Director, Regulatory Compliance

Lead with Purpose. Partner with Impact. 

Kestra Financial seeks an experienced compliance leader to direct the Firm's Regulatory Compliance function. The Director, Regulatory Compliance leads regulatory examinations and inquiries, customer complaint and grievance responses, internal investigations, regulatory reporting, and the remediation of regulatory findings. The Director serves as a primary point of contact for escalated regulatory matters and helps set the tone and culture of the Compliance organization.

Reporting to the Head of Advisory Compliance, the Director is accountable for timely, accurate, complete, and well-supported responses to FINRA, SEC, state securities regulators, and other authorities. The Director must understand the regulatory context of each matter, identify relevant risks and procedural gaps, critically evaluate information supplied by business partners, and provide leadership with complete facts, sound analysis, clear recommendations, and practical next steps.

The Director leads and develops the Regulatory Compliance team. The Director establishes expectations, assigns and reviews work, confirms staff readiness, and ensures team members can independently manage matters appropriate to their roles. The position requires strong subject matter expertise, thorough preparation, sound judgment, precise communication, and consistent follow-through in a deadline-driven environment.

The Director also uses regulatory inquiries, examination results, investigations, and complaint trends to identify recurring conduct, control weaknesses, training needs, and opportunities to strengthen policies, procedures, surveillance, reporting, and risk management. The successful candidate must have advanced knowledge of broker-dealer and RIA operations, examination processes, books and records, and regulatory reporting requirements.

What You’ll Do:

• Lead the Firm's responses to examinations, inquiries, sweeps, requests, and meetings involving FINRA, the SEC, state securities regulators, and other authorities.
• Serve as a primary regulatory contact, maintain professional and responsive communication with examination staff, and ensure questions, concerns, and follow-up requests are addressed promptly and accurately.
• Scope each regulatory matter; identify applicable requirements, risks, stakeholders, records, deadlines, dependencies, and escalation points; and establish a written response plan.
• Direct the collection, review, validation, and production of documents and data. Perform or oversee quality-control and gap analyses to confirm submissions are accurate, complete, consistent, and responsive.
• Draft, review, and approve clear, factual, and well-supported written responses on behalf of the Firm.
• Prepare thoroughly for leadership and regulatory meetings. Present complete facts, regulatory context, risk analysis, alternatives, recommendations, and next steps, and be prepared to answer questions about the matter.
• Track regulatory requests, commitments, findings, remediation plans, and due dates through closure. Escalate delays, deficiencies, resource constraints, or material risks promptly.
• Coordinate responses to regulatory findings and verify that corrective actions are documented, implemented, tested where appropriate, and closed in a timely manner.
• Lead the review and response process for customer complaints, written grievances, state inquiries, and other sensitive internal or external matters.
• Lead or oversee internal investigations involving potential policy, supervisory, or regulatory violations; define scope, preserve relevant information, document interviews and evidence, assess findings, and present factual conclusions and recommendations.
• Oversee required regulatory reporting and filings assigned to the function, including FINRA Rule 4530 and applicable Form U4/U5, Form BD, Form ADV, board, and management reporting responsibilities.
• Maintain organized, complete, and retrievable books and records for examinations, inquiries, complaints, investigations, filings, findings, and remediation activities.
• Monitor regulatory developments and evaluate whether changes require updates to policies, procedures, controls, training, disclosures, reporting, or business practices.
• Analyze regulatory events, complaint patterns, examination results, and investigative findings to identify trends, recurring conduct, control gaps, and training or policy needs.
• Partner with Legal, Risk, Internal Audit, business leaders, operations, technology, and other internal stakeholders to obtain accurate information and implement sustainable corrective action.
• Provide timely and accurate reporting to senior management, committees, and boards, as applicable, regarding regulatory activity, material risks, trends, findings, and remediation status.
• Support independent registered representatives and investment adviser representatives by providing clear, practical guidance on regulatory matters within the role's scope.
• Maintain the Regulatory Compliance function's department procedures, continuity plans, system access requirements, and operational readiness.

Leadership and Supervisory Responsibilities

• Directly supervise and develop Regulatory Compliance personnel.
• Establish clear roles, priorities, service standards, quality expectations, escalation protocols, and accountability for the team.
• Assign work based on risk, complexity, expertise, capacity, and deadlines; monitor progress and rebalance resources as needed.
• Review team work product for factual accuracy, completeness, regulatory relevance, clarity, consistency, and readiness before submission or presentation.
• Coach staff to conduct independent analysis, anticipate questions, identify procedural gaps, develop recommendations, and communicate confidently with stakeholders.
• Ensure team members are trained and prepared to manage examinations, inquiries, complaints, investigations, filings, and other assigned regulatory matters.
• Promote a culture of preparedness, ownership, candor, professionalism, empathy, continuous improvement, and appropriate escalation.
• Assess staffing, workflow, technology, and training needs and recommend improvements to strengthen the Regulatory Compliance program.

What You Bring:

• Bachelor's degree required; degree in finance, economics, business, law, accounting, or a related field preferred.
• At least 10 years of financial services experience, preferably within an independent broker-dealer and RIA environment.
• Significant compliance experience required, including direct responsibility for regulatory examinations, inquiries, complaints, investigations, or regulatory response.
• Prior people-management experience required.
• Experience with internal audit, branch examinations, testing, surveillance, risk management, or investigations preferred.
• Demonstrated experience handling confidential and sensitive matters and communicating with senior leaders and regulators.
• · Advanced knowledge of the federal and state regulatory framework applicable to independent broker-dealers and registered investment advisers.
• Demonstrated expertise with FINRA, SEC, and state examination and inquiry processes, customer complaints, investigations, findings remediation, and regulatory reporting.
• Ability to independently frame complex issues, distinguish facts from assumptions, identify missing information, evaluate regulatory and business risk, and develop defensible recommendations.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with an emphasis on factual reporting, precision, executive-ready briefings, and clear responses to regulators.
• Strong preparation, organization, prioritization, project management, and follow-through across multiple matters with competing deadlines.
• Sound judgment and discretion when handling confidential, privileged, sensitive, or potentially reportable matters.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, train, and develop compliance professionals and hold team members accountable for quality and deadlines.
• Ability to build effective partnerships, ask probing questions, challenge incomplete or inconsistent information, and drive cross-functional action.
• Strong data verification, quality validation, root-cause analysis, trend analysis, and gap analysis skills.
• Working knowledge of systems used for regulatory research, filings, communications, case management, and books and records, including FINRA Gateway/Web CRD, LexisNexis, RegEd, Smarsh, NFS/Streetscape, Microsoft Office, and SharePoint.
• Ability to select secure and appropriate methods for transmitting regulatory information, including encryption when required.
• Ability to work effectively during examinations and other high-demand periods, including extended hours and travel on short notice

Certifications, Licenses, Registrations

• FINRA Series 7 required.
• FINRA Series 24 required.
• FINRA Series 63 or 66 required.
• Additional compliance, fraud examination, audit, legal, or risk credentials preferred.