We’re looking for fintech enthusiasts to join us in creating the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. We’re building the first European Investment API to enable any financial institution to offer a broad range of investment products in their apps. Our view is backed by some of Europe's largest tech VCs (Earlybird, Notion Capital, Partech, HV Capital, ABN AMRO Ventures) by renowned fintech entrepreneurs (including Maximilian Tayenthal, founder of N26, and Felix Haas, founder of IDnow) and Bessemer Venture Partners in the USA.

At Upvest, our vision is to make investing as easy as spending money. By enabling any business to offer investment opportunities, our goal is to empower anyone to invest. Today, we count 100+ talented people from over 20 different countries.

If you are looking for the challenge of building a new securities trading bank with an Investment API, you are keen to take on a lot of responsibility quickly and gain a deep insight into the FinTech industry, then you have come to the right place and we are very much looking forward to getting to know you. 

Team's mission

The backoffice at Upvest is at the heart of daily business. Its core focus is to ensure the smooth operation of all our services from order management to clearing, settlement and custody as well as corporate action processing. The Head of Back Office is the final responsible for the successful and efficient operations of the entire team, spanning all post-trading functions, timely resolution of client issues and people management responsibilities.

At Upvest, we pride ourselves in our strong proprietary technology that enables a very high level of automation along the entire investment value chain. The Head of Back Office is first in line to keep pushing that automation forward as a key stakeholder for the internal product team. The Head of Back Office is accountable for reaching the objectives for the team and reports directly into the VP Operations. Next to leading and improving the daily operations, the Head of Back Office will be in the lead for strategic projects within Operations, such as setting up new operating models and advancing our internationalization.

The role works alongside the Head of Implementation, responsible for the technical and operational support along the entire client lifecycle, as well as the Head of Brokerage, covering trade processing, peak account management and vendor management.

This role will give you the opportunity to:

• Ensure smooth daily operations of our post-trading infrastructure
• Be the direct counterpart on the daily business to our third-party vendors (e.g. custodians, market data vendors, trading venues etc.)
• Establish and maintain a clear overview of the operations relevant KPIs
• Report regularly to senior leadership within Upvest
• Define clear and informed requirements for further development and improvement of our operations tooling
• Work hand-in-hand with Product to keep advancing the level of automation and build the new industry standards in investment operations processing
• Effectively manage, coach and support the team incl. hiring, role definitions, progression planning and regular performance reviews
• Continuously optimise our daily operations and improve upon our standard processes and procedures
• Set up clear team objectives and ensure prioritisation of projects along company strategy and go-to-market roadmap

Job requirements:

• 5+ years of experience leading teams in a modern brokerage middle-/back-office
• Detailed understanding of brokerage and custody bank processes
• Knowledge of neo brokerage and their infrastructure set ups
• A strong team builder and proven people manager
• Pragmatic approach to solving complex problems in a regulated environment
• Proven track-record in working with modern Product and Engineering teams to deliver strong tooling solutions
• Ability to work in a dynamic environment while keeping strong focus on getting things done
• Knowledge / Experience in either a) (German) regulatory set up (MARisk, WPHG, KWG etc.) or b) European expansion of back office operations (i.e. transaction taxes, localisation of custody and tax requirements etc)

Why Upvest?

• Greenfield projects. We’re building something quite complex and a first in Europe. This means we’re working with cutting-edge technologies and with no legacy code.
• Wellbeing. At Upvest, everyone has access to our in-house coach where you can have regular sessions to support you personally and professionally.
• Development. In keeping with one of our core values, ‘Learn and Grow’, every Upvenger has access to a development budget. In line with one of our other values, ‘Own the Outcome’, how you choose to make the most of it, is up to you.
• Flexibility. We work in a hybrid setup with the team distributed around Germany and Europe. We give you the choice (and budget) to spend your time where you are most comfortable and productive, either at home or the office. You choose.

Our values:

• Learn and grow. We aim high to shape our future. We give and request honest feedback knowing that we develop together. Progression over Perfection.
• Team first. We make it easy for others. We value our differences and are open to others' opinions. We win and celebrate together! Team over Egos.
• Own the outcome. Whether we win or we lose, we stand together. We are proactive and get the job done. Outcome over Process.
• Tell the story. We always start with the why. We share knowledge to empower others. Transparency over Complexity.