Manager – Regulatory Strategy, Governance & Compliance

About This Role

About AKW

AKW Consultants is a highly renowned strategic advisory firm built by experts who have shaped regulation from the inside, bringing global insight into local challenges. Our specialists include former Big 4 leaders, tax strategists, auditors, and regulatory professionals who guide businesses through risk, change, and compliance with precision. AKW has extensive experience supporting market participants, regulators, and institutions, including designing tax structures, rebuilding compliance functions, guiding public regulators, restructuring complex operations, delivering clarity in the face of risk, and independently assessing compliance frameworks.

AKW advises high-growth and institutionally-backed businesses across the UAE on regulatory licensing, governance build-out, risk and compliance design, and transaction readiness. Our engagements typically combine regulator-facing strategy, institutional-grade governance design, and value-led transformation, delivered as integrated programmes rather than discrete workstreams.

We are expanding our team to support a growing portfolio of multi-pillar engagements that span regulatory positioning, governance maturity, and exit or capital-raise readiness. This Manager role is a senior delivery position designed for professionals who can lead complex, regulator-aligned transformations end-to-end and partner credibly with founders, boards, regulators, and investors.

Roles and Responsibilities

Regulatory Licensing & Strategy:

• Regulatory mapping: Lead end-to-end regulatory perimeter analyses across applicable UAE federal and free-zone authorities, mapping client products and revenue streams to the relevant licensing frameworks.
• Application preparation: Draft regulatory business plans, compliance and risk narratives, and supporting documentation tailored to each authority's expectations and submission standards.
• Regulator engagement: Coordinate pre-application meetings, manage information requests from regulators, and maintain structured regulator engagement logs throughout the licensing lifecycle.
• Operating model: Track licensing milestones, dependencies, and conditions precedent, and design post-approval regulatory operating models covering reporting structures, ongoing compliance obligations, and supervisor relations.

Governance, Framework & Controls:

• Governance architecture: Design and document governance architectures including board composition, committee charters, three-lines-of-defence models, delegation of authority matrices, and escalation protocols.
• Policy & SOP build-out: Develop policy and SOP suites covering AML/CFT, customer onboarding, asset custody, technology and data governance, incident management, ethics and conflicts, and outsourcing, aligned to UAE regulatory expectations and institutional investor standards.
• Systems readiness: Specify requirements for compliance monitoring dashboards, automated MIS, and internal control tracking; coordinate implementation with client technology and operations teams.
• Maturity uplift: Conduct governance maturity gap assessments and drive remediation programmes to lift clients from foundational compliance to institutional and exit-ready standards.

Valuation Enhancement & Transaction Readiness:

• Valuation diagnostic: Establish valuation baselines, identify key value drivers and inhibitors, and design targeted initiatives that translate regulatory clarity and governance maturity into measurable valuation uplift.
• Transaction readiness: Coordinate vendor due diligence (VDD) preparation including data room construction, financial and operational reconciliation, governance narratives, and management presentations.
• Diligence support: Support client senior leadership during buy-side diligence — drafting Q&A responses, anticipating diligence themes, and ensuring consistency of disclosure across financial, legal, regulatory, and operational workstreams.
• Readiness tracking: Track readiness benchmarks continuously and report progress against transaction milestones to Steering Committees and Boards.

Engagement & Programme Management

• Client interface: Act as the primary day-to-day point of contact between AKW and the client, owning the workplan, milestone tracker, and risk register.
• Reporting cadence: Prepare materials for working-level meetings, Steering Committees, and Board updates, maintaining a principle of full visibility and zero surprises.
• Team leadership: Lead, coach, and quality-assure the work of Associates and Senior Associates assigned to engagements.
• Risk escalation: Identify scope risks and emerging issues early, escalate constructively, and propose practical mitigation paths.

Qualifications

Highly Desirable:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline (Law, Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, Engineering, or related). Master's degree (MBA, LLM, MSc Finance) preferred.
• Professional qualification preferred: ACCA, CA, CPA, CFA, ICSA / CGI, or admitted lawyer in a recognised jurisdiction. Specialist credentials (CAMS, ICA Diploma in AML, CCAS, FRM) are a strong plus.
• Eight to twelve years of post-qualification experience, with at least three years at Manager (or equivalent) level, gained in a Big Four / leading consulting firm, top-tier law firm, regulator, financial institution, or fintech in a regulatory, governance, risk, or transactions role.
• Demonstrable track record of leading or playing a lead role in at least one of the following: a UAE financial services licensing application; a regulator-facing remediation or readiness engagement; a vendor or buy-side due diligence on a regulated business; or a governance / control framework design for a regulated financial services, fintech, or commodities business.
• Strong working knowledge of the UAE regulatory landscape — particularly CBUAE, SCA, VARA, Ministry of Economy DNFBP supervision, and free-zone regulators (ADGM FSRA, DIFC DFSA, DMCC), and of how the UAE AML/CFT framework, FATF guidance, and OECD due diligence standards apply in practice.
• Hands-on experience drafting regulatory submissions, business plans, policies, and board-grade documentation.
• Excellent written and spoken English; ability to write to professional, regulator, and board standard.

Desirable:

• Direct exposure to one or more of AKW's core sectors — financial services, fintech, payments, digital assets, precious metals, or commodities — including familiarity with the relevant UAE and international regulatory frameworks (e.g. CBUAE Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services regulations, FATF Travel Rule, LBMA Responsible Gold Guidance, OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains, DMCC Rules for Risk-Based Due Diligence).
• Experience designing or operating governance frameworks for institutionally-backed or PE-owned businesses.
• Prior involvement in an exit transaction (trade sale, private equity divestment, IPO readiness, or strategic investment) on either the sell-side or buy-side.
• Working Arabic (read / write / speak) for direct review of UAE regulatory texts and correspondence.

Desired Skills and Competencies

Technical Skills:

• Regulatory drafting and submission preparation — ability to convert business activities into a regulator-ready narrative.
• Governance design — three-lines-of-defence, committee structuring, board reporting, RACI design.
• Policy and SOP authorship — to a standard that withstands regulatory inspection and investor diligence.
• AML/CFT programme design — risk assessment methodology, customer risk scoring, transaction monitoring rule design, sanctions screening configuration.
• Financial literacy — ability to read audited financials, understand a three-statement model, and interpret KPIs and unit economics.
• Due diligence preparation — data room design, Q&A management, management presentation drafting.
• Project management — workplan construction, dependency mapping, milestone tracking, risk and issue logs.

Behavioural Competencies:

• Judgement — the cornerstone competency for this role; the candidate must demonstrate sound, regulator-aligned thinking under ambiguity.
• Stakeholder gravitas — able to interface credibly with founders, C-suite executives, regulators, lawyers, auditors, and investors.
• Communication — clear, concise, board-grade writing; structured verbal communication; comfort presenting to senior audiences.
• Structured problem-solving — ability to break down ambiguous problems, design a practical execution path, and follow through to delivery.
• Ownership — comfort owning multiple workstreams concurrently and re-prioritising as regulatory and commercial conditions evolve.
• Quality bar — instinct for what "good" looks like in a board pack, a policy, a regulator submission, or a data room.
• Coaching mindset — ability to develop junior team members and to set, defend, and quality-assure their work product.
• Discretion — absolute integrity in handling confidential client and regulator information.

Tools & Systems:

• Microsoft 365 (advanced Word, Excel, PowerPoint) — non-negotiable.
• Project / workplan tools (MS Project, Smartsheet, Asana, or equivalent).
• Data room platforms (Datasite, Intralinks, Ansarada, or equivalent) — preferred.
• Familiarity with GRC / compliance platforms, sanctions screening tools, and transaction monitoring systems is a plus.