The posting
We are seeking a senior Business Intelligence and Complex Investigations practitioner to join our client in Hong Kong at Senior Director level. The ideal candidate will hold senior intelligence, investigations or qualified-legal credentials with at least 10 years of relevant experience, the most recent 3+ years at Director or equivalent senior-leadership level, a track record of leading the most complex multi-jurisdictional pre-transaction due-diligence, asset-tracing and political-risk advisory mandates, and the bilingual capability to operate at evidentiary standards across HK-Mainland-cross-border fact patterns. The successful candidate will lead bet-the-deal and bet-the-recovery investigations, define the practice's source-handling and tradecraft doctrine on bilingual evidence populations, carry a meaningful named-account pipeline across the Hong Kong and Greater China PE / hedge-fund / family-office / litigation-counsel landscape, and contribute to the practice's strategy as an emerging Partner-track operator.
Confidential Client. Applying to this position means that you are interested to have an initial confidential discussion about how we can help you to identify and join a new business intelligence and complex investigations practice. With your authorisation we will exclusively run the entire application and recruitment process for you, keeping you apprised at every step. With over 30 years' combined experience of helping the most talented intelligence and investigations practitioners to make safe exits to launch rewarding new careers, we have the experience, network and ability to help you.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead high-stakes business-intelligence and complex-investigations engagements, typically running USD 500k - 3m, frequently with HK-Mainland-Singapore-elsewhere-APAC overlay, with full responsibility for engagement strategy, hypothesis design, source mix, signed-off written deliverable and adversarial-context defensibility.
- Define the practice's source-handling and tradecraft doctrine on HUMINT cultivation, bilingual OSINT methodology, Traditional-and-Simplified-Chinese records aggregation, cross-border beneficial-ownership unwinding and adversarial-context defensibility under the ABI / WAEPA / IBE ethical codes.
- Lead the most complex adversarial-context asset-tracing on civil-recovery and judgment-enforcement matters - capital-movement reconstruction across HK / PRC / BVI / Cayman / Samoa / Trust-and-Foundation structures - and integrate with civil-recovery counsel on Mareva and proprietary-injunction applications under HK common-law procedure.
- Take signed-off positions on senior management-background reports for PE buy-side mandates (notably Greater China and the GBA), sovereign-counterparty profiles, family-office investment-target reviews and pre-IPO red-flag reviews; engage with subject-counterparty challenge and clarification responses where required.
- Direct political-risk and country-risk advisory mandates on the most sensitive matters across Greater China, the GBA, South-East Asia, the Middle East and Africa, including the post-2024 HK National Security Law overlay analysis, regulatory-shift forecasting and sovereign-counterparty profiling.
- Develop and own a sustained pipeline of named accounts at General Counsel, CFO, Head of M&A, Managing Partner of PE houses, CIO of family offices and Audit Committee Chair level, and at relevant law firm partner level in Hong Kong and Greater China; originate or co-originate USD 1.5m+ annually in qualified business-intelligence opportunities.
- Convert reactive case work into multi-year retainer engagements covering subject-monitoring programmes, standing-counterparty-screening retainers, ongoing-due-diligence frameworks for PE buy-side teams and family-office monitoring panels - particularly where PIPL / CSL / DSL data-export risk shapes design.
- Set methodology and tooling-strategy direction within the business-intelligence sub-practice; directly supervise, mentor and advocate for Directors and Senior Managers - championing their advancement at promotion rounds, sponsoring sustained bilingual upskilling on emerging methodology and AI tooling, and shaping their external profile-building on bilingual tradecraft and writing depth.
Required Qualifications and Skills:
- Multiple senior intelligence, investigations or legal credentials, such as Type II PI Licence under the HK Security and Guarding Services Ordinance plus CFE plus CAMS, or qualified-lawyer status plus CFE plus ABI membership - typically multiple at this level.
- At least 10 years of relevant experience in business intelligence, corporate investigations, asset-tracing, OSINT-led research, political-risk advisory, intelligence-services background or qualified-legal practice, with the most recent 3+ years at Director or equivalent senior-leadership level.
- Mandarin and Cantonese working fluency at depth sufficient to lead bilingual practice direction, source handling and senior-stakeholder communication.
- Demonstrable track record of leading bet-the-deal and bet-the-recovery investigations with full hypothesis design, source-mix and signed-off written-deliverable responsibility on bilingual fact patterns.
- Direct experience operating with General Counsel, CFOs, Heads of M&A, Managing Partners / CIOs at PE / hedge-fund / family-office level and instructing solicitors at partner level (HK and PRC).
- Working knowledge at supervisory-policy depth of the Hong Kong intelligence-and-investigations framework: the Security and Guarding Services Ordinance, PDPO obligations, the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO), the Computer Crimes Ordinance, the Crimes Ordinance, the post-2024 National Security Law overlay, and the 2024 Mainland Judicial Mutual Assistance arrangements including PIPL / CSL / DSL implications for HK source handling.
- Authority on subject-centric investigations methodology at supervisory-policy depth: hypothesis-driven research design, bilingual cross-border records aggregation, beneficial-ownership unwinding through cross-jurisdictional structures, HUMINT cultivation under ethical codes, and adversarial-context defensibility frameworks.
- Familiarity with industry-standard business-intelligence tooling, including entity-resolution and graph-intelligence platforms (such as Sayari Graph, Castellum.AI, Refinitiv World-Check, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance or LexisNexis Bridger), corporate-records and credit-data platforms (such as Bureau Van Dijk Orbis, Pitchbook, Mergermarket or Capital IQ), social-media intelligence platforms (such as Babel Street or Maltego), and court-records aggregators across HK / PRC / international jurisdictions.
- Demonstrable history of converting business-intelligence engagement relationships into multi-year subject-monitoring retainer or standing-due-diligence work.
- Established relationships with law firm partners in commercial litigation, white-collar crime, regulatory enforcement, M&A litigation, asset-recovery and internal-investigations practices who refer and instruct business-intelligence and asset-tracing work; sustained named-account level engagement is the strongest evidence.
- High-agency operating style, calm and credible under tight engagement deadlines and adversarial-challenge pressure in bilingual settings, with the methodological discipline to ensure findings are evidence-based, structured and defensible.
Preferred Experience:
- Prior background in intelligence services, investigative journalism (notably HK / PRC investigations desks) or specialist corporate-intelligence boutiques.
- Postgraduate qualification: Master's in international relations, security studies, intelligence studies, journalism, finance, governance, MBA, or LLM with investigations / regulatory / criminal-justice relevance.
- Cross-border investigations experience across Greater China and South-East Asia.
- Published authorship on intelligence, due-diligence, asset-tracing or political-risk themes in HK / PRC publications; conference-level speaking on business intelligence in bilingual settings.
- Track record of testifying or signed-off declaration on intelligence-and-investigations issues in arbitration or court proceedings.
- Independent monitor or standing-due-diligence retainer track record.
- Growth-mindset operating posture and visible engagement with the AI developments reshaping business intelligence and complex investigations: candidates who track tooling shifts (such as AI-assisted OSINT and entity-resolution on bilingual populations via Sayari Graph or Castellum.AI, LLM-aided Traditional-and-Simplified-Chinese source-language translation, or ML-driven beneficial-ownership inference across HK / PRC / offshore structures), share that knowledge with the Director and Manager bench under their supervision, and have a track record of building team-upskilling programmes on emerging methodologies.
Compensation:
Competitive package commensurate with seniority and experience, including base, performance-based bonus, long-term incentives and (where applicable) partner-track equity participation.
Next Steps:
This opportunity is open to Hong Kong permanent residents and qualified candidates with relevant Hong Kong work-rights status who match the above criteria. Please apply to receive prompt contact from an experienced and specialist business intelligence and complex investigations recruitment consultant.
Search & Counsel is a trading style of Feltan Associates Pte Ltd; an international Executive Search, Recruitment and Consulting business based in Singapore, licensed and regulated by the Singapore Ministry of Manpower to conduct recruitment services for clients. UEN: 202225620G. EA Licence 23S1672. All rights reserved.
