Director-Product Compliance

Amperesand • San Francisco, NV

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Amperesand is seeking a Director, Product Compliance to establish, build, and lead the company's compliance department. This individual will be responsible for all compliance activities related to Amperesand's solid-state transformer platforms. This is a high-visibility, hands-on leadership role with accountability for the entire compliance program, encompassing electrical safety, functional safety, cybersecurity, EMC/EMI, and certification execution. The role requires operating as both a functional leader and a technical authority, setting strategy, building the organization, and remaining directly engaged in technical reviews, certification activities, standards interpretation, testing strategy, and issue resolution. As the team grows, the Director will develop leaders and subject-matter experts while maintaining technical ownership of the compliance program. The primary standards governing Amperesand's products are UL 2877 and UL 1741, with supporting standards such as IEC/UL 60730-1, IEC 62443, UL 1998, UL 991, and IEEE 1547.1 to be integrated into the primary compliance framework. This position demands strong people leadership, technical depth, hands-on credibility, and excellent communication skills to align various stakeholders, including engineering, product, executives, customers, and certification bodies.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in product compliance, regulatory affairs, or certification leadership for electrical, power electronics, or safety-critical hardware products.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience, including direct management of compliance or engineering managers, team building, mentoring, and performance management.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a hands-on technical leader while building and leading a compliance organization.
• Demonstrated ownership of UL 2877 and UL 1741 (or directly comparable primary product-safety / grid-interconnection standards) as the governing framework for a certified product line.
• Working fluency across supporting standards such as IEC/UL 60730-1, IEC 62443, UL 1998, UL 991, and IEEE 1547.1.
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills: proven ability to set direction for a department, align executives and engineering leaders, and represent compliance credibly to customers and certification bodies.
• Track record of building compliance functions or programs from an early stage.
• Experience directing engagement with NRTLs and external certification agencies, including test planning, technical reviews, and issue resolution at a program level.
• Strong technical judgment and willingness to personally engage in complex compliance problems when needed.
• Product compliance program ownership and governance across multiple standards and product lines.
• UL 2877 / UL 1741 certification strategy and execution.
• Hands-on functional safety and cybersecurity compliance leadership, including the ability to review technical work, guide engineering decisions, and drive issue resolution.
• Regulatory management systems, traceability, and certification-readiness workflows.
• NRTL and test-lab relationship management.
• Hands-on certification testing, technical review, and compliance issue resolution.
• Executive-level compliance reporting and risk communication.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with medium-voltage power conversion, solid-state transformers, or grid-interactive inverter platforms.
• Experience with hyperscale data center, EV charging, or energy storage customers and their compliance expectations.
• Prior experience as a Director, Head of Compliance, or equivalent functional leader in a scaling hardware startup.

Responsibilities

• Own the Compliance Department: Build, lead, and scale Amperesand's compliance department, including hiring, developing, and managing compliance engineers and managers. Remain hands-on in critical compliance, certification, and technical activities.
• Set department-wide priorities, resourcing, and compliance roadmaps, and ensure certification readiness for all Amperesand product lines.
• Establish performance management, mentoring, and career development practices for a durable compliance organization.
• Lead Compliance Strategy: Define and execute Amperesand's overall product compliance strategy, primarily using UL 2877 and UL 1741.
• Map supporting standards, functional safety (IEC/UL 60730-1), cybersecurity (IEC 62443), and related frameworks (UL 1998, UL 991, IEEE 1547.1) into compliance-driven product requirements.
• Serve as Amperesand's internal technical authority and final decision-maker on compliance interpretation, acceptance criteria, and risk trade-offs.
• Remain directly engaged in complex standards interpretation, technical reviews, and compliance decisions requiring hands-on technical leadership.
• Drive Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Engineering, Firmware, Controls, Systems Engineering, Product Management, and executive leadership to embed compliance requirements early in product development.
• Act as the primary point of alignment when compliance, schedule, and engineering priorities conflict, resolving trade-offs with data and clear rationale.
• Work directly with engineering teams to identify and resolve compliance issues during product development.
• Represent compliance directly to customers, translating certification status and risk into actionable information.
• Own Certification and NRTL / Test Lab Relationships: Serve as the executive-level point of contact for NRTLs and test laboratories (e.g., UL, TÜV, CSA, Intertek) for all product certifications.
• Own certification planning, technical review coordination, test execution oversight, and issue resolution end-to-end.
• Remain directly involved in critical certification reviews, testing activities, technical discussions, and issue resolution with NRTLs and external test laboratories.
• Oversee Functional Safety and Cybersecurity as Compliance Domains: Ensure functional safety (IEC/UL 60730-1 Annex H and related frameworks) and cybersecurity compliance are executed to the required class/level and fully documented.
• Maintain hands-on technical involvement and ownership of safety-critical firmware and controls compliance and cybersecurity documentation.
• Develop internal expertise and team capabilities across functional safety and cybersecurity while providing technical leadership.
• Build Compliance Infrastructure and Communicate Program Status: Develop scalable compliance processes, traceability systems, and certification-readiness workflows.
• Build out internal test lab capabilities to facilitate pre-compliance testing and improve certification readiness.
• Remain engaged with internal testing and validation activities.
• Report compliance program status, risk, and roadmap to executive leadership regularly.

Benefits

• Competitive Salary + Incentive Stock Options
• Medical, vision, and dental benefits for employees and their dependents, effective from the start of hire
• Company paid Basic Life, AD&D, short-term and long-term disability insurance
• 401k retirement savings plan through Empower
• Employees receive paid time off (PTO), paid sick days, and paid company holidays
• Commuter Benefits
• 100% paid maternal leave (12 weeks) and paternal leave (6 weeks)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed