Head, Investment Practice & Professional Standards

Location: London, UK, New York or Washington DC (preferred), with Charlottesville, VA or select US East Coast locations (GA, FL, NC) also considered.
Reports to: Managing Director, Research & Policy Center

CFA Institute is hiring a Head, Investment Practice & Professional Standards to lead its investment-practice and professional-standards capability. You will steward CFA Institute’s professional standards architecture, including ethical frameworks, professional conduct guidance, and voluntary standards such as the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS), while building the mechanisms that translate research, foresight, and institutional insight into practical guidance, tools, and engagement approaches practitioners can use.

• Set strategic direction for the Research & Policy Center’s (RPC) investment-practice and standards capability, ensuring professional guidance, standards, and related assets stay relevant as practice and market conditions evolve.

• Own the evolution of CFA Institute’s professional standards architecture, including ethical frameworks, professional conduct guidance, voluntary standards such as GIPS, cases, and related interpretation mechanisms. Maintain a living-readiness discipline and determine when evidence or changing practice calls for continued monitoring, updated content, new guidance, cases, interpretation, or more fundamental standards-level change.

• Build a clear view of priority practitioner audiences, their workflows, decision contexts, constraints, needs, and adoption barriers, and design the practical routes, guidance, tools, cases, and engagement mechanisms that translate RPC’s research and insight into real-world use and adoption.

• Establish a coherent practitioner-engagement and activation approach across RPC, connecting priority audiences, substantive themes, assets, consultations, round tables, convenings, and feedback mechanisms so that engagement is purposeful rather than ad hoc.

• Partner across RPC and the wider enterprise to turn research and house views into coherent, reusable practitioner-facing and enterprise-facing materials, while the relevant specialist teams retain ownership of the underlying intellectual content. Equip downstream partners and RPC teams themselves to use those assets consistently and effectively.

• Communicate clearly and credibly with senior leaders and external stakeholders, leading with conclusions and translating complex standards or practice issues into concise implications and actionable recommendations.

• Lead, coach, and develop a large, senior, multidisciplinary team, setting priorities, allocating resources, building capability, and ensuring that specialist expertise is translated into clear, timely, and usable outcomes.

• Significant experience leading and developing teams, including setting direction, allocating work, and driving accountability.

• Proven track record delivering tangible outputs and assets, not just strategy or recommendations.

• Substantial experience in financial services, a professional body, or a comparable organization, together with a broad understanding of how different parts of the investment industry fit together.

• Significant experience translating complex research, standards, or technical content into practical guidance, tools, or audience-specific materials.

• Experience overseeing professional standards, ethical frameworks, voluntary codes, practitioner guidance, or similarly governed professional assets.

• Significant experience designing or leading practitioner engagement, such as round tables, consultations, or advisory groups.

• Strong understanding of investment practice, institutional decision-making, fiduciary responsibility, and professional standards, sufficient to…