Compliance Program Leadership
- Lead the bank's enterprise Compliance Management System (CMS) and ensure the program remains appropriate for the organization’s size, activities, products, and risk profile.
- Establish a forward-looking, risk-based approach to compliance governance and oversight.
- Maintain an effective framework covering policies and procedures, regulatory change, risk assessments, monitoring and testing, training, issue management, and management reporting.
- Regularly evaluate program effectiveness and identify opportunities to strengthen controls, governance, technology, workflows, and accountability.
- Ensure appropriate documentation and evidence are maintained to demonstrate effective compliance oversight.
Regulatory & Examination Management
- Serve as a senior compliance contact for banking regulators and coordinate regulatory examinations, inquiries, information requests, and responses.
- Advise executive leadership on regulatory developments, supervisory expectations, and their potential impact on the organization.
- Coordinate with Legal, Risk, Audit, and business leadership throughout examinations and other regulatory matters.
- Monitor changes in banking laws and regulatory guidance and ensure applicable requirements are incorporated into business processes and controls.
- Oversee remediation of regulatory findings and ensure commitments are appropriately documented, tracked, escalated, and completed.
Consumer & Banking Compliance
- Provide guidance across areas including fair lending, UDAAP, HMDA, TILA, FCRA, ECOA, CRA, privacy, deposit regulations, marketing compliance, and complaint management.
- Provide governance and oversight of the BSA/AML program in coordination with the designated financial crimes leadership.
- Ensure compliance considerations are appropriately incorporated into lending, deposit, marketing, operational, and customer-facing activities.
- Evaluate customer complaints and other indicators for potential compliance concerns, trends, or control weaknesses.
Risk Assessment, Monitoring & Testing
- Lead enterprise compliance risk assessments and use the results to establish monitoring, testing, training, and resource priorities.
- Oversee compliance monitoring, testing, and quality-review activities designed to evaluate the effectiveness of controls.
- Ensure identified deficiencies are appropriately analyzed, assigned, escalated, remediated, and validated.
- Review trends across regulatory findings, audit observations, monitoring results, complaints, and other compliance indicators.
- Partner with Internal Audit while maintaining appropriate independence between the functions.
Executive & Board Governance
- Provide executive leadership and governing committees with clear reporting on the condition of the compliance program.
- Communicate significant regulatory developments, emerging risks, control weaknesses, remediation efforts, and program priorities.
- Participate in relevant risk, audit, compliance, technology, operations, and governance forums.
- Develop meaningful metrics and reporting that provide leadership with visibility into compliance performance and program maturity.
- Provide credible challenge and practical recommendations on significant business and risk decisions.
Business Advisory
- Partner with business leaders to incorporate regulatory requirements into new products, services, technology implementations, process changes, and strategic initiatives.
- Provide practical interpretation of banking regulations and compliance requirements.
- Work closely with Legal, Risk, Audit, Operations, Technology, Marketing, Lending, Deposits, and other functions.
- Balance effective regulatory challenge with a collaborative approach that enables responsible business growth.
- Promote early engagement with Compliance so regulatory considerations are addressed during business planning rather than after implementation.
Team Leadership & Development
- Lead and develop the bank's Compliance organization.
- Establish clear roles, responsibilities, performance expectations, and accountability across the team.
- Coach and mentor compliance professionals and strengthen both technical and leadership capabilities.
- Develop succession plans and build organizational capacity to support future growth.
- Provide guidance and effective challenge to employees outside Compliance who own regulatory controls, remediation activities, or compliance-related processes.
- Promote a culture of sound judgment, transparency, collaboration, and appropriate escalation.
Required Background
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, Legal Studies, Risk Management, Compliance, or a related discipline.
- 10+ years of progressive experience across banking compliance, risk, audit, legal, regulatory affairs, or closely related functions.
- Demonstrated experience leading or materially enhancing a bank Compliance Management System.
- Direct experience managing or playing a senior leadership role in bank regulatory examinations.
- Significant knowledge of consumer and banking compliance requirements and regulatory expectations.
- At least 7 years of demonstrated people leadership, including coaching, performance management, talent development, and building team capability.
- Experience communicating directly with executive leadership, boards or governing committees, regulators, auditors, and senior business leaders.
- Strong ability to translate complex regulatory requirements into practical business controls and solutions.
- Excellent written, verbal, organizational, and executive communication skills.
PREFERRED EXPERIENCE
- Background within a community bank, regional bank, or similarly regulated financial institution.
- Experience strengthening a compliance program during a period of organizational growth or increasing regulatory complexity.
- Previous experience in regulatory supervision, examinations, internal audit, or second-line risk.
- Advanced degree or additional relevant education.
- Professional certification such as CRCM, CAMS, CBCO, CIA, CPA, CRCP, or another recognized banking, compliance, risk, or audit credential.