We are seeking a senior Regulatory and Risk Advisory practitioner to join our client in Sydney at Senior Director level. The ideal candidate will hold senior compliance, audit or legal credentials with at least 10 years of relevant experience, the most recent 3+ years at Director or equivalent senior-leadership level, and a track record of leading post-enforcement remediation, monitorship and complex ASIC / APRA / AUSTRAC / ACCC-induced advisory engagements. The successful candidate will lead the most complex multi-jurisdictional regulatory matters, take signed-off positions on framework defensibility, carry a meaningful named-account pipeline across the Australian and Trans-Tasman regulator-facing law-firm bar, and contribute to the practice's strategy as an emerging Partner-track operator.

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. 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:

• Lead high-stakes regulatory advisory engagements, typically running AUD 750k - 4m, with full responsibility for engagement strategy, methodology, signed-off written deliverable and regulator-facing engagement.
• Take signed-off positions on monitorship findings, post-enforcement remediation roadmaps, ABC framework defensibility and AML / CTF compliance attestations at instructing-counsel and regulator level; engage on disclosure-and-self-reporting positioning under ASIC, APRA, AUSTRAC, ACCC and ATO frameworks, and on the Combatting Foreign Bribery Act 2024 DPA-equivalent regime.
• Lead the most complex DPA-induced and post-Hayne / post-Optus-and-Medibank remediation programmes, integrating with US DOJ / SEC monitor work, UK SFO DPA-monitor work and AU regulator-induced compliance-uplift programmes.
• Direct sanctions-evasion investigations and trade-finance forensic reviews on the most complex matters, including DFAT autonomous sanctions, OFAC / UN / EU / UK sectoral-sanctions implementation, dual-use export-controls advisory under the Defence Trade Controls Act 2012, beneficial-ownership unwinding through cross-border structures, and integration with civil-recovery and AFP / ACLEI referral pathways.
• Set the practice's framework on AML / CTF alignment with the AML / CTF Act 2006 and the post-Tranche-2 extension to lawyers, accountants and real-estate agents, AICA-aligned trade-surveillance programmes (NICE Actimize, NASDAQ SMARTS), modern-slavery (Modern Slavery Act 2018) reporting frameworks, climate-disclosure (ASRS) attestations, and signed-off attestations to instructing counsel.
• Develop and own a sustained pipeline of named accounts 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; originate or co-originate AUD 1.5m+ annually in qualified regulatory opportunities.
• 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 and outsourced-MLRO and Head-of-Compliance support.
• Set methodology and tooling-strategy direction within the regulatory sub-practice; directly supervise, mentor and advocate for Directors and Senior Managers - championing their advancement at promotion rounds, sponsoring sustained upskilling on emerging methodology and AI tooling, and shaping their external profile-building on monitorship and signed-off attestation depth.

Required Qualifications and Skills:

• Multiple senior compliance, audit or legal credentials, such as CAMS plus CFE plus GIA, or CIA plus CRMA plus CCEP, or qualified-lawyer status with regulatory specialisation - typically multiple at this level.
• At least 10 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 Director or equivalent senior-leadership level.
• Demonstrable track record of leading bet-the-company regulatory matters with full methodology and signed-off deliverable responsibility, including post-enforcement remediation under ASIC / APRA / AUSTRAC / ACCC / DOJ regulator review.
• Direct experience operating with General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officers, Chief Risk Officers, Audit Committee Chairs and Australian regulators (ASIC, APRA, AUSTRAC, ACCC, ATO, OAIC, ASD).
• Working knowledge at supervisory-policy depth of 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 and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Competition and Consumer) measures, ATO related-party / transfer-pricing framework, the Modern Slavery Act 2018, and Privacy Act 1988 obligations at post-Optus / Medibank reform depth.
• Authority on cross-border ABC frameworks at supervisory-policy depth: FCPA, UK Bribery Act, Singapore PCA, France's Sapin II, Germany's VerSanG, Brazil's Clean Companies Act.
• 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).
• Demonstrable history of converting regulatory engagement relationships into multi-year monitorship retainer, three-lines-of-defence-advisory or outsourced-compliance-officer work.
• Established relationships with law firm partners in 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; sustained named-account level engagement is the strongest evidence.
• High-agency operating style, calm and credible under regulator and adversarial-challenge pressure, with the methodological discipline to ensure findings are evidence-based, structured and defensible.

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.
• Postgraduate qualification: Master's in law, finance, public policy, governance, MBA, or LLM with regulatory / compliance / criminal-justice relevance.
• Cross-border regulatory experience across Australia / NZ / PNG and the broader APAC region.
• Published authorship on regulatory, compliance, ABC or AML themes; conference-level speaking on regulatory advisory.
• Track record of testifying or signed-off declaration on regulatory issues in arbitration, court, royal-commission or regulator proceedings.
• Independent-monitor or DPA-monitor appointment track record.
• Growth-mindset operating posture and visible engagement with the AI developments reshaping regulatory and risk advisory: candidates who track tooling shifts (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), share that knowledge with the Director and Manager bench under their supervision, and have a track record of building team-upskilling programmes on emerging methodologies.

Compensation:

Competitive package commensurate with seniority and experience, including base, performance-based bonus, long-term incentives and (where applicable) partner-track equity participation.

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 contact from an experienced and specialist regulatory and risk advisory recruitment consultant.

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.