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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for IT Compliance Analyst

💰 $ - $

Information SecurityIT ComplianceGovernanceRisk & Compliance

🎯 Role Definition

The IT Compliance Analyst is responsible for ensuring that the organization's IT systems, processes, and vendors comply with applicable laws, standards, and internal policies. This role leads risk assessments, control testing, audit readiness, and remediation tracking across frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA and GDPR. The IT Compliance Analyst partners with security operations, engineering, legal, privacy, procurement, and business stakeholders to translate regulatory requirements into practical controls and measurable compliance outcomes.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior IT Auditor / IT Audit Associate
  • Security Operations Analyst / SOC Analyst
  • IT Risk or Governance Coordinator

Advancement To:

  • IT Compliance Manager / GRC Manager
  • Senior Risk & Compliance Analyst
  • Director of IT Compliance or Head of GRC
  • Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) or Head of Security Risk

Lateral Moves:

  • Privacy Analyst / Data Protection Officer (DPO) Support
  • Vendor Risk / Third-Party Risk Analyst
  • IT Risk Analyst / Business Continuity Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead and execute IT compliance programs that assess adherence to regulatory requirements, industry standards (e.g., ISO 27001, NIST SP 800-53/800-37, SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA) and internal security policies; develop roadmaps to close gaps and reduce compliance risk.
  • Plan, design and perform regular IT control testing and evidence collection across technical and process controls (access management, change control, logging/monitoring, backup/recovery, encryption) to support internal and external audits.
  • Conduct comprehensive IT risk assessments and third‑party/vendor risk assessments to identify, analyze and prioritize information security risks; recommend and track remediation actions with business and IT owners.
  • Build, maintain and improve information security policies, standards, procedures, and control frameworks; ensure policies remain aligned with regulatory changes and business initiatives.
  • Prepare and coordinate responses for external audits and certification efforts (SOC 2, ISO 27001 certification audits, PCI ASV/QSA assessments), including creating audit evidence packages and managing auditor queries.
  • Manage and track remediation plans, including assigning owners, establishing timelines, and reporting remediation status to senior management and audit committees using GRC tools and dashboards.
  • Develop, maintain and deliver compliance reporting and KPI dashboards (control coverage, remediation aging, risk posture, audit findings) to stakeholders and executive leadership.
  • Collaborate with IT, engineering, cloud, and DevOps teams to embed compliance requirements into system and application lifecycles (secure design, change management, secure SDLC, infrastructure as code).
  • Evaluate cloud security and compliance posture for AWS, Azure, and GCP environments; review cloud configuration, identity and access management, logging, and monitoring against best practices and compliance controls.
  • Support Identity & Access Management (IAM) compliance activities: perform privileged access reviews, periodic access recertifications, segregation of duties reviews, and access policy validation.
  • Coordinate vulnerability and patch management compliance activities by integrating vulnerability scan results into risk and remediation workflows; verify corrective actions and exception handling.
  • Maintain and administer GRC tools (e.g., RSA Archer, ServiceNow GRC, OneTrust, MetricStream) to automate control mapping, evidence collection, risk scoring, and audit workflows.
  • Advise on privacy and data protection controls to ensure alignment with GDPR, CCPA and data residency requirements; assist with data classification and protection strategies.
  • Lead cross‑functional remediation projects with project management discipline to ensure compliance milestones are met and dependencies are addressed.
  • Conduct training and awareness sessions for IT and business teams on compliance policies, control responsibilities, evidence requirements, and audit readiness.
  • Support incident response and post-incident compliance activities by evaluating whether incidents impacted compliance scope, documenting findings, and ensuring corrective action items are implemented.
  • Review and influence vendor contracting and procurement processes to include security and compliance clauses; perform due diligence and monitor third-party control evidence (attestations, SOC reports).
  • Develop and maintain control matrices and mappings between regulatory frameworks, internal policies, and technical controls to simplify audit scoping and evidence collection.
  • Maintain current knowledge of regulatory and standards changes, emerging cyber threats, and industry compliance trends; propose necessary updates to the compliance program.
  • Facilitate cross-team workshops (risk identification, control design, tabletop exercises) to improve organizational readiness for audits and regulatory inquiries.
  • Support compliance budgeting and resource planning by documenting program needs, tool licensing, and remediation investments required to reduce high-risk findings.
  • Perform ad-hoc compliance research and analysis to support new product launches, M&A activities, or major architectural changes requiring compliance assessment and controls design.

Secondary Functions

  • Assist with the implementation and optimization of GRC platforms and automation of evidence collection workflows to reduce manual effort and improve audit readiness.
  • Provide subject-matter support for compliance-related procurement and RFP evaluations, ensuring vendor security controls meet contractual obligations.
  • Help develop templates and automated checklists for control owners to standardize evidence submissions and simplify audit preparation.
  • Contribute to cross-functional compliance projects such as cloud migrations, SaaS onboarding, and identity consolidation to ensure controls are designed and validated up front.
  • Create and maintain knowledge base articles, runbooks, and training collateral for control owners and IT teams to drive consistent compliance practices.
  • Participate in post‑audit lessons learned and continuous improvement initiatives to tighten control design and reduce repeat findings.
  • Support security awareness campaigns focused on compliance topics (data handling, privileged access, secure configuration) to drive organization-wide behavior change.
  • Execute periodic health checks on compliance program effectiveness, including gap analysis and maturity assessments, and recommend prioritized improvements.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Strong knowledge of GRC frameworks and standards: ISO 27001, NIST CSF/SP, CIS Controls, COBIT and how to apply them across IT environments.
  • Hands-on experience supporting SOC 2 Type I/II, PCI DSS and HIPAA assessments, including evidence collection and remediation coordination.
  • Practical experience with vulnerability management tools and integrating scan results into risk workflows (Tenable, Qualys, Rapid7).
  • Familiarity with cloud security and compliance controls for AWS, Azure, and GCP (CIS Benchmarks, CloudTrail, Azure AD, Security Hub).
  • Proficiency with Identity & Access Management (IAM) concepts, privileged access management, role-based access controls and access recertification processes.
  • Experience with GRC and audit management platforms (RSA Archer, ServiceNow GRC, MetricStream, OneTrust) and building control libraries and dashboards.
  • Ability to perform technical control testing (logging configuration, encryption, backup verification, change control evidence) and document test procedures and results.
  • Knowledge of regulatory requirements for data protection and privacy (GDPR, CCPA), including data classification, DPIAs, and consent mechanisms.
  • Strong Excel, SQL or scripting (Python/PowerShell) skills for data extraction, evidence validation, and compliance reporting automation.
  • Familiarity with SIEM, logging, and monitoring tools (Splunk, Elastic, Microsoft Sentinel) to validate logging/monitoring controls and incident detection effectiveness.
  • Experience reviewing and interpreting SOC reports (Type I/II) and extracting relevant gaps and compensating controls for vendor risk assessments.
  • Understanding of secure software development lifecycle (Secure SDLC) practices and integration of compliance checkpoints into CI/CD pipelines.

Soft Skills

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills for drafting policies, audit responses, executive reports and communicating complex technical findings to non-technical audiences.
  • Strong stakeholder management with the ability to influence engineering, product and business leaders to implement controls and remediation actions.
  • High attention to detail and strong organizational skills to manage multiple audits, control testing cycles and remediation plans concurrently.
  • Analytical and problem-solving mindset with the ability to translate business processes into testable controls and measurable outcomes.
  • Project management skills: planning, coordinating cross-functional workstreams, tracking milestones and driving issues to closure.
  • Ethical judgment and integrity when handling sensitive security and privacy data and audit materials.
  • Ability to teach and coach control owners on compliance responsibilities and evidence collection best practices.
  • Resilience and adaptability in fast-paced environments with shifting regulatory priorities and technology changes.
  • Critical thinking and risk-based decision making to prioritize remediation based on business impact and residual risk.
  • Collaborative team player who can work with legal, privacy, security operations, procurement and engineering teams.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Cybersecurity, Risk Management, Business Administration or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Cybersecurity, Information Systems, Risk Management, or MBA with significant IT security coursework.
  • Professional certifications such as CISA, CISSP, CISM, CRISC, ISO 27001 Lead Implementer/Auditor, or Certified PCI Professional.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Cybersecurity / Information Security
  • Information Technology / Computer Science
  • Risk Management / Governance, Risk & Compliance
  • Information Systems / Business Administration

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–5 years of direct IT compliance, IT audit, GRC, or security operations experience for mid-level analyst roles; 0–2 years for entry-level roles.

Preferred:

  • 3+ years supporting compliance programs, audits or risk assessments in enterprise IT environments.
  • Proven track record supporting SOC 2, ISO 27001 or PCI DSS assessments and managing remediation activities.
  • Experience working with cloud platforms and SaaS vendor assessments, plus hands-on use of GRC and security tooling.
  • Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with engineering, IT operations, legal, procurement and business process owners to implement compliance controls and evidence collection processes.
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