Director, Head of Equity Derivatives Risk Engineering

BMO Capital Markets; Toronto; On-site; CAD 158,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Tuition reimbursement

Accident and life insurance

Retirement savings plans

Job summary

BMO Capital Markets is seeking a Director to lead Equity Derivatives Risk Engineering within Global Markets Engineering in Toronto. You will own the in‑house risk and calculation platform end to end, drive the next-gen architecture, and partner with quants and desks to deliver faster, more resilient risk systems.

The role combines building and running responsibilities, with a 5–10 engineer team and a strong emphasis on agile delivery, governance, and cross‑functional collaboration on pricing,

Qualifications

• 10+ years in engineering, with leadership in derivatives risk development.
• Proven transformation track record re-architecting critical platforms.
• Strong distributed compute and container orchestration experience.
• Derivatives risk knowledge to engage quants and trading desks.
• Leader in agile delivery and test-driven development.
• Excellent stakeholder skills; credible on the trading floor.

Responsibilities

• Platform ownership — Own the existing risk/calculation platform end-to-end and scale it.
• Target-state vision — Define an architecture for the next-gen risk system.
• Risk orchestration and performance — Improve grid orchestration and latency.
• Quant partnership — Collaborate on faster valuation and risk.
• Market data consistency — Ensure reproducible data across workflows.
• Engineering discipline — Release, test, and DevOps ownership for the platform.
• Desk engagement — Serve as senior engineering contact for traders/risk managers.
• Leadership — Manage the team and set agile/testing standards.
• Control and governance — Maintain change control and audit readiness.

Skills

Derivatives risk

Distributed compute

Kubernetes

Agile delivery

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Tools

Kubernetes

In‑memory data

Job description

BMO Capital Markets is a leading, full-service financial services provider. We offer corporate and investment banking, treasury management, as well as research and advisory services to clients around the world.

#bmocapitalmarkets

BMO Capital Markets is hiring a Director to lead Equity Derivatives Risk Engineering within Global Markets Engineering. The role owns the firm’s in-house calculation and risk-view platforms — the pricing/calc server estate and the risk and order-management views used daily by the equity derivatives trading desks.

This is a build role as much as a run role. The platform works, is well tested and supports a growing franchise, but it is not fast enough, does not orchestrate risk work across the compute grid well, and carries a heavy daily support burden. The successful candidate will stabilize and professionalize current operations, then partner with their team, the quant group and the desks to define and deliver the next generation of the risk platform: faster, more resilient, better instrumented and materially more extensible.

The team is 5–10 engineers today, with an opportunity to grow the team as the vision is defined.

Key Responsibilities

• Platform ownership — Own the existing C#/.NET risk and calculation platform end to end, and scale it to meet the growing needs of the equity derivatives and QIS businesses.


• Target-state vision — Work with the team, quants and trading to define and sell a credible architecture for the next-generation risk system, then sequence and deliver it without disrupting the desks.


• Risk orchestration and performance — Deliver fast/slow calculation cycles for intraday exotics risk, sub-10-second risk for flow books, on-demand ad-hoc scenario analysis, and substantially improved grid orchestration and component responsibility boundaries.


• Quant partnership — Define the system–model interaction contract with the quant team and collaborate on faster Monte Carlo valuation and risk.


• Market data consistency — Drive consistent, reproducible market data across pricing, risk and scenario workflows.


• Engineering discipline — Own release, test and DevOps for the platform; raise instrumentation, observability and resilience so that support load falls and change velocity rises.


• Desk engagement — Act as the senior engineering point of contact for traders and risk managers, translating desk pressure into a prioritized, defensible roadmap.


• Leadership — Manage and coach the team; set standards for agile delivery and test-driven development; raise the bar for engineering and design


• Control and governance — Maintain a strong control posture across change management, production stability and audit readiness.

What Success Looks Like

• First 6 months: support burden measurably reduced, release cadence predictable, and a costed target-state architecture agreed with stakeholders.


• 12–24 months: material latency improvements on flow and exotics risk, credible ad-hoc scenario capability in production, and a team scaled and structured to sustain the roadmap.

Candidate Profile

Essential

• 10+ years in engineering, including significant experience leading derivatives trading risk development at a mid-size or large financial institution.


• Demonstrable transformation track record: taking an established, business-critical platform and re-architecting it for performance, resilience and extensibility while keeping the lights on.


• Strong hands‑on background in distributed and grid compute, container orchestration (Kubernetes) and in‑memory data technologies.


• Strong derivatives risk knowledge — sufficient to challenge and partner with quants and earn the confidence of a trading desk. Engineering depth is weighted more heavily than quantitative depth.


• A genuine leader in agile delivery and test‑driven development, with a record of building high‑performing engineering teams.


• Excellent stakeholder skills; comfortable and credible on the trading floor.

Preferred

• .NET/C# experience. This is preferred rather than a hard requirement — strong platform leaders from other stacks will be considered, and introducing new technologies where they are the right answer is expected.


• Experience with high‑performance numerical computing, Monte Carlo valuation or comparable low‑latency analytics workloads.


• Experience building observability and instrumentation into a production risk platform.

Why This Role

This is an unusually direct mandate: a well‑defined, business‑critical estate, an engaged trading client base, a supportive reporting line. The person who takes it will set the technical direction for equity derivatives risk at BMO for the next several years.

Salary

Please note the base salary for this role is $175,000 CAD.

Pay Type

Salaried

The above represents BMO Financial Group’s pay range and type.

Salaries will vary based on factors such as location, skills, experience, education, and qualifications for the role, and may include a commission structure. Salaries for part‑time roles will be pro‑rated based on number of hours regularly worked. For commission roles, the salary listed above represents BMO Financial Group’s expected target for the first year in this position.

BMO Financial Group’s total compensation package will vary based on the pay type of the position and may include performance‑based incentives, discretionary bonuses, as well as other perks and rewards. BMO also offers health insurance, tuition reimbursement, accident and life insurance, and retirement savings plans. To view more details of our benefits, please visit: https://jobs.bmo.com/global/en/Total-Rewards

About Us

At BMO we are driven by a shared Purpose: Boldly Grow the Good in business and life. It calls on us to create lasting, positive change for our customers, our communities and our people. By working together, innovating and pushing boundaries, we transform lives and businesses, and power economic growth around the world.

As a member of the BMO team you are valued, respected and heard, and you have more ways to grow and make an impact. We strive to help you make an impact from day one – for yourself and our customers. We’ll support you with the tools and resources you need to reach new milestones, as you help our customers reach theirs. From in‑depth training and coaching, to manager support and network‑building opportunities, we’ll help you gain valuable experience, and broaden your skillset.