Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Cybersecurity Compliance Officer

🎯 Role Definition

We are seeking an experienced Cybersecurity Compliance Officer to own and drive information security compliance, governance and risk activities across the organization. The Cybersecurity Compliance Officer will design, implement, and maintain a compliance program that aligns with regulatory requirements and industry best practices (NIST CSF, ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR), coordinate internal and external audits, manage vendor and third‑party risk, and partner with IT, legal and business stakeholders to translate security controls into measurable compliance outcomes. This role is ideal for candidates with strong technical understanding of security controls, experience managing audit cycles, and proven stakeholder and program management skills.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Information Security Analyst / Security Engineer
IT Risk Analyst / IT Auditor
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Analyst

Advancement To:

Senior Cybersecurity Compliance Officer / GRC Manager
Director of Information Security / Head of Compliance
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) / VP of Risk & Compliance

Lateral Moves:

Vendor Risk Manager
Privacy & Data Protection Officer
Security Program Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop, maintain and continuously improve a comprehensive cybersecurity compliance program that maps business processes to regulatory and industry requirements (NIST CSF, ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR) and produces actionable control statements and evidence requirements for audits.
Lead internal and external compliance audits and assessments end-to-end: scope definition, control testing, evidence collection, remediation tracking, audit response, and coordination with auditors and executive leadership.
Conduct periodic risk assessments, control gap analyses and compliance maturity assessments to identify vulnerabilities and prioritize remediation actions by business impact and likelihood.
Draft, review and update information security policies, standards, procedures and guidelines; enforce policy adoption through stakeholder engagement and continuous monitoring.
Design and execute a formal control testing program (manual and automated) for key security domains including access management, change control, encryption, logging/monitoring and vulnerability management.
Manage vendor and third-party security and privacy assessments, including questionnaire review (SIG, CAIQ), on-site or virtual assessments, remediation plans and contractual security requirements.
Partner with Legal, Privacy, HR, IT and business units to translate regulatory requirements (GDPR, HIPAA, PCI, SOX, regional data protection laws) into operational controls and compliance tasks.
Prepare and deliver regular compliance reporting and KPI dashboards for senior leadership and the board, including risk heat maps, remediation status, audit findings and compliance posture summaries.
Coordinate incident response from a compliance perspective: ensure regulatory notifications, compensation criteria, documentation, remediation validation and post-incident compliance reporting.
Maintain compliance program documentation, evidence repositories and control ownership in GRC platforms (e.g., Archer, OneTrust, LogicGate, ServiceNow GRC) and ensure audit-ready posture.
Support cloud security compliance by defining cloud control frameworks, assessing cloud providers, mapping shared-responsibility models, and validating cloud configuration baselines (AWS, Azure, GCP).
Translate complex technical control requirements into clear, business-facing compliance requirements and run training sessions and awareness campaigns to increase organizational compliance literacy.
Evaluate, select and implement compliance automation tools and capabilities (continuous monitoring, evidence automation, policy attestations) to reduce audit cycle time and manual effort.
Drive remediation projects by owning the lifecycle: root-cause analysis, remediation planning, cross-functional coordination, verification testing and closure certification.
Maintain up-to-date knowledge of evolving laws, regulations and industry standards that affect the organization and advise leadership on material changes and strategic implications.
Conduct control mapping exercises to support certifications and attestations (ISO 27001 implementation/audit readiness, SOC 2 readiness and SOC 2 Type II reporting).
Oversee identity and access management (IAM) compliance activities including entitlement reviews, segregation of duties analysis, privileged access controls and provisioning/de-provisioning processes.
Collaborate with vulnerability management and patching teams to ensure high-risk vulnerabilities are tracked through risk acceptance, remediation timelines and compliance evidence.
Manage compliance-related contractual language for customer contracts, NDAs and supplier agreements, ensuring appropriate security, audit and data protection clauses are included.
Lead security control design reviews for new products, services and major IT projects to ensure compliance-by-design and early identification of compliance obligations.
Conduct privacy and data protection assessments for data processing activities and maintain processing inventories to support GDPR, CCPA and other privacy frameworks.
Supervise or mentor junior compliance staff, delegate audit tasks, review work product and help grow the compliance capability within the team.

Secondary Functions

Facilitate cross-functional compliance working groups and champion continuous improvement initiatives to remediate recurring audit findings.
Provide subject-matter expertise to product, engineering and operations teams during design and deployment of secure systems and services.
Support the creation and delivery of enterprise-wide security and compliance training, phishing campaigns, and role-specific attestations.
Participate in procurement and governance committees to evaluate security posture of prospective vendors and products.
Maintain and update a central repository of compliance evidence, runbook procedures and audit playbooks for quick auditor access.
Assist with ad-hoc compliance-related investigations, ad-hoc executive requests and readiness for customer due diligence questionnaires.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Compliance Frameworks & Standards: Deep practical experience with NIST CSF, NIST 800-53/800-171, ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR and mapping controls across frameworks.
Audit & Control Testing: Planning and running control tests, sampling methodologies, evidence collection, writing findings, remediation tracking and closure verification.
GRC & Evidence Management Tools: Hands-on use of GRC platforms (e.g., RSA Archer, ServiceNow GRC, LogicGate, OneTrust), ticketing systems and secure evidence repositories.
Risk Assessment & Management: Performing risk assessments, risk scoring, risk registers, risk acceptance workflows and integrating risk into decision-making.
Vendor & Third-Party Risk Management: Conducting vendor security assessments, reviewing third-party questionnaires (SIG, CAIQ), and contractually enforcing security requirements.
Cloud Security & Compliance: Understanding cloud shared responsibility models, cloud configuration baselines, cloud security posture management (CSPM) and mapping cloud controls to compliance requirements.
Identity & Access Controls: Familiarity with IAM best practices, access reviews, least privilege, role-based access controls, and privileged access management (PAM).
Incident Response Compliance: Knowledge of regulatory incident reporting obligations, forensic evidence preservation, and post-incident compliance remediation.
Security Architecture Familiarity: Working knowledge of network security, endpoint protection, encryption and logging/monitoring controls needed for compliance.
Data Privacy & Protection: Experience with privacy impact assessments, data inventories, cross-border data transfer controls and privacy law requirements (GDPR, CCPA).
Automation & Scripting (preferred): Basic automation skills or working with teams to automate evidence collection and monitoring (e.g., Python, PowerShell, API integrations).
Reporting & KPI Development: Building compliance dashboards, board-level reports and executive summaries that measure program effectiveness.

Soft Skills

Strong written and verbal communication — translate technical controls into business terms and produce auditor‑ready reports.
Stakeholder management — influence and collaborate across IT, Legal, Product, HR and Finance to implement compliant controls.
Project management — prioritize and manage multi-stakeholder remediation efforts and audit cycles with disciplined follow-through.
Attention to detail — precise documentation, evidence handling and control testing rigor.
Analytical thinking — synthesize audit findings, root causes and systemic improvement opportunities.
Ethical judgment and confidentiality — handle sensitive security and privacy information with discretion.
Change leadership — drive adoption of new policies, tooling and compliance behaviors across distributed teams.
Problem solving under pressure — support compliance during incidents or urgent audit requests while maintaining quality.
Teaching and facilitation — build and deliver training sessions to improve organizational compliance maturity.
Negotiation and contract review skills — work with procurement and legal to define enforceable security clauses in contracts.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Information Systems, Cybersecurity, Risk Management, or related field; or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree in Information Security, Cybersecurity, Information Assurance, or an MBA with risk/compliance focus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Cybersecurity
Information Technology
Computer Science
Risk Management
Law / Compliance / Privacy

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 4–8+ years in information security, IT risk, compliance, or audit roles; 2–4 years specifically managing compliance or GRC programs recommended.

Preferred:

Demonstrated experience owning SOC 2, ISO 27001 or similar certifications/attestations and managing external audits.
Prior experience in regulated industries (finance, healthcare, payments, government) and familiarity with relevant regulatory bodies.
Experience with cloud-native environments and SaaS product compliance.

Certifications (Preferred / Strongly Recommended)

CISSP, CISM, CISA, CRISC, or ISO 27001 Lead Implementer/Auditor
Certified in Data Privacy (CIPP, CIPT) or equivalent privacy certification a plus
Vendor risk, auditor, or GRC related certifications and formal training in control frameworks

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