We are seeking an experienced business-intelligence and complex-investigations practitioner to join our client in Hong Kong at Director level. The successful candidate will lead delivery on due-diligence, asset-tracing and corporate-intelligence workstreams under Partner-led engagement strategy and source-handling direction, operate as a senior delivery practitioner alongside Partners during investigation and reporting windows, and build the named-account and law-firm-partner relationships that underpin future origination at Senior Director and Partner level. Specific qualifications, regulatory fluency and tooling are detailed in the sections that follow.

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 business intelligence and complex investigations 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 intelligence and investigations practitioners to make safe exits to launch rewarding new careers, we have the experience, network and ability to help you.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead delivery on complex pre-transaction due-diligence (CDD), management-background, reputational and political-risk investigations on M&A, private-equity, infrastructure, sovereign-wealth and family-office mandates - often with HK-Mainland-Singapore-elsewhere-APAC overlay - in support of Partner-led engagement strategy and source-handling direction, delivering hypothesis design, source mix, written deliverable and adversarial-context defensibility, while building the named-account and law-firm-partner networks that underpin future personal origination at Senior Director and Partner level.
• Lead delivery on adversarial-context asset-tracing workstreams on civil-recovery, judgment-enforcement and pre-litigation matters: capital-movement reconstruction across HK-PRC structures, beneficial-ownership unwinding through BVI / Cayman / Samoa / PRC / Trust-and-Foundation structures, and integration with civil-recovery counsel on Mareva and proprietary-injunction applications.
• Design and oversee OSINT, OSINF and HUMINT collection programmes under ethical codes (ABI, WAEPA, IBE) and PDPO-aligned source-handling protocols; run bilingual / Traditional-and-Simplified-Chinese records aggregation including HK Companies Registry, PRC NECIPS / SAIC, BVI / Cayman / Samoa public-records routes, the HK Land Registry, and PRC Court Cases / China Judgements Online where lawful.
• Deliver subject-centric investigations on integrity-and-fitness reviews, counterparty risk reviews under sanctions-and-PEP overlays (notably HK and PRC SDN exposures), and red-flag risk reports for board and audit-committee instruction under Partner direction.
• Lead delivery on political-risk and country-risk advisory mandates across Greater China, the GBA and South-East Asia, including expropriation-risk reviews, regulatory-shift forecasting under the post-2024 HK National Security Law overlay, and sovereign-counterparty profiling.
• Build emerging client relationships and contribute to named-account development at General Counsel, CFO, Head of M&A, Managing Partner of PE houses, CIO of family offices and Audit Committee Chair level, and at relevant law firm partner level in Hong Kong and Greater China - under Partner direction.
• Mentor and advocate for managers and senior managers - supporting their delivery on intelligence tradecraft and investigations methodology, championing their development needs at engagement-staffing rounds, and sponsoring their bilingual upskilling on emerging methodology and AI tooling - and apply industry-standard intelligence tooling at investigation depth in support of investigative outcomes, particularly on bilingual evidence populations.
• Maintain registered-investigator status under the Hong Kong Security and Guarding Services Ordinance where required for licensable activities; ensure engagement compliance with PDPO, the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, sanctions overlays and the 2024 HK National Security Law where applicable.

Required Qualifications and Skills:

• Recognised intelligence, investigations or legal credential, such as Type II PI Licence under the Hong Kong Security and Guarding Services Ordinance, CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner, ACFE), CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, ACAMS), ICA Diploma in Compliance / Financial Crime, ABI / WAEPA membership, or qualified lawyer status (HK Bar / common-law-equivalent practising certificate).
• At least 8 years of relevant experience in business intelligence, corporate investigations, asset-tracing, OSINT-led research, political-risk advisory, intelligence-services background or qualified-legal practice with substantive direct exposure to investigations work.
• Mandarin and Cantonese working fluency. Bilingual operational capability is essential at this level for HK-Mainland-cross-border investigations, source handling and records aggregation.
• Demonstrable track record of leading delivery on pre-transaction due-diligence, adversarial-context asset-tracing or political-risk advisory engagements - in support of Partner-led engagement strategy and source-handling direction, delivering hypothesis design, source mix and written deliverable on bilingual fact patterns.
• Direct experience working with senior client stakeholders (General Counsel, CFO, Head of M&A, Managing Partner / CIO at PE / hedge-fund / family-office level) and instructing solicitors at partner level (HK and PRC).
• Working knowledge of the Hong Kong intelligence-and-investigations framework: the Security and Guarding Services Ordinance and Security Bureau licensable-investigator registration, PDPO lawful-collection and cross-border-transfer grounds, the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) for source-handling under instruction, the Computer Crimes Ordinance for source-handling boundaries, the Crimes Ordinance for investigations boundaries, the post-2024 National Security Law overlay where applicable, and the 2024 Mainland Judicial Mutual Assistance arrangements including PIPL / CSL / DSL implications for HK source handling.
• Working knowledge of subject-centric investigations methodology: hypothesis-driven research design, bilingual cross-border records aggregation, beneficial-ownership unwinding through cross-jurisdictional structures, HUMINT cultivation under the ABI / WAEPA / IBE ethical codes, and adversarial-context defensibility frameworks.
• Familiarity with industry-standard business-intelligence tooling, including entity-resolution and graph-intelligence platforms (such as Sayari Graph, Castellum.AI, Refinitiv World-Check, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance or LexisNexis Bridger), corporate-records and credit-data platforms (such as Bureau Van Dijk Orbis, Pitchbook, Mergermarket or Capital IQ), social-media intelligence platforms (such as Babel Street or Maltego), court-records aggregators across HK / PRC / international jurisdictions, and local-language records (HK Companies Registry, Land Registry, PRC NECIPS / SAIC, China Judgements Online) at investigations depth.
• High-agency operating style with strong judgement under tight engagement deadlines and the methodological discipline to ensure findings are evidence-based, structured and defensible against subject challenge or counsel challenge in bilingual settings.
• Calm, credible communication style suited to senior PE / family-office / counsel reporting and high-trust source handling.

Preferred Experience:

• Prior background in intelligence services (such as the HK Police Force, ICAC investigations division, the SAR intelligence community or international peers), investigative journalism (such as ICIJ-affiliated publications or Bloomberg / FT / Reuters HK / PRC investigations desks) or specialist corporate-intelligence boutiques.
• Stacking credentials, such as Type II PI Licence (Cap. 460) plus CFE plus CAMS, or qualified-lawyer status plus CFE plus ABI membership.
• Experience of cross-border PRC-HK matters under the 2024 Mainland Judicial Mutual Assistance arrangements, including PIPL / CSL / DSL data-export and review-jurisdiction implications.
• Postgraduate study in international relations, security studies, intelligence studies, journalism, finance, governance or law.
• Cross-border investigations experience across Greater China, the GBA and South-East Asia.
• Track record of converting one-off engagements into multi-year retainer or standing-monitor work.
• Established or emerging relationships with law firm partners in commercial litigation, white-collar crime, regulatory enforcement, M&A litigation, asset-recovery and internal-investigations practices who instruct business-intelligence and asset-tracing work.
• Continuous-learning posture and active engagement with the AI developments reshaping business intelligence and complex investigations: candidates who track tooling shifts (such as AI-assisted OSINT and entity-resolution on bilingual populations via Sayari Graph or Castellum.AI, LLM-aided Traditional-and-Simplified-Chinese source-language translation, or ML-driven beneficial-ownership inference across HK / PRC / offshore structures), share that knowledge with managers and senior managers, and have a track record of supporting team upskilling on emerging methodologies.

Compensation:

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

Next Steps:

This opportunity is open to Hong Kong permanent residents and qualified candidates with relevant Hong Kong work-rights status who match the above criteria. Please apply to receive prompt contact from an experienced and specialist business intelligence and complex investigations 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.