Technology Operations Analyst – Trading (Equities, FX, Fixed Income) at Investec

Description

• The Technology Operations Analyst will play a critical role in supporting the bank's front-office trading environment across Equities, FX, and Fixed Income desks etc. They will ensure the stability, performance, and integrity of trading applications and infrastructure used by traders, sales, and risk teams. The role requires a blend of technical acumen, business understanding, and strong communication, operating at the intersection of technology and trading. 

Key Responsibilities

• Provide real-time technical and functional support for Equities, FX, and Fixed Income trading systems. 
• Support order management (OMS), execution management (EMS), and pricing platforms (e.g., Bloomberg, ION Wallstree and Fidessa, Itiviti (UlBridge), Axetrader, or proprietary tools). 
• Support trade capture, order routing, and trade flow from execution through to settlement, ensuring accuracy and timely resolution of breaks. 
• Maintain FIX connectivity to trading venues, market data providers, and liquidity partners. 
• Assist traders and sales with system queries, pricing anomalies, and order execution issues. 
• Monitor key trading system components, ensuring low latency, data integrity, and high availability. 
• Use monitoring and alerting tools (e.g., Splunk, Dynatrace) to identify and respond to issues proactively. 
• Act as the first responder for production incidents — troubleshoot, diagnose, and restore service swiftly to minimize impact on trading. 
• Escalate incidents to development or infrastructure teams when required, ensuring timely communication with trading and management. 
• Maintain detailed incident reports, perform root cause analysis (RCA), and track corrective actions. 
• Participate in release cycles, validating new software and configuration changes before deployment to production. 
• Support UAT (User Acceptance Testing) for new features and system upgrades. 
• Coordinate with DevOps, QA, and Infrastructure teams to ensure stable deployment pipelines and rollback procedures. 
• Ensure compliance with change management and control policies (aligned with ITIL standards). 
• Identify opportunities to streamline manual support processes through scripting and automation (Python,C# or PowerShell). 
• Build or enhance tools for system health checks, alerting, and data validation. 
• Contribute to operational resilience initiatives, including failover testing, capacity planning, and business continuity simulations. 
• Maintain and enhance support documentation, runbooks, and operational procedures. 
• Partner closely with traders, quants, sales, risk, and compliance teams to ensure front-office systems support business needs effectively. 
• Collaborate with Infrastructure, Networks, Database, and Development teams to address production issues. 
• Communicate status updates and technical details clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. 
• Provide input to project planning and technology roadmaps from a production operations perspective. 

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

• Strong knowledge of trading applications, OMS/EMS, and market data systems. 
• Hands-on experience supporting Bloomberg, Reuters/Refinitiv, ION Trading, Fidessa, Axetrader. 
• Solid understanding of the FIX protocol, TCP/IP networking, and Linux environments. 
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills using SQL for trade and data investigation. 
• Scripting proficiency in Python, for automation and monitoring. 
• Familiarity with DevOps pipelines 
• Domain Knowledge 
• Understanding of Equities, FX, and Fixed Income products: 
• Equities: cash equities, algorithmic trading, DMA. 
• FX: spot, forwards, swaps, and options trading. 
• Fixed Income: government and Interest bonds, repos. 
• Familiarity with front-to-back trade lifecycle — from execution to settlement. 
• Awareness of regulatory obligations (MiFID II, EMIR, Dodd-Frank, Best Execution, Transaction Reporting) a plus 
• Understanding of risk management and PnL reporting workflows. 

Behavioural & Soft Skills 

• Calm and decisive under pressure, particularly during live trading incidents. 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills; able to work with traders and technologists alike. 
• Strong attention to detail and a methodical approach to problem-solving. 
• Proactive mindset with a focus on continuous improvement and operational excellence. 
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for production stability.  
• Bachelor's degree (Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related discipline). 
• 3–7 years of experience in Technology Operations, Trading Support, or Production Support within a banking or capital markets environment. 
• ITIL certification or similar operational framework exposure preferred. 
• Familiarity with Agile / DevOps environments advantageous. 

Performance Indicators 

• System uptime and stability across trading platforms. 
• Incident response time and mean time to resolution (MTTR). 
• Quality and clarity of communication during incidents and post-mortems. 
• Delivery of automation and process improvements. 
• Stakeholder satisfaction (front-office feedback and management reviews).