Operations Support Manager

Aquis Exchange; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Aquis Exchange is looking for a Support Manager to lead a dynamic team responsible for maintaining and enhancing Aquis platforms. You will be the first point of contact for operational support and will work in a hybrid environment between London and Paris.

The successful candidate will demonstrate team leadership, technical troubleshooting skills, and an eagerness to solve problems in a fast-paced setting. Strong communication and understanding of equity and derivative markets are essential.

Qualifications

• Degree level qualification and/or 5 years of experience
• Proficient with Microsoft Office products
• Prior experience in operation or technical support role
• Excellent communication skills

Responsibilities

• Maintain and run Aquis platforms
• Lead and mentor a 1st line support team
• Provide first line support and monitor help desk systems
• Collaborate with other departments for operations

Skills

Technical troubleshooting

Communication skills

Team leadership

Attention to detail

Education

Degree level qualification or 5 years experience

Tools

Microsoft Excel

Linux-based systems

SQL

FIX Protocol

Job description

Job Title: Support Manager

Internal Job Level: Associate

Type of Employment: Permanent

Location: London/Paris

Aquis maintains a presence in both the UK and EU (primarily Paris). Aquis operates a hybrid working environment with a mixture of office and working from home days. In London we currently operate a minimum of 3 days working in the office.

Salary: Discuss with hiring manager

Reports To: Head of Operations

Job Overview

The primary responsibilities of the Support Team Lead will be maintaining and running the Aquis and Aquis client exchange platforms.

You will be the first point of contact for operational support related to maintaining and running the Aquis and Aquis client exchange platforms. You will lead a small but dynamic team responsible for ensuring the smooth functioning of our services, particularly during market hours. Your role will blend hands‑on technical support with leadership responsibilities, as well as exposure to equity and derivatives trading environments.

Aquis is a growing business and this list of exchanges which the Exchange Operations Team supports may grow in the future.

The operations team currently work a weekly shift rota covering the hours 07:00-18:00. There may also be some evening and weekend work.

Responsibilities And Duties

• Responsible, along with other operational team members, for the day‑to‑day running and maintenance of the Aquis platforms
• Leading and mentoring a 1st line support team, fostering a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement
• Providing first line support, answering phone calls and monitoring help desk systems, dealing with basic issues and escalating other calls to the appropriate person
• Maintain a high degree of customer service for all support queries
• Performing troubleshooting and collection of information for effective issue diagnosis and internal escalation
• Maintain security reference data for the admissions/withdrawals/amends/edits of securities across all platforms
• Maintain and enhance knowledge base and documentation
• Work with other departments (Compliance, Surveillance, Infrastructure and Sales) to ensure appropriately monitored live operations of all platforms
• Raise and deploy changes to support the day to day running of multiple exchange platforms
• Compile outage reports for any production outages which occur on the operated platforms once the outage has been rectified
• Ensure processes are streamlined
• Ensure process maps are followed to reduce risk
• Work with teams internally to streamline and enhance operational tool functionality and capture requirements for future development
• Take part in release review meetings prior to upgrades

Experience

To be successful in this role, you will bring a strong technical foundation, relevant business understanding, and proven team leadership experience. You should be calm under pressure, collaborative, and eager to take ownership of problems.

Essential

• Degree level qualification and/or 5 years of experience
• Proficient with Microsoft Excel and other Microsoft Office products
• Prior experience in operation or technical support role
• Ability to troubleshoot across application, network, and infrastructure layers
• Excellent communication skills with an ability to explain technical concepts in simple terms to a non-technical audience
• Experience with FIX Protocol
• Strong understanding to UK and EU equity & derivative markets including exchange work flows, order types and understanding of trade lifecycle
• Ability to write SQL queries and a strong understanding of relational databases
• Hands‑on knowledge of Linux-based systems, with confidence in using command‑line tools for troubleshooting
• Previous use of GIT version control or similar
• Team leadership experience

Desired

• Scripting experience e.g. bash/shell, python or similar
• Experience with Binary Protocols
• Dashboard creation in Grafana
• Previous experience with Atlassian product suite
• Basic networking concepts and troubleshooting – TCP/UDP, telnet, IP, Ports etc

Skills

• Effective communicator
• Attention to detail, numerate, self‑motivated
• Excellent team player, able to work on own initiative
• Interest in financial markets and the requirements to operate effectively in a highly regulated environment

The statements included in this job description are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required.

Equal opportunities at Aquis Exchange.

We are an equal‑opportunities employer. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, gender, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.