Senior Crypto and Open Source Intelligence (COSINT) Specialist

Business Unit

Regular, Full time

Closing Date: June 17, 2025

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is the statutory body responsible for regulating Ontario’s capital markets in accordance with the mandate established in the provincial Securities Act and the Commodity Futures Act. The mandate of the OSC is to provide protection to investors from unfair, improper or fraudulent practices, to foster fair, efficient and competitive capital markets and confidence in the capital markets, to foster capital formation, and to contribute to the stability of the financial system and the reduction of systemic risk. This mandate is performed through policy, operational, and enforcement activities. The OSC also contributes to national and global securities regulation development.

We offer a diverse, fair, and flexible work environment and take pride in our challenging and rewarding work.

Summary

The Senior Crypto and Open Source Intelligence (COSINT) Specialist will be responsible for providing leadership in surveillance, information-gathering and intelligence from blockchains, deep/dark web, social media, forums and other online areas of interest in support of the OSC’s Enforcement Division.

The Senior COSINT Specialist will lead the implementation and use of blockchain analytics tools to identify and trace transactions and activities across public ledgers, open source web-based tools and techniques to identify possible violations of the Ontario Securities Act and to conduct surveillance or monitoring of parties identified by Enforcement. 

The Senior COSINT Specialist will also provide regular direction and coaching to other members of the COSINT team to develop good practices and effective strategies for relevant intelligence, information-gathering and disruption activities, including recommending options for early disruptive actions.  The Senior COSINT Specialist is expected to provide recommendations to management and the larger team for optimizing existing technological tools and identifying cost effective monitoring strategies.

This position is a critical support function to further develop COSINT strategies and practices and support of the Enforcement Division.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Crypto and Blockchain Transactions

• Lead the use of blockchain tools to trace cryptocurrency transactions across public ledgers to identify illicit activities and support existing investigations.
• Continuously monitor and evaluate emerging crypto technologies to identify their potential applications in enforcement strategies.
• Stay ahead of evolving best practices in blockchain forensics.
• Develop and make recommendations to management on best practices for Enforcement’s crypto functions, help with documenting and updating them as technology needs continue to evolve.
• Correlate transaction data with OSINT-derived information to link wallets to real-world identities or illicit networks. 
• Coordinate with other teams to support the assessment and investigation of cryptocurrency-based misconduct including fraud by using blockchain data and smart contracts to identify suspicious patterns.
• Lead the efforts to leverage COSINT to gather evidence from public sources (e.g. crypto platforms, forums, social media) to further assessments and investigations.
• Produce detailed reports combining crypto analysis and OSINT insights to inform and support the Division’s efforts to identify illicit activities and take appropriate enforcement action.

Web Surveillance

• Responsible for reviewing and making recommendations on surveillance practices with a focus on ensuring that there is an optimization of OSINT work in both early identification of potential threats, and in providing supporting information/reports as part of assessments and investigations.
• Subject matter expert in web surveillance to identify possible activities for early disruption; will provide daily direction and coaching to the more junior employees on approach and best practices.
• Identify and apply surveillant measures in deep and dark web spaces to detect early signs of nefarious behaviors.
• Lead in identifying and providing recommendations to management to modernize technological integration within Enforcement Division’s practices.
• Project lead for business unit to establish and implement proactive strategies and collaborate with other teams to identify and address issues.
• Prepare findings and reports for management and other stakeholders.

Web Capture

• Lead and perform web capture function.
• Responsible for updating as needed the web capture practice within the COSINT unit, including identifying and establishing standard operating procedures and best practices, ensuring standardized processes are followed.
• Responsible for identifying and implementing new technology and strategies to enhance the web capture practice and providing recommendations to management.
• Investigate web presence of proposed whistle-blowers to further verify their credibility and prevent any poor media exposure/partnership damages.
• Determine strategy to create historic captures of websites (wayback machine) to capture previous messaging that may be relevant to investigations.

Investigation Support

• Subject matter expert in conducting early detection on crypto activities (pre-ICO) and on cannabis developments (for high relevancy cases). Further utilize web scrape tools built by analytics team.
• Act as business partner to assessment and investigatory teams by responding to their requests and needs as it pertains to OSINT-analytics.
• Provide support to Case Assessment team by diagnosing where particular web traffic, and web chatter is being generated from.
• Provide direction to other COSINT Specialists to best identify working paths forward, and coach investigation teams to better understand the practices deployed to find their results.
• Responsible for designing and implementing Division-wide training plan to upskill investigation teams on COSINT practices to support increased integration into regular operations.

Relationship Management

• Work with the larger intelligence, analytics and research team and other teams in Enforcement to identify opportunities to use technology and make recommendations to management to gain efficiencies in assessment, investigations, disruptions and Enforcement operations
• Develop general COSINT best practices to achieve business objectives.
• Provide technology advice within Enforcement as required in technology and business processes.
• Ensure project outcomes and delivery expectations are effectively met and that required support and training are provided to support groups and users.

Qualifications

• Computer Science or other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Math) degree in a related field or equivalent experience.
• Master’s degree in related technical or military discipline, or equivalent combination of education and professional training/experience, an asset.
• Proven experience in tracing and analyzing blockchain transactions and activity.
• Working experience in a Law Enforcement agency, major finance, accounting and/or consulting firms an asset.
• Minimum 10 years of related experience supporting intelligence analysis and production programs and operations.
• Advanced knowledge of the principles, methods, processes, and applicable regulations involved in intelligence analysis.
• Minimum 10 years of in–depth technical expertise in infrastructure technologies
• Knowledge of current practices and standards related to technical operations, industry trends, and evolving technologies.
• Knowledge in Encryption Technology with relevant certifications an asset, including but not limited to Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified Information Security Systems Professional (CISSP), GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC).
• Completion of Information Services certifications an asset, including but not limited to ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), CompTIA (IT Industry Association), CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), CISA (Certified Information System Auditor).
• Demonstrated ability to lead/coach and guide more junior staff by providing regular, clear direction and constructive feedback.
• Strong understanding of securities related matters as well as cryptocurrencies, blockchains, crypto trading platforms and current social media.
• Superior team-based skills necessary to collaborate, coach, mentor, inspire and demonstrate a service excellence mindset within the team and other OSC individuals.
• Strong project management, analytical, problem solving and decision-making skills to evaluate alternatives and provide recommendations on business issues.
• Ability to express complex technical concepts in business terms.
• Self-motivated and proactive, with respect to both managing workload and professional development.
• Ability to work with multiple internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.

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We thank all applicants for their interest in the Ontario Securities Commission. We will contact those selected for an interview.

The OSC is committed to diversity and providing an inclusive workplace and providing accommodation in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the Human Rights Code. It is our priority to ensure employment opportunities are visible and barrier-free to all under-represented groups including but not limited to, Indigenous, Black and racialized groups, people with disabilities, women and people from the 2SLGBTQI+ community, to achieve an employee demographic profile reflective of the demographic profile of Ontarians.

The OSC is a proud partner with the following organizations: Ascend Canada, BlackNorth Initiative, Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion, and Pride at Work Canada

If you require an accommodation during the recruitment process, please let us know by contacting our confidential inbox HRRecruitment@osc.gov.on.ca.  
 

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