Senior Trading Policy Associate

Senior Trading Policy Associate
Division: SPC, Infrastructure & Exchanges
Department: Market Intervention – Trading Venues

• Salary: National (Edinburgh and Leeds) ranging from £52,400 to £71,200 and London from £57,700 to 78,300 (salary offered will be based on skills and experience)

• This role is graded as: Senior Associate – Regulatory

• Your recruitment contact is Steve Christopher via Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via social media or email will not be accepted.

About the FCA and team

We regulate financial services firms in the UK, to keep financial markets fair, thriving and effective. By joining us, you'll play a key part in protecting consumers, driving economic growth, and shaping the future of UK finance services.  

SPC oversees firms and individuals (supervision), creates and reviews the rules by which they operate (policy) and identifies and remedies ineffective competition in markets (competition).

Sitting in the Infrastructure & Exchanges directorate, the MI Trading Venues Department integrates the supervision of key market infrastructure and corporate finance firms with the development of policy frameworks for trading venues, aiming to promote fair, orderly, and transparent markets across a broad range of asset classes and venue types.

Role responsibilities

• Be part of a team delivering the Wholesale Markets Review, a joint initiative with HM Treasury to assess and improve the UK's wholesale financial markets, while developing in-depth expertise on the wholesale financial markets and their regulation

• Develop policy reforms end to end including by drafting consultation documents and public statements

• Play a key role in shaping policy reforms by working closely with internal and external stakeholders—including our newly formed secondary markets advisory committee, where you and your outputs will have high exposure across FCA

• Identifying and mitigating future areas of risk in the trading and conduct landscape

• Horizon scan the relevant markets to identify issues and risks to our objectives, this includes extracting, analysing and interpreting quantitative information to support policy development

• Provide policy advice which includes drafting policy papers and briefs for internal stakeholders, contributing directly to the delivery of our ambitious objective to improve the UK's secondary markets

• Providing ongoing policy support to FCA teams supervising trading venues and trading firms

Minimum:

• Prior significant regulatory experience in finance services and/or other sectors

• Proven experience to manage and deliver complex projects or initiatives, managing multiple stakeholders and navigating challenging environments to achieve successful outcomes

• Prior experience demonstrating excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to support the team to distil complex issues into succinct messages & present with assurance to a variety of internal and external stakeholders

Essential:

• Proven experience of dealing with complex policy issues relevant to consumer protection in regulated industries  

• Good understanding of the UK and EU regulatory landscape, with the ability to navigate complex frameworks

• Evidence of reviewing large amounts of complex information, identifying the key themes, drawing logical conclusions and developing and implementing strategies  

• Demonstrable ability to acquire knowledge, including by sourcing, manipulating and reviewing data quickly and on own initiatives

• Strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills; able to build and maintain relationships with senior management, other regulators and staff at all levels 

• Ability to work independently, use sound judgement and escalate issues appropriately

• A curious and inquisitive mindset, and a motivation to deliver in the public interest

Benefits

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays

• Hybrid model with up to 60% remote work

• Non-contributory pension (8–12% depending on age) and life assurance at eight times your salary

• Private healthcare with Bupa, income protection, and 24/7 Employee Assistance

• 35 hours of paid volunteering annually

• A flexible benefits scheme designed around your lifestyle

For a full list of our benefits, and our recruitment process as a whole visit our benefits page.

Our values and culture

Our colleagues are the key to our success as a regulator. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture: one that's free from discrimination and bias, celebrates difference, and supports colleagues to deliver at their best. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.

If you require any adjustments due to a disability or condition, your recruiter is here to help - reach out for tailored support.

We welcome diverse working styles and aim to find flexible solutions that suit both the role and individual needs, including options like part-time and job sharing where applicable.
 

Disability confident: our hiring approach

We're proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, and therefore, people or individuals with disabilities and long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process. In cases of high application volumes  we may progress applicants whose experience most closely matches the role's key requirements.
 

Useful information and timelines

Timeline: 

• Job advert close: 9th November 2025

• CV Review/Shortlist: 11th November 2025

• First Interview: WC 17th November 2025

• Second Interview: TBC

• Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role, therefore, please make them aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time.