Director - Accounting & Regulatory Policy

Glasgow | Hybrid Working

£competitive + Bonus + Excellent Benefits

This is a rare opportunity for a senior accounting or prudential regulatory specialist to step into a high-profile, globally influential role within a leading financial services organisation.

Sitting within a global Accounting & Regulatory Policy function, you will operate as an internal technical adviser to senior leadership, helping the organisation interpret and respond to complex developments across either accounting standards or prudential regulation. Crucially, you are not expected to be an expert in both disciplines. We are interested in senior candidates whose expertise sits predominantly within either:

• Technical accounting / financial reporting – particularly IFRS and/or US GAAP; or
• Prudential regulation – including regulatory capital, liquidity, Basel, CRR/CRD and related frameworks.

The common denominator is your ability to operate in the grey: analysing complex rules where there isn't necessarily a straightforward answer, forming a well-reasoned position and confidently influencing senior stakeholders.

The opportunity

At Executive Director level, you will become a senior member of a growing Glasgow-based function with a genuinely global remit across EMEA, the US and APAC.

Rather than being focused on routine reporting or delivery, you will advise on the implications of new accounting standards, regulatory developments, significant transactions and strategic initiatives.

You'll work with senior stakeholders across Finance, Risk, Legal, Treasury and the wider business, translating highly technical subject matter into clear commercial implications and recommendations.

The position also carries significant leadership responsibility. You will lead and develop a team of approximately eight professionals in Glasgow, helping to build capability, raise technical standards and support the continued development and modernisation of the function.

The formal remit spans IFRS, US GAAP and Basel-based regulatory capital and liquidity policy, with the wider Policy function providing independent enterprise-level advice and oversight across the organisation.

Who could this suit?

There isn't one prescribed career route. You could currently be a Senior Manager or Director within a Big Four firm, perhaps working within:

• Financial Services Audit
• Audit Quality / Technical
• Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS)
• Accounting Advisory / Technical Accounting
• Prudential Risk / Regulatory Advisory

Alternatively, you may already work within banking, asset management or insurance in a senior accounting, financial reporting, controllership, accounting policy, regulatory reporting or prudential policy capacity. What matters is that you have developed genuine technical depth in either accounting standards or prudential regulation, alongside the judgement and credibility required to advise at senior level. The organisation is specifically looking for someone capable of dealing with complex and ambiguous issues, connecting technical policy to wider business outcomes and constructively challenging senior stakeholders.

What will set you apart?

You will be a qualified accountant or equivalent senior technical professional, with substantial experience gained within a sophisticated financial services or professional services environment.

More importantly, you'll have gravitas. You'll be comfortable sitting opposite senior executives, challenging an established view and explaining why your interpretation is the right one. You'll be persuasive without being dogmatic, commercially aware without compromising technical integrity, and comfortable making judgements where the rulebook doesn't provide a neat answer.

Experience of leading people is important, as is evidence that you can motivate and develop a team through change.

Exposure to major accounting or regulatory change programmes would be particularly valuable – for example IFRS implementation, significant accounting change, Basel developments, capital or liquidity regulation, major transactions or other complex technical projects.

Why consider it?

For someone coming from professional practice, this provides an opportunity to move away from the traditional client-service model while retaining the intellectually challenging advisory work – but now with the ability to see decisions through from interpretation to implementation.

For someone already within Financial Services, it offers the opportunity to move closer to the policy, judgement and strategic decision-making end of the spectrum, with exposure well beyond a traditional Finance function.

You will have:

• A global rather than purely UK remit
• Exposure to senior decision-makers across multiple functions
• The opportunity to influence how significant new accounting and regulatory developments are interpreted
• Leadership of an established Glasgow team with further capability being built locally
• Exposure to some of the most topical developments affecting global financial institutions
• The opportunity to become a genuine internal authority and trusted adviser rather than simply implementing decisions made elsewhere

Salary £competitive + Bonus + Group Benefits. Apply, or for a confidential chat contact Stuart Ringland at Sign in to view email / 07956263466