Director of Risk Management

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, which manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Director of Risk Management based in United Kingdom.

As Director of Risk Management, you will establish and lead the risk management function for an innovative Bitcoin-focused capital markets business. You will oversee risk across market, credit, counterparty, liquidity, operational, and blockchain protocol activities, spanning digital assets and traditional financial instruments. Working closely with fund management and senior stakeholders, you will design robust governance frameworks, develop advanced risk models, and define exposure limits that protect capital while enabling sustainable growth. You will evaluate complex investment strategies, assess counterparties and decentralized finance protocols, and ensure that new products meet institutional risk standards before launch. As a founding member of a lean, senior team, you will have significant ownership over strategic decisions, risk policies, and operational controls. This is an opportunity to shape the future of Bitcoin-based institutional finance in a fully remote, international environment at the intersection of traditional capital markets and blockchain innovation.

Accountabilities:

• Build the global risk management framework: Design, implement, and maintain comprehensive risk policies covering market, credit, counterparty, liquidity, operational, and protocol risks across Bitcoin, digital assets, and traditional financial markets.
• Establish risk governance and oversight: Define risk appetite, exposure and concentration limits, leverage thresholds, liquidity classifications, collateral haircuts, margin requirements, drawdown triggers, and escalation procedures. Present policies for board approval and provide regular reporting to the board and investment committee.
• Provide independent risk approval: Evaluate and independently approve new investment strategies, financial products, trading venues, and counterparties before launch, ensuring they comply with established risk standards.
• Develop quantitative risk models: Build and maintain analytical models to measure and monitor portfolio risk across traditional and digital assets, using value at risk (VaR), scenario analysis, stress testing, and other quantitative techniques.
• Conduct portfolio stress testing: Assess the impact of Bitcoin price shocks, liquidity crises, counterparty defaults, exchange failures, stablecoin depegging, smart-contract exploits, and liquidation cascades on portfolio performance and capital preservation.
• Evaluate complex financial transactions: Analyze secured lending, repurchase agreements, basis trades, derivatives, structured products, and other investment strategies, identifying how risks interact across on-chain and off-chain activities.
• Monitor exposures and emerging risks: Track portfolio positions and exposures daily, identify deviations from established limits or model assumptions, and escalate emerging risks with clear recommendations for corrective action.
• Lead counterparty and protocol due diligence: Assess the creditworthiness, financial stability, custody arrangements, and operational resilience of counterparties, trading venues, and decentralized finance protocols, including smart contracts, bridges, oracles, and governance mechanisms.
• Manage collateral and counterparty limits: Establish and monitor counterparty exposure limits, collateral eligibility criteria, margin requirements, and risk mitigation measures across bilateral and exchange-traded activities.
• Review and negotiate transaction documentation: Work with fund management and legal counsel to assess and negotiate risk provisions in fund agreements, ISDA and CSA documentation, lending and repo agreements, collateral arrangements, termination events, and close-out provisions.
• Strengthen operational risk controls: Design scalable controls across trade execution, settlement, reconciliation, custody, and treasury operations, ensuring appropriate safeguards for both traditional financial instruments and digital assets.
• Coordinate compliance and audit activities: Collaborate with Legal, Compliance, fund administrators, and external auditors to meet applicable regulatory requirements, support audits, and maintain accurate risk reporting and documentation.
• Support new product development: Partner with fund management and commercial, technology, legal, and compliance teams to bring new investment products from concept to launch while ensuring sound structures, appropriate risk controls, and institutional readiness.
• Drive continuous risk improvement: Refine models, policies, monitoring processes, and governance practices as the portfolio, market environment, and digital asset ecosystem evolve.