Head of Compliance Advisory, Singapore

About the Opportunity

A well-established corporate and fund services group — with a strong footprint across Asia-Pacific — is looking for a senior compliance professional to lead and grow its Singapore compliance advisory practice.

This is not an in-house compliance seat. The practice advises external clients — licensed fund managers, financial institutions, family offices and other regulated entities — on the regulatory questions that actually keep them up at night. It is an established, relationship-driven book of work now entering its next phase of growth, and the firm wants someone who can take the reins, hold the technical bar high, and build from there.

You would step into a boutique, high-trust advisory practice that sits inside a much larger regional platform — the intimacy of a specialist team, with the reach and cross-sell of a full corporate and fund services group behind you.

The Role

You own the practice. In practice, that means:

• Advising fund managers, financial institutions and family offices on MAS licensing applications, ongoing regulatory obligations, AML/CFT and sanctions, governance and internal controls, outsourcing arrangements, compliance monitoring and regulatory reporting
• Acting as Outsourced Compliance Officer where clients need it, and designing the compliance frameworks, policies and monitoring programmes that sit underneath
• Fronting regulator engagement — licensing, approvals, inspections and remediation — as the person clients call first
• Carrying the P&L: winning new work, deepening existing client relationships, and representing the firm in the market
• Shaping how the practice scales — the processes, quality standards and service model — and mentoring the team as it grows

This is a seat for someone who wants genuine ownership: the technical advisory and the commercial engine behind it.

What Makes You a Fit

You are most likely a compliance specialist with around 12–15 years in regulatory compliance, compliance consulting or legal advisory within financial services — and, crucially, you have advised external fund-manager or FI clients directly, not only run compliance from inside a single firm. The whole model here is external advisory, so that distinction matters.

You know Singapore's regulatory framework for licensed fund management companies and financial institutions cold, and you are strong on securities law and capital markets. You are comfortable engaging with the regulator and steering regulatory projects end-to-end.

Just as important, you are commercial. You have won work, grown client relationships, and ideally carried revenue or P&L — because this role is as much about building the business as advising on it. You have set up processes and helped a practice or function scale, rather than only executing inside someone else's structure.

A degree in Law, Finance, Business, Accounting or a related discipline rounds out the profile.

Nice to have

• A qualified lawyer / legal background, or professional compliance, legal or risk qualifications
• Experience from a peer compliance-advisory firm with a similar external-client model
• Exposure to bank compliance or fund-of-funds environments
• Experience with large MNC / US securities work
• A track record of cross-selling alongside corporate secretarial, fund administration, tax and advisory teams

What is On Offer

• A genuine practice-leadership seat with real P&L ownership — you run it, you grow it
• A competitive base commensurate with the seniority, with room to flex for the right person
• The backing of a larger regional group and a natural cross-sell platform across corporate secretarial, fund administration, tax and advisory
• A clear trajectory: take an established client book and build the practice around it
• An exclusive search — the firm has committed to a single search partner, a sign of how seriously they are backing this hire
• A confidential, off-market process, handled discreetly throughout

To apply, please submit your resume to [Confidential Information] highlighting your relevant experience and why you are interested in this position.

** All information will be treated with the strictest confidence. We regret to inform you that only short-listed applicants would be notified. Thank you for your understanding **