At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead and build operational systems for a dynamic trading firm from the ground up.
- Company: Join a cutting-edge proprietary trading firm focused on sports trading.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, equity, performance bonuses, and generous holiday allowance.
- Other info: Opportunity to shape the future of trading operations with significant career growth.
- Why this job: Be the driving force behind innovative trading operations in a fast-paced environment.
- Qualifications: Proven experience in live trading operations and strong decision-making skills.
The predicted salary is between 120000 - 120000 £ per year.
Contract type: Permanent, Full-time
Location: Central London (Hybrid) — candidates must be based in London
Reports to: Founder & Chief Investment Officer
Salary: Up to £120,000, plus equity, plus performance bonus
Visa sponsorship: Not available; candidates must already hold the right to work in the UK
Languages: Fluent English, Russian an advantage.
About the Business
Our client is a proprietary trading firm and alternative investment manager focused on quantitative and fundamental sports trading. With professionals based across Europe, Asia and the US, they combine deep research with proprietary, technology-driven methodologies to trade major public sports exchanges and markets. Their trading philosophy is rooted in a passion for competitive sports and quantitative research. By applying predictive systems alongside seasoned market expertise, they aim to deliver sustainable short- and long-term, risk-adjusted returns with little to no correlation to traditional financial markets. The firm runs systematic strategies across the world's most actively traded sports, identifying market inefficiencies and diversifying capital across multiple wagering categories, including spreads, totals, and related markets.
What We're Looking for?
We are looking for someone who has personally run a live trading operation, not managed projects for one or supplied technology to one. That means you have sat inside a sportsbook trading room or a proprietary trading firm and owned the operational machinery behind it: odds compilation and pricing, in-play risk and liability management, position and exposure limits, settlement, execution tooling, data feeds and the escalation process when something breaks mid-event. You will have carried direct accountability for trading performance or P&L, not oversight of a unit that reported it. Experience in the wider sports, racing, gaming or betting-data industries is not a substitute if you have not been responsible for the trading itself, and neither is programme delivery, PMO, transformation, compliance or finance leadership inside a trading business. You must be able to build this function alone. Design the processes, select the systems, write the controls and run the day-to-day from a standing start, having done so at least once before in your career.
The role is London-based, you must already hold the right to work in the UK.
Role Overview
This is a genuine solo build. For at least the first twelve months there is no ops team beneath this role. The person who takes this on will construct the operational systems, controls and processes themselves, at pace, before they hire or delegate any of it. If you're looking for a role where you inherit or lead an existing operations team, this isn't it, at least not initially.
The Operations Manager / COO will take ownership of day-to-day operational execution across trading operations, risk processes, capital flows, and cross-team coordination. The focus is not on corporate overhead, but on ensuring the machine runs cleanly, predictably, and safely as trading activity scales. It requires strong judgment in high-pressure environments, the ability to translate strategy into execution, and comfort operating across trading operations, process design, risk coordination, and cross-functional delivery. The ideal candidate is a hands-on operator who can bring clarity, cadence and accountability to a performance-driven organisation without imposing unnecessary bureaucracy.
This role will suit you if:
- You have personally built operational infrastructure, controls or systems from scratch in a live trading, brokerage or betting operation, not just managed or improved on infrastructure someone else built
- You are comfortable being the only person doing this job for the first year: no team, no handover, no existing playbook
- You've typically stayed 3-4+ years at your employers, showing you build and see things through rather than move on quickly (genuine reasons for shorter stints — redundancy, acquisition, family circumstances — are completely fine, and we'd encourage you to say so upfront)
- You hold direct experience in one of: sports betting/trading operations, proprietary trading firms or hedge funds, quantitative or systematic trading businesses, execution-focused trading or risk management, or senior operations/COO roles in other data-driven trading environments
This role is unlikely to suit you if:
- Your operational experience has been through change/programme/project delivery into a trading business, rather than owning the operation and its outcomes directly
- You need an existing team or established function to plug into and grow, rather than build one from nothing
- Your CV shows several short tenures (under 2 years) without a clear explanation
- You require visa sponsorship or are not currently based in or able to relocate to London under your own right to work
Key Responsibilities
- Oversee trading operations across all strategies, ensuring consistent execution standards, effective monitoring, and timely intervention when performance deviates from expectations
- Partner closely with traders and researchers to ensure operational processes actively support strategy performance
- Maintain operational oversight of capital allocation, execution workflows, and performance reporting
- Implement and maintain frameworks for operational risk controls, exposure management, and decision-making during periods of drawdown or elevated volatility
- Act as a central coordination point between trading, research, engineering, and external service providers
- Ensure operational dependencies are managed effectively and issues are identified and resolved promptly
- Oversee operational infrastructure, including data flows, tooling, reporting processes, and relationships with platforms, counterparties, and vendors
- Build the team: once the foundational systems are in place, take ownership of hiring, team structure and organisational scaling
Skills and Attributes
- Strong operational judgement and attention to detail
- Ability to prioritise effectively in fast-moving, high-pressure environments, and to build calmly without a safety net
- Comfortable making decisions under uncertainty and communicating clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Solid understanding of trading execution, operational risk, and performance monitoring
- High level of technical literacy, particularly around trading systems, data pipelines, and execution tooling
- Pragmatic, results-focused mindset with the ability to balance strategic oversight and hands‑on involvement
- Russian speaker preferred
Benefits
Salary: Up to £120,000, plus equity, plus performance bonus
Profit-share bonus
KPI-based bonus scheme
30 days holiday (excluding bank holidays)
Operations Manager and Chief Operating Officer, London employer: Emerald Zebra Recruitment & Executive Search
Our client is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic and performance-driven work culture that thrives on innovation and collaboration. Located in the heart of Central London, employees benefit from a hybrid working model, competitive salaries, and generous bonuses, alongside opportunities for professional growth within a cutting-edge trading environment. With a focus on operational excellence and a commitment to employee well-being, this firm provides a unique platform for those looking to make a significant impact in the world of quantitative sports trading.
Contact Details:
Emerald Zebra Recruitment & Executive Search Recruitment Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Operations Manager and Chief Operating Officer, London
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We think you need these skills to ace Operations Manager and Chief Operating Officer, London
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