Director of Regulation & Conduct

Closing date for applications is: 18 October 2026 ACCA is committed to a workplace culture which is inclusive, diverse, human and connected. We welcome applications from candidates who meet some but not all of the criteria listed below. We are currently recruiting for a Director of Regulation & Conduct on a full-time, permanent basis. This UK-based role offers a flexible working model, with the option to work in a hybrid capacity from our London or Glasgow office , or fully remotely from anywhere within the UK. This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of professional regulation at ACCA. As Director of Regulation & Conduct, you will lead a globally significant regulatory function, safeguarding ACCA’s reputation, protecting the public interest, and ensuring that members, students and firms operate to the highest professional, ethical and regulatory standards. A key member of the Strategy & Governance Leadership Team, you will provide strategic leadership across monitoring, licensing, audit eligibility, anti-money laundering, investigations and disciplinary activities. You will play a pivotal role in maintaining ACCA’s statutory regulatory powers across multiple jurisdictions, while building strong relationships with regulators, oversight bodies and professional partners worldwide. This is a highly influential leadership position for an experienced regulatory professional who combines strategic vision, operational excellence and stakeholder credibility, and who is passionate about strengthening trust and confidence in the accountancy profession on a global scale. Reporting to the Executive Director – Strategy & Governance, you will lead ACCA’s regulatory, monitoring, licensing and disciplinary activities, ensuring the organisation continues to meet the highest professional, ethical and statutory standards while protecting the public interest. Key responsibilities: • Develop and deliver the strategic vision for ACCA’s regulatory functions, ensuring effective governance, ethical oversight and compliance across all regulatory activities. • Lead ACCA’s monitoring programmes, including audit, anti-money laundering and practice assurance activities, maintaining statutory recognition and regulatory confidence across multiple jurisdictions. • Oversee licensing and authorisation processes, ensuring robust controls, regulatory compliance and fair, consistent decision-making for members, firms and employers. • Drive the effectiveness of ACCA’s anti-money laundering framework, ensuring compliance with regulatory obligations and supporting ongoing regulatory transformation. • Lead the end-to-end disciplinary function for students, members and firms, ensuring timely, proportionate and transparent regulatory outcomes. • Build and maintain strong relationships with regulators, oversight bodies and key stakeholders, promoting confidence in ACCA’s regulatory standards, processes and governance. • Deliver operational excellence through continuous improvement, innovation, performance management and financial accountability, ensuring a sustainable and high-performing function. • Lead, develop and inspire a multidisciplinary leadership team while championing ACCA’s regulatory strategy and contributing to organisation-wide priorities and strategic initiatives. The Person We're looking for an exceptional senior leader with significant experience operating in a regulated environment, coupled with the strategic vision and credibility to lead a complex regulatory function. You'll bring: • Significant senior-level experience within an accountancy regulator, professional body, or other regulated profession, ideally within the UK or Ireland. • A proven track record of leading large, complex teams of professionally qualified specialists and subject matter experts, delivering high performance and continuous improvement. • Extensive experience managing regulatory operations, projects and people within a regulatory, professional services or practice environment. • Strong strategic capability, with the ability to understand complex technical issues, identify future requirements and translate them into effective operational plans. • Absolute integrity, sound judgement and a commitment to promoting the highest ethical and professional standards. • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence, build credibility and develop trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and regulators. • Outstanding organisational and leadership skills, with experience managing competing priorities, significant workloads and complex programmes of work. • A strong interest in regulatory best practice, governance and continuous improvement, with a passion for enhancing regulatory effectiveness and public trust. Our Benefits We strive to create an environment where you can prioritise your wellbeing and so have designed our benefits to give you the flexibility and power to do so. Our core benefits include private healthcare, life assurance and income protection as well as a fantastic defined contribution pension scheme. We provide an employee assistance programme and are proud to offer a financial wellbeing tool called Nudge, to our employees. Our flexible benefits platform gives you the power to customise your benefit plan to suit your needs, you can choose to add a number of benefits including extra holidays, PMI family cover, cycle to work, Travel and Gym loans and more! You can also enjoy exclusive access to our discount site and wellbeing centre platform. We are committed to equal opportunities across our recruitment activities and have a real commitment to ensuring the inclusion and well-being of all employees. We have a blended approach to working to support our employees to balance the needs of their job with other aspects of their life. Interested in this role? Please click to submit your application.