Financial Markets Specialist

Job Title: Financial Markets Specialist
Division: Supervision, Policy & Competition (SPC)
Department: Market Oversight (MO)

- Salary: National (Edinburgh and Leeds) ranging from £60,700 to £80,700 and London £66,600 to £88,600 per annum (Salary offered will be based on skills and experience)

- This role is graded as: Lead Associate – Regulatory

- Your external recruitment contact is Steve Christopher via [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]).
- Your internal recruitment contact is Katherine Whipps via [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]).
- Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via social media or email will not be accepted.
- SC Clearance is required for this role

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 financial services in the UK.

Supervision, Policy and Competition (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).

Market Oversight (MO) oversees conduct in UK primary and secondary markets through the listing, prospectus, and market abuse regimes, aiming to promote trusted, orderly, and efficient markets.

The newly formed Central Market Monitoring (CMM) team sits between SPC and MO. The FCA is dedicating resources to better understand market functioning in real time and how market-wide risks are building up over time. We are looking for candidates with a solid analytical and practical understanding of financial markets and financial market risk management experience. To align with our objectives, a significant knowledge of fixed income, equity, rates, derivatives or commodities markets, an ability to analyse different sectors or firm behaviours, trading strategies and risk building through the use of data is essential.

Role responsibilities

- Lead the development of innovative frameworks to monitor and assess market integrity risks, including concentrations, leverage and interconnectedness, helping to strengthen the resilience of UK wholesale markets
- Turn complex, risk-sensitive data into clear insights and visualisations that inform strategic decisions and shape the FCA's approach to emerging market-wide risks
- Influence positive change by developing evidence-based recommendations that reduce risks, enhance market integrity and support effective market functioning
- Deliver real-time assessments of market health, playing a key role in responding to market events and coordinating action with internal and external partners during periods of stress and uncertainty
- Build trusted relationships across the FCA and with external stakeholders, bringing people together to deliver outcomes that support fair, effective and competitive wholesale markets
- Shape the FCA's voice on market integrity and market functioning through high-profile risk assessments, briefings and communications that help protect consumers and maintain confidence in the UK's financial system

Skills required

Minimum:

- Prior experience of fixed income, rates, derivatives, equity or commodities markets
- Prior experience of strong analytical outputs, of using data and analysis to reach conclusions on overall risks related to trading strategies or to market functioning
- Proven experience to lead projects independently and deliver high-quality outputs on time

Essential:

- Demonstrated ability to learn new information quickly and on your own
- Proven ability to impact and influence internal and external stakeholders
- Clear and authoritative communication skills to present to a senior audience/ effective ability to articulate and synthetise market developments
- Ability to build and maintain relationships with senior management, other regulators and staff at all levels within the FCA
- Effectively prioritises workloads and manages competing demands to deliver key tasks efficiently and to a high standard
- Works collaboratively as part of a team, fostering an inclusive environment and contributing positively to collective success

Benefits

- 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
- Colleagues spend a minimum of 50% of their working time in the office each month (60% for Directors and Executive Directors) across our London, Leeds and Edinburgh offices.
- 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: 19th November at Midnight

- CV Review/Shortlist:  w/c 23rd November 2026

- Case Study Assessment & Interviews: w/c 30th November and 7th December 2026
- SC Clearance is required for this role (SC Guidance (https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fpublications%2Funited-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels%2Fsc-guidance-pack-for-applicants&data=05%7C02%7CDemi.Scarsella%40fca.org.uk%7C9f3b6e9f0bd2403b467908dcaafda135%7C551f9db3821c44578551b43423dce661%7C1%7C0%7C638573253515600021%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=O4icJrVVef0RCaJA0LmORwcMSk3OpWU%2Bi74JVXscLlc%3D&reserved=0)) - you will hold or will be required to obtain Security Check (SC) level vetting
- 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