We are seeking a Partner-grade Regulatory and Risk Advisory practitioner to join our client in Sydney. The ideal candidate will hold senior compliance, audit or legal credentials with at least 15 years of relevant experience, the most recent 3+ years at Partner, Managing Director or equivalent practice-leadership level, and a market reputation as a compliance-monitor and ABC / AML authority under the post-Hayne, post-Optus / Medibank and Combatting Foreign Bribery Act 2024 enforcement landscape. The successful candidate will have a portable book of senior client and law-firm-partner relationships, a sustained personally-originated regulatory-advisory revenue track record, and the brand presence to lead a regulatory-and-risk practice in the Sydney market. They will be responsible for taking signed-off positions on the most complex monitorship and remediation matters, leading the highest-profile ASIC / APRA / AUSTRAC / ACCC-induced advisory engagements end to end, originating and growing Partner-instructed mandates, and setting practice strategy on hiring, pricing and methodology.

Confidential Client. Applying to this position means that you are interested to have an initial confidential discussion about how we can help you to identify and join a new regulatory and risk advisory practice at Partner level. With your authorisation we will exclusively run the entire application and recruitment process for you, keeping you apprised at every step. With over 30 years' combined experience of helping the most talented compliance and regulatory practitioners to make safe exits to launch rewarding new careers, we have the experience, network and ability to help you.

Key Responsibilities:

• Take signed-off Partner positions on the most complex regulatory-advisory engagements - high-stakes, often privileged, often counsel-instructed engagements running AUD 1.5m - 15m+ - with full P&L responsibility for the regulatory engagement portfolio.
• Originate, win and grow Partner-instructed regulatory mandates by carrying a portable book of senior relationships at General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Risk Officer and Audit Committee Chair level, and at relevant law firm partner level.
• Convert reactive remediation work into multi-year retainer engagements covering compliance-monitor retainers, three-lines-of-defence advisory, board-and-audit-committee culture-review programmes, outsourced-MLRO and Head-of-Compliance support, and standing-monitor positions for groups under DPA-equivalent exposure under the Combatting Foreign Bribery Act 2024.
• Take Partner-level signed-off positions on independent compliance monitor reports, DPA-induced annual attestations, ABC framework defensibility opinions, AML / CTF compliance attestations and post-enforcement remediation roadmaps; serve as Partner before the Australian enforcement bar (ASIC, APRA, AUSTRAC, ACCC, ATO, OAIC, AFP, ACLEI) and as forensic adviser to Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry where required.
• Lead the most complex multi-jurisdictional regulatory matters - notably APAC-wide ABC framework integrations, AML / CTF framework rollouts under the AUSTRAC Tranche-2-extension regime, post-Hayne and post-Optus / Medibank remediation programmes, US-DOJ / SEC / SFO / ASIC-induced cross-jurisdiction monitorships, and modern-slavery / climate-disclosure compliance programmes.
• Set the practice's strategy on tooling adoption (such as Refinitiv / Dow Jones / NICE Actimize / SMARTS stacks), hiring, pricing and market positioning; shape the firm's signed-off attestation doctrine.
• Build the practice's external IP and brand presence on regulatory themes through published thought leadership and conference-level speaking engagements; pursue and maintain ACAMS, ICA, GIA, GAICD and SCCE positioning where applicable.
• Hire, develop, mentor and advocate for the practice staff - Senior Directors, Directors, Senior Managers and the wider bench - championing advancement at firm-wide promotion rounds, sponsoring sustained upskilling on emerging methodology and AI tooling, and shaping their external profile-building. Contribute to firm strategy beyond the regulatory sub-practice.

Required Qualifications and Skills:

• Multiple senior compliance, audit or legal credentials, such as CAMS plus CFE plus GIA plus CIA, or qualified-lawyer status with regulatory / financial-services specialisation - the recognised stacking pattern at Partner level.
• At least 15 years of relevant experience in compliance advisory, regulatory remediation, internal audit, financial-crime investigations or qualified-legal practice, with the most recent 3+ years at Partner, Managing Director or equivalent practice-leadership level.
• Demonstrable track record of leading the most complex regional regulatory matters with full P&L accountability and signed-off Partner-level attestations under regulator and class-action review.
• Demonstrable, sustained, personally-originated regulatory-advisory revenue track record. Sydney market guide: AUD 2m - 4m+ annually originated on regulatory-advisory and monitorship work, calibrated to the engaging firm.
• Portable senior client relationships at General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Risk Officer, Head of Internal Audit and Audit Committee Chair level, and at relevant law firm partner level (regulatory enforcement, white-collar crime, financial-services regulatory, internal-investigations and class-action / privacy-litigation practices) who refer and instruct regulatory advisory and monitorship work - credibly portable subject to non-compete and non-solicit posture; named accounts with multi-year history are the strongest evidence.
• Experience running a regulatory sub-practice or country-team P&L: revenue, utilisation, gross margin, partner-time leverage, hire-and-promote responsibility, monitor-panel positioning.
• Authority on the Australian regulatory framework: the Criminal Code (Cth) cross-border bribery framework and Combatting Foreign Bribery Act 2024 (corporate-criminal-liability test and DPA-equivalent framework), the Corporations Act 2001 director-duties and market-conduct provisions, the AML / CTF Act 2006 and Tranche-2 extension, APRA prudential-standards framework, AUSTRAC enforcement-decision pattern, ACCC competition / cartel enforcement, ATO related-party / transfer-pricing framework, the Modern Slavery Act 2018, ASRS climate-disclosure obligations, and Privacy Act 1988 obligations.
• Cross-border fluency on ABC and AML frameworks at Partner-policy depth: FCPA, UK Bribery Act, Singapore PCA, France's Sapin II, Germany's VerSanG, Brazil's Clean Companies Act, and the FATF MER and follow-up framework.
• Familiarity with industry-standard regulatory and risk tooling, including third-party due-diligence platforms (such as Refinitiv World-Check, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, or LexisNexis Bridger), sanctions-screening platforms (such as Accuity, ComplyAdvantage or LexisNexis Bridger), trade-surveillance platforms (such as NICE Actimize, NASDAQ SMARTS or Eventus Validus), AML transaction-monitoring platforms (such as NICE Actimize, SAS AML or Oracle Mantas), and risk-and-compliance suites (such as Archer or Workiva).
• Realistic engagement on notice periods and non-compete / non-solicit obligations given the senior nature of the move and the relationship-led nature of the practice.

Preferred Experience:

• Prior regulator alumni status at ASIC, APRA, AUSTRAC, ACCC, ATO or international peers (FCA / SEC / DOJ / SFO / OCC).
• Royal Commission or Commission-of-Inquiry advisor experience at Partner level.
• Independent-monitor or DPA-monitor appointment track record.
• Postgraduate qualification: Master's in law, finance, public policy, governance, MBA, or LLM with regulatory / compliance / criminal-justice relevance.
• Visible market profile in the Australian / Trans-Tasman regulatory community: published author, conference speaker, recognised authority on ABC, AML, sanctions or financial-crime themes, named in legal and compliance directories.
• Track record of testifying or signed-off declaration on regulatory issues in arbitration, court, royal-commission or regulator proceedings.
• Demonstrable conversion of one-off regulatory-advisory engagements into multi-year monitorship and standing-retainer work.
• Visible thought leadership on the AI developments reshaping regulatory and risk advisory and a documented growth-mindset operating posture: candidates who set the practice direction on tooling adoption (such as AI-assisted compliance monitoring, LLM-aided regulatory-change tracking under the post-Hayne and Tranche-2 regimes, automated control-testing, or ML-enriched PEP / SDN screening), advocate for and develop their practice staff on emerging methodologies, and have a track record of upskilling-programme delivery within the sub-practice.

Compensation:

Partner-level package commensurate with origination, portable book and seniority. Includes base, profit-share / partnership-distribution, equity participation and long-term incentive arrangements.

Next Steps:

This opportunity is open to Australian citizens, permanent residents and qualified candidates with relevant Australian work-rights status who match the above criteria. Please apply to receive prompt confidential contact from an experienced and specialist regulatory and risk advisory recruitment Partner.

Search & Counsel is a trading style of Feltan Associates Pte Ltd; an international Executive Search, Recruitment and Consulting business based in Singapore, licensed and regulated by the Singapore Ministry of Manpower to conduct recruitment services for clients. UEN: 202225620G. EA Licence 23S1672. All rights reserved.