Senior Director Regulatory Strategy & Readiness

Empower • Overland Park, KS

4d • $138,000 - $200,100 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Director, Regulatory Strategy & Readiness is a senior leader responsible for advancing the firm’s proactive regulatory strategy, enterprise regulatory readiness, and regulatory change management capabilities. Reporting to the Head of Regulatory Strategy & Testing, this role identifies emerging regulatory expectations, translates regulatory developments into actionable business strategies, and leads cross-functional initiatives to prepare the organization for regulatory examinations, supervisory engagements, and evolving regulatory risk.
The Senior Director serves as a strategic advisor to the Head of Regulatory Strategy & Testing, leads major enterprise initiatives, represents the function in executive and governance forums, and provides leadership depth across the Regulatory Strategy & Testing organization.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree
• 12+ years of progressive experience in financial services compliance, regulatory affairs, legal, risk management, audit, or a related discipline
• Deep knowledge of one or more relevant regulatory regimes, with broad familiarity across SEC, FINRA, DOL, state insurance, state securities, and related supervisory frameworks
• Demonstrated experience leading regulatory examinations, mock examinations, enterprise compliance initiatives, regulatory change management programs, or complex cross-functional risk programs
• Strong strategic judgment with demonstrated ability to connect regulatory developments to business models, products, operations, controls, and enterprise risk
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders, lead governance forums, provide constructive challenge, and communicate complex regulatory matters clearly
• Excellent written communication, presentation, analytical, program management, and organizational leadership skills
• Ability to operate effectively at both strategic and execution levels in a complex, highly regulated environment
• Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time, including CPT/OPT.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree, Juris Doctor (JD), or relevant professional certification
• Experience within a broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, insurance, banking, or diversified financial services organization
• Experience presenting regulatory strategy, examination readiness, or regulatory risk matters to executive leadership or senior governance committees
• Experience designing or enhancing enterprise regulatory change management or regulatory intelligence programs

Responsibilities

• Support the development and execution of enterprise regulatory strategy in alignment with business priorities, compliance objectives, and the firm’s risk appetite.
• Establish and lead a disciplined regulatory horizon-scanning process covering the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Department of Labor (DOL), state insurance regulators, state securities regulators, banking regulators, and other relevant regulatory authorities.
• Provide senior leadership and examination-management support during periods of elevated regulatory activity, including significant or concurrent examinations, inquiries, and supervisory engagements, helping the organization scale regulatory response capacity.
• Assess rulemaking, regulatory examination priorities, enforcement actions, speeches, guidance, industry developments, and supervisory themes to identify emerging regulatory risks and potential areas of regulatory scrutiny.
• Translate complex regulatory developments into clear, practical implications and recommendations for senior leadership, Compliance, Legal, Risk, and business stakeholders.
• Develop executive-level regulatory outlooks, thematic analyses, briefing materials, and recommendations for Compliance leadership and governance committees.
• Maintain a forward-looking view of regulatory risk and recommend changes to priorities, resources, governance, controls, policies, testing, and regulatory readiness activities.
• Design, establish, and maintain an enterprise Regulatory Readiness Program to evaluate preparedness for anticipated regulatory examinations and supervisory engagements.
• Identify priority regulatory themes and business areas for mock examinations using regulatory intelligence, prior examinations, complaints, testing results, business changes, and risk assessments.
• Plan and lead mock regulatory examinations, including scope development, document requests, interviews, walkthroughs, governance reviews, evidence assessments, challenge sessions, and final reporting.
• Assess governance, controls, documentation, supervisory practices, issue management, management information, and evidence of compliance against anticipated regulatory expectations.
• Develop regulator-specific examination playbooks, readiness checklists, tabletop exercises, readiness scorecards, and escalation protocols.
• Coordinate remediation plans arising from readiness assessments and validate that corrective actions are sustainable, appropriately evidenced, and completed on schedule.
• Partner with Regulatory Response to incorporate lessons learned from examinations, inquiries, complaints, and regulator feedback into future readiness activities.
• Provide strategic oversight of the enterprise regulatory change management framework and the Corporate Compliance Manager responsible for day-to-day program execution.
• Ensure regulatory developments are identified, inventoried, assessed for applicability and impact, assigned to accountable owners, implemented, and tracked through closure.
• Establish consistent standards for regulatory impact assessments, implementation plans, evidence requirements, governance, escalation, and closure validation.
• Lead regulatory change governance forums and provide transparent reporting on material regulatory changes, implementation risks, overdue actions, and emerging themes.
• Drive continuous improvement in regulatory change management through workflow design, automation, data quality standards, and management reporting.
• Partner with Regulatory Response, Compliance Testing, Branch Inspections, Legal, Enterprise Risk, Internal Audit, Operations, and business leadership to align regulatory priorities and readiness activities.
• Ensure emerging regulatory themes are incorporated into compliance risk assessments, testing plans, branch inspection priorities, policies, procedures, training, and management reporting.
• Lead cross-functional preparation for significant regulatory examinations and supervisory engagements, including governance, issue escalation, executive preparation, and strategic messaging.
• Serve as a senior point of coordination for enterprise regulatory initiatives spanning multiple business units, legal entities, or regulatory regimes.
• Represent the Head of Regulatory Strategy & Testing in leadership meetings and governance forums, as appropriate, and exercise sound judgment regarding escalation and decision-making.
• Build and lead a high-performing Regulatory Strategy & Readiness function with clear roles, operating routines, performance standards, and development plans.
• Coach and develop team members and contribute to succession planning and leadership development across the Regulatory Strategy & Testing organization.
• Foster a proactive, intellectually rigorous, collaborative, and outcomes-focused culture.
• Manage competing priorities, allocate resources effectively, and ensure high-quality delivery of strategic and operational commitments.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• Retirement savings – 401(k) plan with generous company matching contributions (up to 6%), financial advisory services, potential company discretionary contribution, and a broad investment lineup
• Tuition reimbursement up to $5,250/year
• Business-casual environment that includes the option to wear jeans
• Generous paid time off upon hire – including a paid time off program plus ten paid company holidays and three floating holidays each calendar year
• Paid volunteer time — 16 hours per calendar year
• Leave of absence programs – including paid parental leave, paid short- and long-term disability, and Family and Medical Leave (FMLA)
• Business Resource Groups (BRGs) – BRGs facilitate inclusion and collaboration across our business internally and throughout the communities where we live, work and play. BRGs are open to all.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior