Execution & Market Structure Lead

ICME; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A financial technology firm is seeking a candidate to manage market execution quality in San Francisco. This role involves understanding market microstructure, building health metrics, and ensuring compliance with private securities regulations. The ideal candidate has experience in equities execution or market making and strong data skills. A Master's or PhD in Financial Engineering is preferred. While in-person presence is favored, remote work is possible for exceptional candidates.

Qualifications

• Deep understanding of market microstructure including spreads and order books.
• Experience building or running markets in equities/options execution, market making, or HFT.
• Strong grasp of private-securities realities and cap table concepts.

Responsibilities

• Own execution quality end-to-end including pricing and liquidity metrics.
• Build and monitor market health metrics and coordinate with custody workflows.
• Partner with legal for compliance on private-securities constraints.

Skills

Market microstructure understanding

Market making

Execution quality management

Data modeling skills (SQL, Python)

Clear communication skills

Education

Master's or PhD in Financial Engineering

Job description

ICME is building a compliant trading market for pre-IPO equities, with ownership represented as a digitally native record that maps directly to issuer cap tables and approved transfer workflows. Our goal is to deliver institutional grade execution, transparent pricing, and sustainable economics in private securities.

What you’ll do

• Own execution quality end-to-end: pricing, fills, slippage, spreads, liquidity, and “best outcome” metrics
• Build and monitor market health metrics: depth, volatility, toxicity/adverse selection, maker/taker behavior, and concentration risk
• Own the market’s unit economics: take rates, fees, rebates, liquidity incentives, inventory/risk costs, and cost-to-serve
• Design quoting / market making partnerships and liquidity programs (and potentially run internal liquidity where appropriate)
• Work closely with product + engineering on matching, pricing logic, controls, and measurement
• Partner with legal/compliance on private-securities constraints: transfer limits, eligibility, disclosures, approvals
• Coordinate with custody/transfer agent/cap-table workflows so trades settle cleanly and ownership stays correct

Required skills

• Deep understanding of market microstructure: spreads, order books, auctions, RFQ, liquidity, and adverse selection
• Experience building or running markets in at least one of:

Equities/options execution, market making, or HFT

Exchanges / ATS / dark pools / RFQ venues

Private markets / secondaries / structured products

• Strong grasp of private-securities realities:

transfer restrictions, eligibility, accredited/qualified checks (as relevant)

issuer approvals / ROFR processes (when they exist)

cap table / transfer agent concepts (who updates what, when)

• Strong data + modeling skills (SQL + Python preferred; strong spreadsheets acceptable)
• Clear communicator who can explain fills, pricing, and risk in plain English

Nice to have

• Experience with pre-IPO secondaries (employee liquidity, tender offers, brokered blocks)
• Familiarity with broker-dealer / ATS operations and surveillance expectations
• Settlement/custody workflows for private assets (even if not “DTCC-style”)
• Experience working on Wall Street
• Master's or PHD in Financial Engineering (Or self taught on a high level)

Backgrounds that fit well

• Market maker / execution trader / quant (equities, options, or similar)
• Exchange / ATS / electronic trading product or market ops
• Capital markets fintech with real execution + revenue ownership

Location

Strong preference for in-person, San Francisco, CA, but open to remote for very strong candidates