Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Regulatory Compliance Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Regulatory Compliance Manager is responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining a robust compliance program that ensures the organization meets all applicable laws, regulations, industry standards, and internal policies. This role leads day-to-day compliance operations, supports regulatory engagement, drives risk-based monitoring and remediation, delivers compliance training, and partners cross-functionally with Legal, Risk, Internal Audit, Operations, and business leaders to embed a compliance-first culture. The Regulatory Compliance Manager proactively analyzes regulatory change, manages compliance reporting and examinations, and creates pragmatic controls and processes to minimize legal, operational and reputational risk.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Compliance Analyst or Compliance Officer
Legal Counsel (with compliance focus) or Risk Analyst
Internal Auditor or Regulatory Affairs Specialist

Advancement To:

Director of Regulatory Compliance
Head of Compliance / Chief Compliance Officer (CCO)
Head of Regulatory Affairs or Head of Risk Management

Lateral Moves:

Operational Risk Manager
Data Privacy / GDPR Manager
AML/KYC Program Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Design, implement and maintain an enterprise-wide compliance program, policies and procedures that align with applicable federal, state, international regulations and industry standards (e.g., AML/CTF, GDPR/PDPL, HIPAA, SOX, MiFID II, FCA, SEC).
Serve as the primary operational lead for regulatory change management: monitor regulatory developments, assess impacts, draft regulatory gap analyses, and drive timely policy and process updates.
Lead regulatory filings, disclosures and reporting obligations; prepare and review documentation for regulatory submissions and routine compliance reporting to regulators.
Coordinate and manage examinations, inspections and audits by external regulators and internal audit teams; act as the principal point of contact during examinations and oversee timely remediation of findings.
Develop and execute a risk-based monitoring and testing program to measure program effectiveness, identify control weaknesses and recommend corrective actions with clear remediation plans and timelines.
Conduct risk assessments across products, services, geographies and third-party relationships to identify regulatory, legal and operational risk exposures and prioritize mitigation activities.
Draft, revise and maintain compliance policies, standard operating procedures (SOPs), control matrices and internal guidance to ensure consistent application of regulatory requirements across business units.
Lead the design and delivery of compliance training and awareness programs for employees and senior leaders, including role-based training, onboarding modules and post-remediation education.
Manage investigations into potential compliance breaches, coordinate root cause analyses, oversee remedial action plans, and produce regulatory-ready investigation reports.
Establish and maintain governance processes, including compliance committees, steering groups and escalation pathways, to ensure timely decision-making and executive visibility.
Oversee third-party/vendor due diligence and ongoing monitoring to verify regulatory adherence by partners and service providers; integrate contractual obligations and compliance KPIs into vendor management workflows.
Maintain, analyze and report key compliance metrics and dashboards (e.g., PII incidents, regulatory breaches, training completion, remediation status) to senior management and the board.
Collaborate with Legal and business stakeholders to review and negotiate contracts, product launches, and marketing materials for regulatory risk and compliance impact.
Implement and manage compliance technology and tooling (e.g., GRC platforms, case management, monitoring tools) to automate controls, streamline workflows and improve auditability.
Provide practical regulatory guidance and decision support to product, sales, marketing and operations teams during product design, market entry and process changes.
Champion data protection and privacy requirements in product and operational risk assessments, ensuring proper data flows, retention, consent and cross-border transfer controls.
Develop and maintain incident response plans for compliance events and regulatory breaches, including notification procedures and remediation governance.
Conduct periodic control self-assessments, coordinate internal attestations, and support external audit and certification efforts (e.g., ISO, SOC) where applicable.
Lead cross-functional projects to remediate systemic compliance issues, working with IT, HR, Finance and operations to implement sustainable process improvements.
Prepare clear, concise regulatory memoranda, board papers, compliance risk assessments and executive summaries tailored to non-technical audiences and regulators.
Ensure alignment and integration between compliance, enterprise risk management (ERM), anti-money laundering (AML), ethics, and internal audit activities to provide an integrated control environment.
Foster a culture of compliance by advising on ethical conduct, conflicts of interest, gift and hospitality policies, escalation of concerns and whistleblower processes.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Assist in remediation and process automation initiatives that reduce manual compliance effort and improve control effectiveness.
Provide subject-matter input to policy and product teams during regulatory impact assessments and new product approvals.
Support cross-border regulatory coordination and documentation for multi-jurisdictional compliance obligations.
Maintain a library of regulatory interpretations, precedents and enforcement actions to inform internal guidance and training materials.
Provide coaching and mentorship to junior compliance staff and analysts; assist with hiring and performance development.
Coordinate with public affairs or communications when regulatory issues have external stakeholder or media implications.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Regulatory compliance program design and implementation (AML, GDPR, SOX, HIPAA, Dodd‑Frank, MiFID II, PCI-DSS).
Regulatory change management and gap analysis methodology.
Risk assessment methodologies and control testing (RCSA, KRIs, control matrices).
Compliance monitoring, investigations and remediation lifecycle management.
Experience with Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) platforms (e.g., MetricStream, RSA Archer, ServiceNow GRC) and compliance case management tools.
Familiarity with regulatory reporting systems and preparation of regulatory filings and submissions.
Vendor/third-party due diligence and contract compliance oversight.
Knowledge of data privacy and protection frameworks (DSGVO/GDPR, CCPA) and privacy impact assessments.
Strong Excel, SQL and data-visualization literacy for compliance metrics and dashboards; ability to work with BI tools (Tableau, Power BI).
Basic understanding of IT controls and information security frameworks (ISO 27001, NIST, SOC 2).
Proven experience with internal and external audit processes, remediation tracking and certification readiness.
Policy writing, procedure drafting and preparation of executive-level compliance reports.

Soft Skills

Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving with the ability to translate regulatory complexity into pragmatic business controls.
Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to prepare regulatory-ready reports and present to senior leadership and regulators.
Influencing and stakeholder management skills to build partnerships across Legal, Risk, Operations and Product teams.
Detail-oriented with high standards for documentation, auditability and evidence retention.
Project management skills and ability to coordinate multiple remediation or regulatory change initiatives concurrently.
Ethical judgment, integrity and the ability to handle confidential or sensitive information appropriately.
Resilience and adaptability in fast-changing regulatory environments and during regulatory exams or incidents.
Coaching and team leadership, with experience developing junior compliance professionals.
Customer-focused mindset to balance regulatory obligations with business operational needs.
Strategic mindset to anticipate future regulatory trends and embed preventive controls.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Law, Finance, Business Administration, Risk Management, Accounting, Information Security, or related field.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree (e.g., LLM, MSc in Risk Management, MBA) or advanced certifications (CAMS, CRCM, CCEP, CISSP, CIPM, FRM).

Relevant Fields of Study:

Law / Regulatory Affairs
Finance / Accounting
Risk Management / Governance
Information Security / Data Privacy
Business Administration / Compliance

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 5–12 years of progressive compliance, regulatory, legal or risk experience, with at least 2–4 years in a compliance management or supervisory role.

Preferred:

Experience managing enterprise compliance programs in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, fintech, energy).
Hands‑on experience interacting with regulators and leading regulatory exams.
Proven track record of designing risk-based monitoring programs, leading remediation projects and implementing GRC tooling.