Manager, Investigations

About RECO

As Ontario’s regulator of more than 110,000 real estate agents and brokerages (often referred to as registrants), RECO administers and enforces the law that regulates trading in real estate in Ontario and enhances consumer confidence in the real estate services sector. RECO’s commitment to pursuing trust in every transaction means consumers can navigate the real estate market with confidence.

A modern regulator with approximately 170 employees, RECO is a collegial and dynamic environment where strategic agility, curiosity and empathy are valued.

Hybrid work environment

RECO has a ‘hybrid’ environment, which typically includes a minimum attendance in the office of two days per week, with some teams/positions requiring more frequent in-office attendance.

RECO’s commitment to diversity and inclusion: They aren’t just words to us!

RECO is committed to promoting an equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment that includes awareness, education, and engagement-building opportunities for all employees.

The role

Reporting to the Head, Legal Services, the Manager, Investigations provides strategic and operational leadership for RECO’s investigations program under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002 (TRESA).

The Manager leads a modern, risk-based investigations function that supports RECO’s consumer protection mandate through effective regulatory oversight, operational excellence, and continuous improvement. The role ensures investigations are timely, consistent, evidence-based, and focused on matters presenting the highest regulatory and consumer protection risk, while directing resources toward activities that deliver the greatest regulatory impact and return on investment.

Working closely with Litigation, Registration, Compliance, Inspections, Policy, and senior leadership, the Manager develops investigation strategies, modernizes investigative practices, implements performance measures, strengthens RECO’s regulatory intelligence capability, enhances operational visibility through service standards, KPIs and reporting, and leads a high-performing, engaged, and accountable hybrid investigations team.

The investigations function is evolving to place greater emphasis on financial and accounting misconduct, including annual financial filings, monthly trust reconciliations, trust account compliance, fraud, and other complex financial risks. The Manager leads this transformation by building investigative capability, advancing specialized expertise through ongoing training and development, modernizing investigative practices, and ensuring resources remain aligned to RECO’s highest consumer protection priorities.

Position responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Investigation Modernization

• Develop and implement an integrated enforcement strategy that ensures investigative resources are directed toward matters delivering the greatest regulatory value, consumer protection impact, and regulatory return on investment
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives that modernize investigation practices, workflows, policies and procedures.
• Work to continuously assess enforcement priorities and ensure regulatory resources are focused on the highest-value matters.
• Design and implement standardized investigation methodologies that improve consistency, defensibility and quality.
• Develop department operational plans, priorities, resource requirements and performance measures.
• Identify opportunities to leverage technology, automation and analytics to improve investigation effectiveness.
• Support the implementation of RECO’s risk-based regulatory operating model.

Investigation & Regulatory Modernization

• Lead and oversee all investigations conducted under TRESA.
• Ensure investigative resources are focused on matters representing the highest consumer protection and regulatory risk.
• Develop and oversee investigation prioritization methodologies based on risk, complexity, urgency and potential public harm.
• Ensure investigations are conducted fairly, consistently, efficiently and in accordance with legislative requirements.
• Lead investigations involving financial misconduct, trust account irregularities, Annual Financial Filings, Monthly Trust Reconciliations, fraud and complex regulatory matters.
• Oversee investigative quality assurance and file review processes.
• Ensure appropriate escalation of significant investigations.
• Monitor investigation aging and implement strategies to improve timeliness.
• Lead regular review of investigation outcomes to identify opportunities for operational improvement.

Financial Investigations & Specialized Expertise

• Lead the transformation of the investigations program toward increased specialization in financial and accounting misconduct investigations.
• Develop investigative methodologies supporting Annual Financial Filings, Monthly Trust Reconciliations, trust account reviews and complex financial investigations.
• Identify emerging financial risks affecting registrants and consumers.
• Develop investigative protocols supporting RECO’s enhanced financial oversight responsibilities.
• Establish ongoing in-house training and capability development to build expertise in forensic accounting principles, financial investigations and fraud detection

Investigation Performance & Service Excellence

• Develop investigation dashboards, KPIs and operational reporting.
• Establish service-level expectations and monitor department performance against established standards.
• Provide regular reporting regarding:
  • investigation aging
  • active caseload
  • investigation outcomes
  • emerging risks
  • financial misconduct trends
  • resource utilization
  • workload forecasting
• Identify systemic regulatory issues through analysis of investigation data.
• Share intelligence with Registration, Compliance, Litigation and senior leadership to support integrated regulatory decision-making.
• Recommend operational improvements based on data analysis and performance trends.

People Management

• Lead the successful transition and ongoing management of the investigations team within RECO’s hybrid work environment by fostering accountability, collaboration, employee engagement, effective communication, and performance in alignment with organizational policies and expectations

• Promote consistent leadership practices, coaching, and performance management that support a high-performing hybrid workforce while maintaining operational excellence and service delivery.

• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous learning and professional excellence.

• Lead recruitment, onboarding, performance management and succession planning activities.

• Develop investigator capabilities in:

  • financial investigations
  • accounting misconduct
  • interviewing techniques
  • evidence management
  • investigative writing
  • regulatory decision making

• Implement structured learning and development programs to enhance investigative capability.

• Lead investigators through organizational change initiatives and support adoption of new ways of working.

• Support RECO’s hybrid workplace by establishing clear expectations for communication, collaboration, accountability and performance.

Legal Services Partnership & Regulatory Enforcement

• Alignment with Legal Services to develop an integrated enforcement strategy ensuring investigative resources are directed toward matters with the highest regulatory value.
• Support the strategic oversight of Provincial Offences Act prosecutions by ensuring investigations are prioritized based on consumer protection risk, deterrence value, public interest and regulatory return on investment.
• Work collaboratively with Legal leadership to continuously assess whether enforcement activities represent the most effective use of regulatory resources.
• Ensure investigation priorities align with RECO’s evolving enforcement strategy and broader regulatory objectives.
• Perform additional duties as assigned.

Qualifications and experience

• Minimum 7 years progressive investigative leadership experience.
• Minimum 5 years leading investigative or regulatory teams.
• Professional designation such as CPA, CFE, CIA, CAMS, CFI or equivalent is considered a strong asset.
• Experience within a regulatory, compliance, law enforcement or public sector environment.
• Experience leading organizational or operational transformation initiatives.
• Experience implementing process improvement initiatives.
• Experience managing complex investigations involving fraud, financial misconduct or regulatory compliance.
• Experience developing operational metrics and performance reporting..

Core competencies

• Strategic Leadership
• Regulatory Judgment
• Operational Excellence
• Change Leadership
• Financial Investigation Expertise
• Data Analysis
• Risk Assessment

Pay Range

$120,000—$160,000 CAD

Why work for RECO?

Working at RECO means contributing to an organization that supports a fair, transparent, and consumer-focused real estate marketplace.

What you can expect

• Purpose-driven work: Your contributions help protect consumers and strengthen one of Ontario’s largest and most important sectors.
• A modern, evolving regulator: We are innovating how we regulate and engage with the real estate sector, and your ideas and expertise will help shape the future.
• Professional growth: We invest in employee development, ongoing learning, and cross-functional exposure.
• Hybrid flexibility: Our hybrid model supports balance, flexibility, and wellbeing.
• Inclusive culture: You’ll work with people who care deeply about doing what’s right and delivering high-quality public service.

RECO is committed to treating all people in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and independence. We believe in integration and equal opportunity. We are committed to meeting the needs of persons with disabilities in a timely manner and will do so by preventing and removing barriers to accessibility.

We thank all applicants in advance for their interest.