We are seeking an experienced forensic-investigations practitioner to join our client in Sydney at Director level. The successful candidate will lead delivery on fraud, misconduct and asset-tracing investigation workstreams under Partner-led case strategy, operate as a senior delivery practitioner alongside Partners during investigation 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 forensic 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 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 fraud and misconduct investigations: scoping, evidence development and preservation, financial-flow reconstruction at investigation depth, and structured written findings, often with cross-border (Australia-NZ-PNG-APAC) overlay - in support of Partner-led case strategy and engagement leadership.
• Design and oversee structured interview programmes compliant with Federal Court witness-statement conventions, including interviews of witnesses, subjects, senior executives and (where required) board members.
• Lead delivery on asset-tracing and recovery workstreams involving capital-movement analysis, beneficial-ownership unwinding across multi-jurisdictional structures, and integration with civil-recovery counsel on Mareva and freezing-order applications under the Federal Court Rules 2011.
• Support board- and audit-committee-instructed special investigations under Partner-led privileged retainer - ensuring privilege architecture and chain-of-custody discipline withstand subsequent challenge.
• Support Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry as forensic adviser to Counsel Assisting and inquiry counsel.
• Advise on internal-investigation playbooks, escalation pathways, evidence-preservation protocols and whistleblower-channel design as part of Partner-led investigative-readiness engagements.
• Build emerging client relationships and contribute to named-account development at General Counsel, CFO, Chief Compliance Officer and Audit Committee Chair level - contributing meaningfully to the practice's pipeline of investigations work under Partner direction.
• Mentor and advocate for managers and senior managers - supporting their delivery, championing their development needs at engagement-staffing rounds, and sponsoring their upskilling on emerging methodology and AI tooling - and contribute to firm-wide investigations methodology and market-insight knowledge sharing.

Required Qualifications and Skills:

• Chartered Accountant (CA ANZ, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand) preferred, or CPA Australia, or equivalent professional accounting qualification (ACA / ICAEW, ACCA, CPA US, HKICPA, ISCA).
• At least 8 years of relevant experience in forensic investigations, fraud examinations, internal investigations or audit-committee-led work.
• Demonstrable track record of leading delivery on misconduct, fraud and asset-tracing engagements - in support of Partner-led case strategy and engagement leadership.
• Direct experience working with senior client stakeholders, including General Counsel, CFO, Chief Compliance Officer and Audit Committee Chair.
• Working knowledge of the Australian investigations framework: the Criminal Code (Cth) cross-border bribery framework, AFP and state-police serious-fraud parallel-investigation interfaces, the Corporations Act 2001 director-duties framework at the investigation level, Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles for evidence-gathering, and Federal Court Rules 2011 for civil-recovery applications.
• Practical familiarity with Royal Commission and Commission-of-Inquiry support work as forensic adviser to Counsel Assisting and inquiry counsel.
• Familiarity with industry-standard investigations tooling, including transactional analytics platforms (such as CaseWare IDEA or MindBridge), entity / relationship-mapping tools (such as IBM i2 Analyst's Notebook), document-review platforms (such as Relativity or Nuix) at investigation depth, and visualisation tools (such as Power BI or Tableau).
• High-agency operating style with strong judgement under time pressure and the methodological discipline to ensure findings are evidence-based, structured and defensible.
• Calm, credible communication style suited to sensitive board-level and audit-committee-led matters.

Preferred Experience:

• CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner, ACFE) - the recognised primary investigations credential at this level, with a documented salary premium over non-certified peers.
• CFF (Certified in Financial Forensics, AICPA) for practitioners whose investigations frequently cross into financial-accounting forensics.
• CA ANZ specialist designation in Forensic Accounting.
• Experience working with or as forensic adviser to a Royal Commission or Commission of Inquiry.
• Postgraduate study in financial crime, governance, forensic accounting or a related discipline.
• Cross-border investigations experience across Australia / NZ / PNG and the broader APAC region.
• Track record of converting one-off investigations engagements into multi-year investigative-readiness or advisory work.
• Established or emerging relationships with law firm partners in litigation, disputes, white-collar crime, regulatory enforcement and internal-investigations practices who instruct forensic investigations work.
• Continuous-learning posture and active engagement with the AI developments reshaping forensic investigations: candidates who track tooling shifts (such as AI-assisted document review at investigation depth, ML-driven transactional-analytics enrichment, or LLM-aided fact-pattern synthesis under Federal Court evidentiary expectations), 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 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 forensic 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.