Chief, Compliance Assurance and Regulatory Management Unit (CARMU)

The Chief of CARMU leads the management of contracts for seabed activities, regulatory implementation, compliance assurance, and risk management within the International Seabed Authority. The role involves overseeing contract lifecycle management, developing compliance strategies, managing regulatory reporting, and leading the unit's operational readiness for future exploitation regimes.

Responsibilities

• Lead the effective and systematic management of contracts for activities in the Area throughout the contract lifecycle, including processing, monitoring, review, follow-up and documentation of applications, reports, reviews, data submissions, relinquishments, contractual commitments, requests for modifications or extensions, outstanding obligations, corrective actions, and contract expiry, renewal or transition matters.
• Develop and maintain a seabed mining registry and associated regulatory information and records-management arrangements ensuring integrity, completeness, traceability and accessibility of information.
• Assess the regulatory impact on contractors and ISA; lead development and implementation of compliance assurance and risk management framework and culture.
• Design and implement a risk-based and proportionate compliance assurance strategy to support contractor compliance with regulatory and contractual obligations.
• Manage regulatory reporting programme; coordinate and track compliance monitoring and audit activities; evaluate compliance controls; maintain compliance calendar; document and follow up findings and corrective actions; coordinate cross-functional compliance issues.
• Develop guidance and training material for contractors, sponsoring States, and other stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain a risk-based non-compliance decision matrix for consistent assessment, escalation, corrective action and documentation of non-compliance.
• Serve as principal Secretariat focal point for contract-management and regulatory compliance matters; maintain effective working relationships with contractors, sponsoring States, and stakeholders.
• Prepare and submit timely and accurate contract-management and regulatory compliance reports and documents; track recommendations and decisions; follow up contractor responses; maintain auditable records.
• Ensure Secretariat units understand responsibilities in contract administration and regulatory implementation; support development of scalable mechanisms and controls.
• Develop, optimize and maintain workflows, standard operating procedures, responsibilities, controls, checklists, regulatory records, quality assurance, corrective-action mechanisms and continual improvement processes.
• Lead and manage CARMU including work programme preparation and implementation, prioritization, supervision, resource management, performance indicators and reporting.
• Lead CARMU's operational readiness for exploitation regulatory framework implementation including workflows, procedures, compliance and reporting arrangements, information requirements, coordination mechanisms and systems.
• Coordinate contributions of Secretariat units to contract administration and regulatory implementation including referral, responsibilities, technical inputs, deadlines, quality control, escalation and decision recording.
• Contribute to improvement of ISA organizational performance.
• Perform other duties as required by the Secretary-General.

Requirements

• An advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent degree) in Law, Ocean Studies, Engineering, Business Administration, Geology or Geosciences, Environmental Sciences, Mining or Mineral Resources, Public Administration, Regulatory Policy or Governance, or another closely related discipline is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Minimum 10 years of combined relevant experience in contract or regulatory administration, mining or natural-resource regulation, environmental regulation, compliance assurance, risk-based regulatory systems, inspection or assurance systems, or implementation of complex regulatory frameworks, gained in a government regulatory agency, international organization or relevant private-sector role, is required.
• Strong communication skills, including excellent writing ability in English, and the capacity to produce complex technical reports, studies, and official documentation, is required.
• Experience in building and managing an efficient and effective team is required.
• Demonstrated experience and expertise in leading a compliance assurance and risk function (public or private sector) is desirable.
• Demonstrated experience building quality assurance and compliance programmes and processes is desirable.
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills, along with significant technical credibility is desirable.
• English language proficiency at UN Level III in reading, writing, listening, and speaking is required.

Skills

• Contract Administration
• Regulatory Administration
• Environmental Regulation
• Compliance Assurance
• Risk-Based Regulatory Systems
• Inspection Systems
• Regulatory Framework Application
• Technical Report Preparation
• Team Management
• Compliance Programme Development
• Negotiation Skills
• Regulatory Reporting
• Risk Management
• Contract Lifecycle Management
• Operational Readiness

Languages

English