ESG Compliance Lead

Smartsuite; Newport Beach (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Capitolis in Newport Beach, CA, seeks an ESG Compliance Lead to align sustainability efforts with enterprise governance and compliance. You will map ESG disclosures to controls, integrate ESG risks into the risk register, and coordinate testing and evidence across governance programs.

You will monitor CSRD and California SB 253/261 developments, track remediation actions, and report status to leadership, ensuring governed, auditable ESG processes within the SmartSuite platform.

Qualifications

• Experience aligning ESG with governance and compliance frameworks.
• Ability to map ESG disclosures to controls and obligations.
• Experience monitoring CSRD and California SB 253/261.

Responsibilities

• Map ESG disclosure requirements to controls and obligations.
• Integrate ESG risks into the enterprise risk register.
• Coordinate ESG controls testing and evidence.
• Report ESG compliance status to leadership.

Skills

GRC frameworks

CSRD knowledge

Regulatory reporting

Controls testing

Stakeholder collaboration

SmartSuite

Tools

SmartSuite

Job description

Governance, risk and compliance

SmartSuite for the ESG Compliance Lead

The ESG Compliance Lead aligns sustainability and social responsibility efforts with enterprise governance and compliance frameworks. They integrate ESG risks into the enterprise register, map disclosures to control frameworks and track environmental and social metrics tied to governance initiatives.

Reports to:

ESG Program Director

What you own

The ESG Compliance Lead aligns sustainability and social responsibility efforts with enterprise governance and compliance frameworks.

• Map ESG disclosure requirements to controls and obligations
• Integrate ESG risks into the enterprise risk register
• Monitor ESG regulatory developments such as CSRD and California SB 253 and SB 261
• Coordinate ESG controls testing and evidence
• Track ESG compliance actions and remediation
• Report ESG compliance status to compliance and sustainability leadership

At a glance

The GRC processes this role owns, touches and depends on.

Owns

accountable for the process

Touches

contributes or approves

Depends on

consumes its output

How the GRC processes connect

Three lines of defence set the frame; the chain shows where each process hands off to the next. Colours follow the ESG Compliance Lead: navy is owned, blue is touched, grey is depended on.

1. First line – The business and its control owners: Run the processes, own the controls, fix the issues
2. Second line – Risk, compliance and the domain programmes: Set the frameworks, assess, monitor and advise
3. Third line – Internal audit: Independent assurance to the board and audit committee

Reporting lines

Who this role reports to, who reports to them, and the peers they work with most.

Reports to

ESG Program Director

Direct reports

Works closely with

• ESG Controller
• Regulatory Change Manager
• Risk Manager
• ESG Reporting Manager

How SmartSuite supports the ESG Compliance Lead

The ESG Compliance Lead makes sustainability reporting as governed as any other obligation, answerable to the ESG Program Director and the Chief Compliance Officer for disclosures that are controlled and evidenced. SmartSuite holds ESG obligations, controls and risks in the same model as the rest of compliance, so nothing about ESG is handled on the side.

Run ESG compliance as a governed obligation

Owners and due dates on every ESG obligation

Each ESG disclosure requirement is an obligation record in Control Framework & Regulatory Libraries with an owner, a due date and the controls and evidence that satisfy it, so what is owed, by whom and by when is visible without a tracker spreadsheet.

ESG controls tested on a schedule

ESG reporting controls are tested on recurring cycles with automated assignments, follow-ups and evidence capture, in the same testing workflow as every other compliance control, so coverage is consistent.

Remediation tracked against the obligation

Gaps found in testing or in a disclosure review become actions with owners, escalation and due dates linked to the obligation they threaten, so ESG remediation is visible to the Chief Compliance Officer alongside everything else.

Connect ESG to risk, regulatory change and reporting

Impact assessments routed to the right owners

When the Regulatory Change Manager logs a change in Regulatory Change Management, the impact assessment routes to the ESG owners affected, so a new ESRS requirement reaches the people who must act on it.

Metrics tied to governance initiatives

Environmental and social metrics are linked to the governance initiatives they support, so the ESG Reporting Manager can show which commitments are backed by measured progress and which are still intentions.

Risk scores the Risk Manager recognizes

ESG risks carry the same likelihood and impact scoring as the rest of the enterprise register in Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), so the Risk Manager treats a climate or supply-chain risk on equal terms with an operational one.

Show compliance status to compliance and sustainability leadership

Evidence ready for assurance and the regulator

Full histories of evidence, approvals and decisions are kept against each ESG obligation, so CSRD assurance or a regulator's query is answered from the record the ESG Controller and you already maintain.

Obligation status on one dashboard

Dashboards show overdue items, upcoming obligations and control effectiveness across ESG and every other compliance domain, giving the Chief Compliance Officer and the ESG Program Director the same view.

Compliance narratives drafted for you

The AI Assistant in a SmartDoc field drafts compliance narratives and summarizes control status from the record, so the report to compliance and sustainability leadership starts from evidence rather than from a template.

ESG. Maps ESG disclosures to GRC control frameworks so ESG reporting is governed like any other obligation.

Risk management. Integrates ESG risks into enterprise risk registers with scoring and ownership.

Compliance management. Tracks ESG regulatory requirements and the controls and evidence that satisfy them.

Reporting. Tracks environmental and social metrics tied to corporate governance initiatives.

Products this role uses most

ESG & Sustainability Management

Track and report ESG performance with structured workflows, regulatory alignment, and real-time visibility into sustainability metrics and initiatives.

Control Framework & Regulatory Libraries

Keep controls in one library and map them across frameworks to reduce duplication and enable a test-once, comply-many approach.

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)

Centralize enterprise risk management with standardized assessments, dashboards, and linked workflows that align risk, controls, and mitigation across your organization.

Regulatory Change Management

Track and implement regulatory changes with impact assessments, obligation owners, implementation workflows, and visibility into compliance readiness.

Industry reference

CSRD and the ESRS make sustainability reporting a legal obligation with assurance, and ISSB IFRS S1 and S2 are being adopted into law across jurisdictions, so ESG disclosures now need the control and evidence discipline ISO 37301:2021 describes. COSO's guidance on internal control over sustainability reporting (2023) maps the 2013 framework onto ESG data.

Regulatory scope varies by sector: SFDR and EBA Pillar 3 ESG rules for financial institutions, California's climate disclosure laws for large companies, EU due-diligence and deforestation rules for supply chains, and stock-exchange ESG rules for listed technology and healthcare companies.

Related roles

ESG Program Director

DEEPEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Explore Further

Guides and definitions from the GRC Knowledge Center and the What-is glossary, chosen for this role.

Frequently asked questions

The ESG Compliance Lead aligns sustainability and social responsibility work with the organization's governance and compliance frameworks: mapping ESG disclosure requirements to controls and obligations, integrating ESG risks into the enterprise risk register, monitoring regulatory developments such as CSRD and California SB 253 and SB 261, coordinating ESG controls testing and evidence, tracking ESG compliance actions and remediation and reporting status to compliance and sustainability leadership. The role exists because CSRD, the ESRS and ISSB adoption have made sustainability disclosure a legal obligation with assurance.

ESG & Sustainability Management maps ESG disclosures to GRC control frameworks, so each ESRS or ISSB disclosure requirement is linked to the controls and evidence that satisfy it and ESG reporting is governed like any other obligation. Control Framework & Regulatory Libraries holds the frameworks the mapping points to, which means an ESG control can be tested with the same discipline as a financial one. For the ESG Compliance Lead, the gap analysis against a new standard becomes a list of unmapped requirements.

SmartSuite integrates ESG risks into the enterprise risk register in Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) with scoring and ownership, so a climate transition risk or a supply-chain due-diligence exposure sits in the same register as operational and financial risks and is scored on the same scale. The Risk Manager owns the register and the ESG Compliance Lead supplies and maintains the ESG entries, which gives the risk committee one view. Risks keep their links to the obligations and controls they relate to.

SmartSuite tracks ESG regulatory requirements and the controls and evidence that satisfy them, and Regulatory Change Management records developments such as CSRD phase-in, California's climate disclosure laws or stock-exchange ESG rules as changes with an impact assessment and actions. The ESG Compliance Lead works with the Regulatory Change Manager to decide which obligations change, and the mapping to controls shows where new evidence will be needed. Compliance actions and remediation are tracked to closure with owners.

SmartSuite tracks environmental and social metrics tied to corporate governance initiatives alongside the obligation and control status, so the ESG Compliance Lead reports to the ESG Program Director and the Chief Compliance Officer from one record: which requirements are mapped, which controls have been tested, which actions are open and how the metrics behind governance commitments are moving. The ESG Controller and the ESG Reporting Manager work from the same controls and metrics, so compliance status and disclosure preparation agree.

Start with the disclosure framework you report under, load its requirements from Control Framework & Regulatory Libraries and map the controls and evidence you already have; the unmapped requirements are your first action list. Add the ESG risks to the enterprise register next, then set up regulatory change tracking for the regimes that affect you. Most of the controls will already exist in the financial or operational programs, so the ESG Compliance Lead's early work is mapping, not building.