuring Corporate Actions bookings propagate correctly across Back Office, Front Office, Security Master, Ledger, Trading, margin, buying power, and customer positions.
  • Designing controls to prevent customers from trading against incorrect post-event positions, symbols, or quantities when processing or system synchronization is incomplete.
  • Requiring post-processing reconciliation to internal books and records, custodians, depositories, paying agents, and other authoritative sources.
  • Defining approval thresholds, tolerances, escalation standards, supervisory evidence, event closure requirements, and management reporting.

The Director must understand how Corporate Actions failures can create broader trading, margin, settlement, and financial exposure—not simply operational breaks—and build controls accordingly.

Qualifications (Must-Haves)

  • 8+ years of Corporate Actions experience within a broker-dealer, clearing firm, custodian, bank, or comparable financial institution.
  • Prior leadership experience managing a Corporate Actions or securities operations function.
  • Deep hands-on knowledge of mandatory and voluntary Corporate Actions, including dividends, reorganizations, splits, mergers, tenders, rights, redemptions, elections, entitlements, and security lifecycle events.
  • Strong knowledge of U. S. market infrastructure, including DTCC/DTC Corporate Actions processes.
  • Meaningful international Corporate Actions experience across multiple markets, custodians, currencies, withholding regimes, and local market conventions.
  • Deep understanding of how Corporate Actions bookings flow through broker-dealer books and records, position systems, front-office trading systems, margin, and customer-facing balances.
  • Demonstrated understanding of the risks created when Security Master, back-office positions, and front-office tradability are not synchronized around an effective-date event.
  • Experience operating in a retail brokerage or clearing environment where Corporate Actions must often be pre-processed with strong pre-reconciliation controls before final depository confirmation.
  • Proven experience designing and supervising maker-checker controls, reconciliations, exception-management processes, and operational risk frameworks.
  • Demonstrated ownership of high-risk production functions where errors can create direct financial, customer, trading, settlement margin, or regulatory exposure.
  • Strong incident-management discipline with a track record of driving permanent process and technology remediation.
  • Ability to challenge control design, identify structural weaknesses, and hold teams accountable for remediation.
  • Strong ability to partner with Product and Engineering and translate operational risk into scalable system requirements.
  • Clear, concise communicator able to work with senior leadership, partners, auditors, regulators, custodians, and technical teams.
  • Comfortable operating independently in a fast-paced, technology-driven, high-growth environment.

• Alignment with Alpaca’s company tenets

  • Stay Curious
  • Have Empathy
  • Be Accountable

How We Take Care of You

  • Competitive Salary & Stock Options
  • New Hire Home-Office Setup: One-time USD $500
  • Monthly Stipend: USD $150 per month via a Brex Card

Alpaca is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce.

We use Greenhouse’s AI-powered Talent Matching tool to compare your application against our job requirements.

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Director, Corporate Actions employer: Alpaca

Alpaca is an exceptional employer that fosters a collaborative and innovative work culture, particularly for the Acquisition Engineering Lead role based in the UK. Employees benefit from competitive salaries, comprehensive health benefits, and support for home-office setups, all while having ample opportunities for professional growth and development within a dynamic team focused on enhancing user experiences.

Alpaca

Contact Details:

Alpaca Recruitment Team

StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫

We think this is how you could land Director, Corporate Actions

Tap into Campus Networks

If you're still in uni, don’t forget to engage with your campus's career services and attend finance-related events. Banks often do presentations and recruitment drives on campus, so put yourself out there and make use of these opportunities to show off your passion for the field.

Get Certified

Consider pursuing relevant certifications like the CFA or ACCA while you’re job hunting. They not only beef up your CV but also connect you with professional bodies which can lead to networking opportunities and even job openings in banking and financial services.

Connect on Professional Platforms

Join finance-focused groups on platforms like LinkedIn and engage in discussions. This can really help you stand out from the crowd, allowing potential employers to see your knowledge and interest in industry trends. Plus, you might stumble upon job postings shared exclusively within the group.

Apply Directly and Be Proactive

Don’t shy away from reaching out directly to firms like Alpaca. Use their websites and apply through them, but also consider following up with a polite email to express your enthusiasm. Being proactive can make a huge difference in getting noticed in the competitive financial services sector.

We think you need these skills to ace Director, Corporate Actions

Corporate Actions Management
Leadership Experience
Knowledge of U.S. Market Infrastructure
International Corporate Actions Experience
Understanding of Security Master Data
Maker-Checker Controls Design
Reconciliation Processes

Some tips for your application 🫡

Show Off Your Numbers!:In the banking and financial services world, quantifiable achievements are key. Make sure your CV highlights your grades in relevant subjects, any financial certifications you hold, and specific projects where you've delivered measurable results. Employers love to see how your skills translate into real-world success.

Tailor Your Cover Letter to the Role:When applying for a full-time position, your cover letter should make a direct connection between your experience and the job description. Don't just state your enthusiasm for finance—dive into how your background in banking or financial analysis sets you apart. Let your passion shine through while being specific about what you can bring to Alpaca.

Include Relevant Financial Software Experience:If you've worked with financial modelling tools or software like Excel, SAP, or specific analytical tools during your studies or internships, bring that up! Highlighting your proficiency can really make your application pop and show you're ready to hit the ground running in a full-time role.

Research and Reflect:Before hitting that 'apply' button on Alpaca's website, do a little digging. Look up their recent projects, values, and culture. Reflecting their ethos in your application can make a huge difference and show you’re genuinely interested in being part of the team!

How to prepare for a job interview at Alpaca

Brush Up on Financial Analysis Skills

Make sure you're well-versed in financial concepts and analytical techniques relevant to banking and financial services. Get comfortable with tools like Excel for modelling or financial forecasting, as technical questions in this area are common during interviews with Alpaca.

Prepare for Case Studies

Expect to tackle case studies that demonstrate your problem-solving skills in real-world banking scenarios. Familiarise yourself with the types of problems you might face—think risk assessments or investment evaluations—and be ready to articulate your thought process clearly.

Show Your Passion for Finance

Since this is a full-time position, employers at Alpaca will be keen to see your genuine interest in finance. Be prepared to discuss recent industry trends or news articles that excite you, showcasing your enthusiasm and engagement with the field.

Network with Industry Professionals

Before your interview, reach out to current or former Alpaca employees on platforms like LinkedIn. They'll offer unique insights into the company's culture and the interview process, which can give us a delightful edge in showcasing a good fit for the team.