Director-Product Compliance

Amperesand • Reno, NV

2d • $220,000 - $270,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Amperesand is seeking a Director, Product Compliance to establish, build, and lead the company's compliance department. This role is responsible for all compliance activities related to the company's solid-state transformer platforms. It is a high-visibility, hands-on leadership position accountable for the entire compliance program, encompassing electrical safety, functional safety, cybersecurity, EMC/EMI, and certification execution, as well as the team that manages these areas. The Director will function as both a functional leader and a technical authority, setting strategy, building the organization, and remaining actively involved in technical reviews, certification processes, standards interpretation, testing strategies, and issue resolution. As the team grows, the role involves developing leaders and subject-matter experts while maintaining technical oversight of the compliance program. The primary standards for Amperesand's products are UL 2877 and UL 1741, with supporting standards like IEC/UL 60730-1, IEC 62443, UL 1998, UL 991, and IEEE 1547.1 to be integrated into the main compliance framework. This position requires strong people leadership, deep technical expertise, and effective communication skills to align various stakeholders, including engineering, product, executives, and customers.

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

• Build, lead, and scale Amperesand's compliance department, hiring, developing, and managing compliance engineers and managers.
• Set department-wide priorities, resourcing, and compliance roadmaps, ensuring certification readiness for all Amperesand product lines.
• Establish performance management, mentoring, and career development practices for the compliance organization.
• Define and execute Amperesand's overall product compliance strategy, using UL 2877 and UL 1741 as primary standards.
• Map supporting standards, functional safety, cybersecurity, and related frameworks into compliance-driven product requirements.
• Serve as the internal technical authority and final decision-maker on compliance interpretation, acceptance criteria, and risk trade-offs.
• Partner with Engineering, Firmware, Controls, Systems Engineering, Product Management, and executive leadership to embed compliance requirements.
• Act as the primary point of alignment for compliance, schedule, and engineering priorities, resolving trade-offs with data and clear rationale.
• Work with engineering teams to identify and resolve compliance issues during product development.
• Represent compliance to customers, translating certification status and risk into actionable information.
• Serve as the executive-level point of contact for NRTLs and test laboratories for all product certifications.
• Own certification planning, technical review coordination, test execution oversight, and issue resolution end-to-end.
• Ensure functional safety 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.
• Develop scalable compliance processes, traceability systems, and certification-readiness workflows.
• Build out internal test lab capabilities for pre-compliance testing and improved certification readiness.
• Report compliance program status, risk, and roadmap to executive leadership on a regular cadence.

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