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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Compliance Consultant

💰 $80,000 - $140,000

ComplianceRiskConsultingLegal

🎯 Role Definition

The Compliance Consultant is an experienced subject-matter expert who partners with business leaders, risk and legal teams to design, implement, and sustain effective compliance programs. The role requires day-to-day ownership of regulatory monitoring, policy and control development, investigations, remediation tracking, and regulator engagement. The ideal candidate combines technical knowledge of compliance frameworks and transaction monitoring tools with pragmatic program management and strong stakeholder influence skills.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Compliance Analyst or Compliance Officer (2–4 years experience)
  • Risk Analyst / Operational Risk Specialist
  • Regulatory or Corporate Counsel (junior/mid level)

Advancement To:

  • Senior Compliance Consultant
  • Compliance Manager / Head of Compliance
  • Director of Risk & Compliance or Chief Compliance Officer (CCO)

Lateral Moves:

  • Internal Audit (Senior Internal Auditor)
  • Third-Party Risk / Vendor Risk Management
  • Financial Crime Investigator or Regulatory Affairs

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead the development, implementation and continuous improvement of enterprise-wide compliance programs, including policies, procedures and standards to ensure alignment with applicable laws, regulations (e.g., AML, KYC, OFAC, GDPR, SOX) and industry best practices.
  • Conduct comprehensive compliance risk assessments across business lines and product portfolios, identify regulatory gaps, prioritize remediation efforts and create risk treatment plans that are practical and auditable.
  • Design, configure and test transaction monitoring rules and alerts in AML/CTF systems (e.g., Actimize, NICE, SAS) and tune scenarios to reduce false positives while maintaining detection coverage.
  • Perform enhanced due diligence (EDD) and conduct complex KYC reviews for high-risk clients, PEPs and cross-border relationships, documenting findings and escalation paths in accordance with internal policies and regulatory guidance.
  • Lead investigations into potential compliance breaches or suspicious activity reports (SARs), prepare investigation packages, recommend dispositions and coordinate SAR/STR filings with the appropriate regulatory authorities.
  • Develop and deliver role-based compliance training and awareness programs for front-line staff, relationship managers and senior management to embed a risk-aware culture and reduce conduct and regulatory risk.
  • Execute compliance testing and control assessments (including SOX controls where applicable), document evidence, prepare testing reports and work with control owners to remediate findings and track completion.
  • Advise on product launches, business change projects and strategic initiatives to ensure new products, services and vendor relationships comply with regulatory, licensing and contractual obligations.
  • Implement and manage sanctions screening and watchlist processes, ensuring Ongoing Screening is performed and potential matches are investigated and either escalated or cleared in compliance with sanctions requirements.
  • Prepare, review and submit regulatory filings and periodic reports; manage responses to regulatory inquiries, information requests and onsite examinations in coordination with Legal and Senior Management.
  • Maintain and update a comprehensive compliance obligations register, mapping laws and regulations to policies, controls and monitoring activities and ensuring timely updates for regulatory changes.
  • Design governance structures and reporting (compliance dashboards, KPI/metrics) to provide senior management and the board with clear visibility into compliance posture, trends, remediation status and emerging regulatory risks.
  • Lead remediation programs for identified compliance gaps, coordinate cross-functional remediation owners, define corrective action plans (CAPs) and validate closure of remediation activities.
  • Conduct third-party and vendor risk assessments for critical outsourced services, including compliance due diligence, contract review for regulatory clauses and ongoing monitoring of third-party performance.
  • Coach and mentor junior compliance staff, provide supervisory oversight for case workflows and ensure quality control of investigations, monitoring results and policy interpretations.
  • Support mergers, acquisitions and integration activities by performing regulatory due diligence, assessing legacy compliance programs and recommending remediation and harmonization strategies.
  • Draft, review and maintain compliance policies, procedures, standards and guidance notes, ensuring clarity, applicability and accessibility to business users while maintaining version control and training materials.
  • Collaborate with IT, data analytics and business teams to define compliance data requirements, improve data quality and implement analytics-driven monitoring and automated controls.
  • Assess the effectiveness of internal controls and recommend improvements to strengthen control environments, reduce regulatory risk and enhance operational resilience.
  • Provide subject matter expertise on privacy and data protection (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), advising on lawful bases for processing, data subject requests, cross-border transfers and data retention practices.
  • Monitor evolving regulatory developments, industry guidance and enforcement trends and proactively advise senior leadership on policy updates, program changes and potential business impacts.
  • Prepare clear and compelling executive-level briefings and written reports for compliance committees, risk committees and the board, translating complex regulatory topics into actionable business recommendations.

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.
  • Facilitate cross-functional workshops to align legal, risk, operations and IT on compliance implementations.
  • Assist with maintaining the compliance training calendar, LMS content and compliance certification tracking.
  • Participate in tabletop exercises and business continuity planning to validate compliance continuity and incident response playbooks.
  • Assist in developing remediation playbooks and templates to standardize response for common control deficiencies.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep knowledge of regulatory regimes such as AML/CTF, KYC, OFAC/sanctions, GDPR/Privacy, SOX, PCI-DSS, FATCA and other industry-specific regulations.
  • Practical experience with transaction monitoring and case management platforms (e.g., NICE Actimize, SAS AML, Fiserv, Verint, Mantas).
  • Hands-on experience performing KYC/EDD reviews, sanctions screening, SAR/STR filing and regulatory reporting workflows.
  • Strong control testing and internal audit experience, including test design, sampling, documentation, findings remediation and test sign-off.
  • Proficiency with GRC tools (e.g., MetricStream, RSA Archer, ServiceNow GRC) to manage policies, assessments, testing and issue tracking.
  • Familiarity with data analysis and SQL for querying transactional datasets and monitoring results; ability to use Excel at an advanced level (pivot tables, VLOOKUP, macros).
  • Experience working with privacy frameworks and data protection tools, including DPIAs and privacy impact assessments.
  • Knowledge of risk frameworks such as COSO, ISO 31000 and ISO 27001 for integrating compliance into enterprise risk management.
  • Ability to interpret complex regulations and translate them into operational policies, controls and testable procedures.
  • Experience with regulatory engagement, including preparing responses for supervisory exams, drafting remediation plans and managing follow-up requests.
  • Working knowledge of scripting or analytics tools (Python, R, Power BI / Tableau) is a plus for automation and dashboarding.
  • Contract review skills with a focus on regulatory clauses, service level agreements and vendor compliance obligations.

Soft Skills

  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills with ability to draft clear policies, executive briefings and regulatory responses.
  • Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills; able to work with senior leaders, legal, operations and technology partners.
  • Exceptional analytical thinking and investigation skills; able to synthesize large datasets into concise conclusions and recommendations.
  • High ethical standards and professional integrity when handling sensitive information and regulatory matters.
  • Project management capabilities to lead remediation programs, policy rollouts and compliance implementations on time and on budget.
  • Adaptability and resilience in fast-changing regulatory environments and during regulatory examinations.
  • Detail-oriented mindset with the ability to maintain documentation and evidence for audit trails and regulator review.
  • Collaborative team player with mentoring aptitude to develop junior compliance talent.
  • Critical thinking and problem-solving orientation; pragmatic approach to balancing risk and business objectives.
  • Customer-focused mindset to support business objectives while maintaining compliance boundaries.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Law, Finance, Business, Accounting, Economics, Information Systems or a related discipline.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Law, Business Administration (MBA), Finance, or a related field.
  • Professional certifications such as CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist), CCEP (Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional), CRCM, CISA, CPA or CISSP for privacy/security-focused roles.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Law
  • Finance / Economics
  • Business Administration
  • Accounting
  • Information Systems / Cybersecurity
  • Risk Management / Public Policy

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3–8 years in compliance, financial crime, regulatory affairs, or related roles within regulated industries (banking, fintech, insurance, asset management).

Preferred: 5+ years of hands-on compliance program experience including AML/KYC operations, sanctions screening, regulatory reporting and audit/testing experience; prior consulting or advisory experience preferred for client-facing roles.

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