Senior Digital Assets Specialist - Cross Cutting Market Analysis and Strategy Department

Location

London / Leeds / Edinburgh

Salary

National from £51,200 to £56,000 and London from £56,400 to £60,000

Are you interested in working in the innovative and fast-moving world of Digital Assets/crypto? Do you want to join a team that is responsible for driving forward the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) strategy in respect of crypto and help support the development of the new regulatory regime for crypto? This is a hugely exciting time to join the team as there is the potential to influence the crypto landscape in the UK.

The Team

You will be joining the Digital Assets Sector team, a team of motivated individuals who are responsible for market analysis and strategy across the payments and digital assets sectors. Our work helps shape the FCA's payments and crypto strategy and our policy and supervisory approach.  

What you will be doing

• Deliver, coordinate and support key workstreams relating to Digital Assets/ crypto, including the FCA’s proactive analysis of the crypto market, and using this to further develop the FCA’s crypto strategies

• Collaborating on risk analysis and horizon scanning of the sector to support our key internal stakeholders to develop the regulatory regime and ensure appropriate supervision of firms in the sector

• Representing the FCA externally with government departments such as HMT, industry members, other regulators and trade associations

• Responsible for drafting key papers including:  briefings and presentations for senior stakeholders at the FCA; internal communications and newsletters relating to Digital Assets;

• Responsible for providing training, expert advice and briefings about crypto issues to support colleagues across the FCA

• Role modelling the FCA’s Values and Core Capabilities

What you will get from the role

This role is an exciting opportunity to work in the fast-evolving area of crypto. These roles are best suited to those who are motivated and interested in working in a fast-paced, flexible environment.

As part of this role, you will have the opportunity to:

• Assess business models and market dynamics

• Responsible for helping develop our thinking and make proposals for how the sector should be regulated

• Engage and interact with excellent colleagues across the FCA and build a wide network of contacts across the organisation

• Consult with government, other regulators, industry, and other individuals shaping the market

• Develop a more in-depth knowledge of the crypto asset sector

• The opportunity to draft key briefings for senior stakeholders at the FCA and demonstrate clear thinking through oral and written work

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:   

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays

• Private healthcare with Bupa  

• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)  

• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary  

• Income protection  

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.  

The skills and experience you will have
 

Minimum

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role.  

• Prior experience of successfully leading on complex projects

• Prior experience of strong report writing, highlighting great written communication skills

• Previous experience working in financial services, legal, accounting or in another sector for a regulator or public body

Essential

• Knowledge of the crypto assets sector and keen learner

• Understanding of what makes markets work well for consumers and the impact of regulation on consumers, including unintended outcomes

• Experience of assessing risks arising in complex business models

• Excellent relationship and stakeholder management skills to enable credible engagement and challenge senior internal and external stakeholders

• Ability to work at pace and under pressure, use sound judgement and escalate issues appropriately

• Excellent analytical skills and ability to review complex information and make well informed judgements

• Ability to balance and manage different priorities, working independently and in a team, and manage several work streams simultaneously

• Comfortable with responsibility and managing ambiguity

About the FCA

The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here.

The FCA's Values & Diversity 

Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation. 

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our Senior Associate role.

Flexible working

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements.  Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares.  We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.    
  

Multi-location

As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices.  This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.   

Useful Information

• This role is graded Senior Associate – Regulatory

• Applications for this role close on Wednesday 16th October 2024

• CVs will be reviewed by the recruiting team from Thursday 17th October onwards

• Interviews likely to take place W/C 28th October / 4th November

Got a question?

For internal candidates: please speak to Jen Wishart on [email protected]

For external applicants, please contact Chhavi Bartaria on [email protected]

What to expect from our interview process  

The process will likely involve 1 stage:

• A case study followed by a competency based interview

Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role.  

Application support  

We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.  

If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible.