Director, Regulatory Compliance

QTS Data Centers•Overland Park, KS

2d•$157,337 - $240,611•Remote

About The Position

The Director, Regulatory Compliance will establish and lead a scalable enterprise program for emerging electric-reliability obligations affecting large computational loads and company-owned high-voltage infrastructure. This leader will translate evolving regulatory requirements into clear governance, accountable controls, auditable evidence, and practical operating requirements across the asset lifecycle. The role combines NERC compliance leadership, reliability assurance, executive risk communication, regulatory engagement, and cross-functional program execution. This role represents organizational groups to interface with NERC, FERC, Regional Entities, RTOs/ISOs, utilities and industry groups.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in engineering, power systems, business, information systems, cybersecurity, risk, or a related field, or equivalent directly relevant experience.
Minimum ten years of progressive experience in electric utility operations, transmission, system operations, reliability compliance, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity compliance, risk, or a related highly regulated environment.
At least 5 years of leadership experience managing complex compliance, reliability, operational, risk, or governance programs and teams.
Demonstrated knowledge of the NERC regulatory framework and applicable Operations & Planning and/or Critical Infrastructure Protection Reliability Standards.
Experience building or materially improving compliance governance, internal controls, evidence programs, policies, procedures, corrective-action processes, and audit readiness.
Experience leading or supporting regulatory audits, compliance assessments, investigations, remediation, mitigation, self-certification, or enforcement-response activities.
Proven ability to analyze complex technical and regulatory requirements, assess enterprise impact and risk, and communicate decisions and recommendations to executive and technical audiences.
Able to travel up to 30% of the time or as needed to support relationship building and delivery.

Nice To Haves

Fifteen or more years leading in NERC-related projects
Direct experience with a NERC-registered entity, Regional Entity, utility, ISO/RTO, independent power producer, large-load customer, or critical-infrastructure operator.
Experience with entity registration, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Program activities, standards development, regulatory committees, or industry working groups.
Working knowledge of power-system modeling, transmission planning, protection and control, disturbance monitoring, operational communications, voltage/frequency ride-through, large-load interconnection, or system operations.
Experience implementing GRC or compliance-management technology, structured evidence repositories, workflow automation, and compliance dashboards.
Experience establishing a compliance organization or scaling a program across multiple regions and assets.
Professional certification such as CCEP, CISA, CRISC, CISSP, or a relevant NERC credential; advanced degree in a related discipline.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute the long-term regulatory compliance and reliability assurance strategy for QTS utility operations.
Lead enterprise applicability reviews, registration strategy, new-entity registration activities, and implementation planning for applicable NERC Reliability Standards and related requirements.
Provide executive-level assessments of compliance posture, emerging obligations, material risks, resource needs, and mitigation priorities.
Monitor, interpret, and communicate developments from NERC, FERC, Regional Entities, RTOs/ISOs, utilities, reliability coordinators, and transmission providers.
Lead impact assessments for new or revised standards and convert technical requirements into actionable plans for affected business functions and assets.
Coordinate regulatory positions and external communications with Legal, Risk, technical subject matter experts, outside counsel, and consultants.
Design and maintain a risk-based Internal Controls Program that embeds compliance requirements into design, commissioning, operations, maintenance, protection, monitoring, and change-management processes.
Direct development and maintenance of NERC Compliance Procedures, Reliability Standard Audit Worksheets, evidence requirements, retention rules, and auditable data repositories.
Build continuous audit readiness through self-assessments, mock audits, evidence quality reviews, issue tracking, corrective actions, mitigation plans, and lessons learned.
Lead organizational responses to audits, inquiries, investigations, self-reports, enforcement matters, and remediation activities when applicable.
Integrate requirements with Utility Engineering, Utility Asset Management, Development, Facilities Operations, cybersecurity, enterprise technology, Legal/Risk, and Internal Audit through clear ownership and repeatable workflows.
Develop scalable internal capability while managing specialist consultants, outside counsel, scopes of work, budgets, deliverables, and knowledge transfer.