Director – Mergers and Restructuring Department

Director Level · SECP HQ, Islamabad · Contractual

Job Responsibilities

• Lead the Mergers and Restructuring Department’s regulatory oversight function, reviewing and processing merger, acquisition, arrangement, and scheme of reconstruction applications submitted to SECP under the Companies Act 2017 and applicable regulations.
• Develop and update SECP’s regulatory framework for mergers, amalgamations, demergers, and corporate restructurings — drafting policy papers, regulatory guidelines, and circular amendments that align Pakistan’s M&A framework with international best practices.
• Analyze complex merger and acquisition transactions — including public-to-public, public-to-private, and cross-border deals — assessing regulatory compliance, competition implications, minority shareholder protections, and disclosure adequacy.
• Coordinate with other SECP departments (Legal, Policy, Enforcement) and external regulators (Competition Commission of Pakistan, SBP, OGRA, NEPRA) to facilitate integrated regulatory review of transactions requiring multi-agency approvals.
• Represent SECP in meetings with companies, legal counsel, financial advisors, and investment banks regarding pending merger transactions, providing authoritative regulatory guidance and ensuring transactions are structured in compliance with applicable laws.
• Supervise the department’s professional staff by assigning transaction reviews, reviewing analysis outputs, providing technical mentoring, and conducting performance appraisals to build the department’s institutional capacity and regulatory expertise.
• Present merger and restructuring cases to SECP’s Policy Board, Commission meetings, and inter-ministerial committees, providing evidence-based regulatory recommendations and risk assessments for complex transactions.
• Monitor post-approval compliance by merged entities, tracking implementation of conditions attached to SECP approvals and initiating enforcement action where companies fail to meet their post-merger regulatory obligations.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Education: LLB/LLM, MBA (Finance/Corporate Finance), CA/ACCA, or equivalent graduate/postgraduate qualification in law, finance, or business from an HEC-recognized or internationally accredited institution.
• Experience: Senior-level experience in corporate law, M&A advisory, investment banking, or corporate regulatory work — check full TORs at secp.gov.pk/careers/ for exact requirements.
• Key Skills: Mergers & acquisitions law and practice, corporate restructuring, Companies Act 2017, regulatory compliance, financial analysis, transaction structuring, stakeholder management.
• Full TORs: secp.gov.pk/careers/

Deputy Director – Systemic Risk

Deputy Director Level · Risk Department · SECP HQ, Islamabad · Contractual

Job Responsibilities

• Conduct systemic risk surveillance across Pakistan’s capital markets and non-bank financial sector — identifying emerging vulnerabilities, stress triggers, contagion pathways, and macro-prudential concerns for timely reporting to SECP’s senior leadership.
• Develop and maintain quantitative risk models for assessing systemic risk exposure in regulated entities including mutual funds, insurance companies, securities brokers, and non-banking financial institutions, using stress testing and scenario analysis methodologies.
• Prepare SECP’s regular systemic risk reports, financial stability assessments, and macro-prudential policy briefs — presenting findings with data visualizations, risk dashboards, and actionable regulatory recommendations to Commission leadership.
• Monitor global financial risk developments — including cross-border capital flow volatility, commodity price shocks, interest rate cycles, and currency risks — analyzing their potential transmission to Pakistan’s regulated financial sector.
• Coordinate with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Ministry of Finance, and Financial Stability Board (FSB) on systemic risk data sharing, joint assessments, and Pakistan’s commitments under G20 financial stability frameworks.
• Support development of macro-prudential regulatory tools and early warning indicators for SECP-regulated entities, advising on countercyclical buffer requirements, concentration limits, and interconnectedness metrics.
• Analyze regulated entities’ risk management frameworks through off-site monitoring and thematic reviews — identifying firms whose risk profiles pose potential systemic significance and recommending enhanced supervisory attention.
• Contribute to SECP’s regulatory sandbox and fintech risk assessments, evaluating whether emerging financial technologies and business models introduce new systemic risk dimensions requiring regulatory response.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Education: Master’s/PhD in Economics, Finance, Quantitative Finance, Financial Mathematics, or a related field; CFA/FRM charterholder status is advantageous.
• Experience: Professional experience in financial risk analysis, systemic risk assessment, macro-prudential supervision, or quantitative financial research — check full TORs at secp.gov.pk/careers/.
• Key Skills: Systemic risk modeling, stress testing, macro-prudential analysis, financial stability assessment, risk dashboards, econometric tools (R, Python, Stata), inter-regulatory coordination.
• Full TORs: secp.gov.pk/careers/

Deputy Director – Research

Deputy Director Level · Research Department · SECP HQ, Islamabad · Contractual

Job Responsibilities

• Conduct rigorous economic and financial research on capital market structure, market microstructure, investor behavior, corporate governance, financial inclusion, and regulatory impact — producing working papers and publications that contribute to SECP’s evidence base for policy-making.
• Analyze Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) data, mutual fund flows, insurance sector trends, and NBFC performance using econometric and statistical tools to identify trends, anomalies, and policy-relevant developments in the regulated sector.
• Prepare research briefs, technical notes, and background papers that inform SECP’s regulatory consultations, policy proposals, and public comment periods, ensuring all policy recommendations are grounded in empirical evidence.
• Track and analyze global regulatory and capital market developments — including IOSCO publications, FSB guidance, Basel standards, and comparable regulatory reforms in peer jurisdictions — for their applicability to Pakistan’s regulatory framework.
• Contribute to SECP’s Annual Report, quarterly market performance reports, and special thematic publications on topics such as gender diversity in listed companies, ESG in Pakistan’s capital markets, and fintech market development.
• Support the Research Department’s engagement with academic institutions, think tanks, and international research networks — participating in conferences, co-authoring research papers, and facilitating data-sharing agreements for collaborative research projects.
• Assist in designing surveys, questionnaires, and data collection instruments for primary research on market participant behavior, investor awareness levels, and corporate governance compliance among SECP-regulated entities.
• Provide research support to other SECP departments — including Policy, Legal, and Enforcement — by preparing data analyses, literature reviews, and comparative regulatory studies on demand.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Education: Master’s or PhD in Economics, Finance, Business, or a quantitative discipline from a recognized institution. CFA charterholder status is an advantage.
• Experience: Research experience in economics, capital markets, or financial sector policy — refer to secp.gov.pk/careers/ for specific experience requirements in TORs.
• Key Skills: Economic and financial research, econometrics, capital market analysis, policy brief writing, data analysis (Stata/R/Python/SPSS), literature review, comparative regulatory analysis.
• Full TORs: secp.gov.pk/careers/

Joint Director – Research

Joint Director Level · Research Department · SECP HQ, Islamabad · Contractual

Job Responsibilities

• Lead strategic research initiatives within the Research Department, setting the research agenda, allocating projects to team members, reviewing research outputs, and ensuring that all publications meet SECP’s quality standards for regulatory research.
• Formulate evidence-based policy positions on capital market development, corporate governance reform, non-bank financial sector regulation, and investor protection — preparing position papers and consultation documents for SECP’s Policy Board consideration.
• Represent the Research Department in SECP inter-departmental committees, stakeholder consultations, and external engagements with IOSCO, World Bank, ADB, and bilateral regulatory cooperation counterparts.
• Oversee the Research Department’s data collection, management, and analysis infrastructure — working with IT and Data Science teams to ensure the department has access to comprehensive, timely, and clean data for regulatory research purposes.
• Lead applied research programs that directly inform SECP’s regulatory reform pipeline — including studies on market manipulation detection, investor financial literacy, sustainable finance, and capital market depth — translating findings into actionable regulatory recommendations.
• Manage the Research Department’s team including Deputy Directors and analysts — providing intellectual leadership, reviewing draft research, setting performance targets, and facilitating professional development within the team.
• Build and maintain SECP’s relationships with academic institutions, international regulatory think tanks, and Pakistan-based research organizations for collaborative research, data-sharing partnerships, and knowledge transfer programs.
• Contribute to SECP’s strategic planning by providing research-based inputs to the Commission’s five-year regulatory vision, annual regulatory agenda, and capital market development roadmap for submission to SECP’s Policy Board.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Education: PhD or Master’s in Economics, Finance, Public Policy, or a relevant field from a recognized institution; significant research publication record is advantageous.
• Experience: Senior research leadership experience — team management, policy formulation, regulatory research, or capital market analysis — refer to TORs at secp.gov.pk/careers/ for exact criteria.
• Key Skills: Research leadership, economic analysis, policy formulation, team management, regulatory research, IOSCO/FSB frameworks, external stakeholder engagement, applied financial research.
• Full TORs: secp.gov.pk/careers/

Director – Data Science and Research Department

Director Level · Data Science & Research · SECP HQ, Islamabad · Contractual

Job Responsibilities

• Lead SECP’s Data Science and Research Department — establishing the strategic vision, technical architecture, and operational roadmap for data-driven regulatory supervision across the Commission’s full portfolio of regulated entities.
• Design and implement advanced data analytics pipelines, machine learning models, and AI-powered surveillance systems that enhance SECP’s ability to detect market manipulation, insider trading, regulatory non-compliance, and emerging financial sector risks at scale.
• Develop and operationalize SECP’s RegTech (Regulatory Technology) strategy — identifying technologies that can automate regulatory reporting, improve data quality, reduce compliance burden on regulated entities, and enable real-time market monitoring by SECP staff.
• Build and manage a high-performance data science team — recruiting, developing, and retaining data scientists, machine learning engineers, and data engineers while fostering a culture of innovation, technical excellence, and regulatory impact.
• Oversee SECP’s data infrastructure strategy including enterprise data lakes, API integrations with regulated entities, real-time data feeds from the PSX and other market infrastructure providers, and data governance frameworks for regulatory data.
• Collaborate with SECP’s enforcement, supervision, and risk departments to translate data science capabilities into actionable regulatory insights — enabling evidence-based enforcement actions, supervisory risk scoring, and predictive regulatory interventions.
• Engage with IOSCO’s Committee on Emerging Risks, FSB’s data gaps initiative, and bilateral SupTech (Supervisory Technology) cooperation programs — positioning SECP as a technically advanced regulator on the international regulatory stage.
• Ensure all data science activities comply with SECP’s data governance policies, cybersecurity requirements, privacy regulations, and ethical AI principles — establishing review processes for model validation, bias assessment, and explainability of algorithmic regulatory decisions.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Education: Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Financial Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline from an HEC-recognized or internationally accredited institution.
• Experience: Senior leadership in data science, analytics, or financial technology — with demonstrable experience applying machine learning, big data analytics, or RegTech/SupTech in a financial services or regulatory environment.
• Key Skills: Machine learning and AI, big data platforms (Spark/Hadoop), Python/R, NLP for financial text, market surveillance analytics, RegTech strategy, SupTech frameworks, team leadership, data governance.
• Full TORs: secp.gov.pk/careers/