The Securities and Markets Team develops policy on matters relating to the competitiveness,regulation and, and good functioning of the UKs financial markets, to support UK growth. The range of our work is wide, from formulating the laws which govern the behaviour of investment bankers and traders, to ensuring that UK financial markets continue to attract the best UK and overseas companies. As part of this, we work closely with teams across HMT and Government, with industry, think tanks and with the regulators. In particular, the team works closely with colleagues in the Financial Conduct Authority, Bank of England and UK representatives around the world. The team is regularly required to work at pace to provide advice to Ministers on high-profile current issues and listings. We have a strong focus on personal development, where you will be encouraged to pursue stretching projects to enable you to develop and thrive.
The team has 19 colleagues across three units: the Capital Markets Unit, Wholesale Markets Unit, and the Financial Market Infrastructure Unit.
One of these roles sits in the Capital Markets Unit. The Capital Markets Unit has 5 people, sitting between a Primary Markets branch leading on policy to enhance the competitiveness of capital markets, and the Listings Engagement and PISCES branch (where this role sits) which leads on the stakeholder strategy to secure listings in the UK, and the development of PISCES.
The other role sits within the Financial Market Infrastructure Unit. The FMI unit is a branch of 6 people (1 Grade 6, 2 Grade 7s and 2-3 SEOs). FMIs are institutions that sit at the heart of financial markets, providing the underlying plumbing for the system without them, most transactions that take place across financial markets couldnt happen. FMIs underpin the overall stability and resilience of markets and help avoid problems at individual firms from translating to a wider systemic collapse. Given the importance of UK FMIs to the global financial system, they generate significant interest from abroad and this has a strong influence on the units work.
These roles are currently in Securities and Markets Team. However, you should note that there may be changes to the shape of the broader Financial Services Group which could affect which team the roles ultimately sit in.
About the roles
Policy Adviser - Listings and PISCES
This is a fascinating and stretching job, providing the opportunity to the postholder to develop their strategy and policy skills on two high-profile areas of financial services, which sit at the centre of the political debate on the UKs competitiveness as a global financial centre, and the governments growth mission.
In this role, you will be responsible for leading engagement with other government departments (in particular the Office for Investment) to support the Listings Taskforce, a ministerial cross-government initiative that directs HMGs strategic engagement with firms considering Initial Public Offerings on UK public markets. You will also support engagement by HMT ministers with priority targets the Listings Taskforce identifies. You will also act as the governments account manager for its relationship with the London Stock Exchange.
In addition, you will be responsible for supporting work on PISCES (the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System), a brand-new type of stock exchange for private companies which has been established in a regulatory sandbox. You will do this through leading engagement with PISCES operators, and supporting engagement with companies who are prospective users of PISCES. You will also work closely with lawyers and the Financial Conduct Authority to monitor the effectiveness of the PISCES regulatory framework, and advise ministers on new and innovative policy interventions that will emerge from this cutting-edge policy area.
Success in this role requires strong communication skills and an ability to work effectively across multiple teams and organisations. To do all this, you will need to build relationships with Ministers, Civil Service colleagues, stakeholder groups and the public. Given the fast-paced nature of the work involved, the postholder will be required to apply sound judgement to a range of fast-paced engagement and policy issues, promoting the objectives of the team.
Key accountabilities for this role include:
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Supporting the secretariat work of the Listings Taskforce. This includes advising which seniors or ministers should meet with target companies, ensuring those meetings are scheduled and following the progress of target companies within the financial services sector towards a potential listing.
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Supporting HMT ministers and seniors in their engagement with trade associations, pre-IPO or listed companies, the London Stock Exchange and other important decision-makers. This includes coordinating with colleagues within HMT, preparing briefings for ministerial roundtables and drafting speeches.
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Becoming the HMT subject matter expert on PISCES, contributing to advice to Ministers and senior officials on strategic decisions, and working with industry and regulators to support its success during the sandbox period and to develop a permanent legislative regime.
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Building relationships with external stakeholders, which requires representing HMT on cross-cutting issues related to listings and PISCES across government, industry and with the Financial Conduct Authority. This will involve significant engagement with other parts of government, especially the Office for Investment, to ensure the Groups objectives are reflected appropriately.
Policy Adviser Digital Strategy
This role is stretching, intellectually demanding and will give the successful candidate a high level of policy responsibility and independence, as well as the opportunity to develop a specific policy expertise.
The postholder would lead much of the FMI units work on the modernisation of markets, particularly with the advent of new and exciting innovations like distributed ledger technology., particularly as they relate to digital assets, tokenisation and central securities depositories (a type of market infrastructure where securities are held and transferred).
The postholder would be jointly responsible for delivering on the outputs of the Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy, published in July 2025, which sets a vision to digitalise financial markets and help ensure that UK markets remain resilient, innovative and competitive on a global stage. The postholder would be expected to work closely across other teams in HMT and with the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority to deliver on this, as well as on new or ongoing workstreams to promote digital assets in the UK, such as the UKs ongoing Digital Securities Sandbox.
Alongside this more strategic angle, the postholder would also be expected to lead on the reform of certain bits of UK legislation (e.g. our financial collateral regulations) to help enable the use of new technologies and to support the governments wider mission to foster UK competitiveness and growth. This would involve developing a sophisticated understanding of the complex processes and frameworks that enable financial markets to operate, as well as the technical detail of the legislation that governs these.
Key accountabilities for this role include:
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Delivering on the vision set out in the Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy to modernise and improve UK markets.
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Becoming a subject matter expert on settlement and digital assets/tokenisation and independently take forward work to support the governments agenda in these areas.
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Overseeing the delivery and implementation of market reforms through secondary legislation working collaboratively with Treasury lawyers.
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Preparing advice for and working with Ministers and seniors on decisions, risks or issues pertaining to your policy.
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Monitoring international/technological developments in the digital assets space and ensuring these are fed through/accounted for in the units work.
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Lead engagement with the financial services regulators and key financial services industry partners on a variety of important policy issues related to your policy area.
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Be responsible for delivering speeches, briefings, correspondence and Parliamentary engagement.
Whilst hybrid working will be the normal rhythm for both roles, it will require some travel to the London office for regular in-person stakeholder engagement.
If you would like to speak to the hiring manager informally prior to the closing date, please contact Kieran Davis ([email protected]) and/or Tim Maloney ([email protected])
Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.
