How to hire a chief risk officer

How to hire a chief risk officer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step chief risk officer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a chief risk officer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new chief risk officer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a chief risk officer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the chief risk officer you need to hire. Certain chief risk officer roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect chief risk officer also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   The following list breaks down different types of chief risk officers and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Chief Risk Officer	Description	Hourly rate
   Chief Risk Officer	Financial managers are responsible for the financial health of an organization. They produce financial reports, direct investment activities, and develop strategies and plans for the long-term financial goals of their organization.	$34-90
   Manager Finance Planning And Analysis	A manager finance planning and analysis oversees the daily operations of a company's financial planning department. They typically have administrative duties such as setting goals and guidelines, establishing timelines and budgets, delegating tasks among teams and staff, and reviewing financial reports regularly... Show more	$36-71
   Accounts Payable Manager	An accounts payable manager is in charge of supervising a company's financial activities, particularly in all payable matters. Their primary responsibilities revolve around managing and assessing staff performances and overseeing check and payroll disbursements... Show more	$24-45

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Oversight
   • Risk Assessments
   • Operational Risk
   • Human Resources
   • Audit Findings
   • Risk Management Framework
   • Credit Risk
   • Customer Complaints
   • Litigation
   • Enterprise Risk Management
   • Internal Audit
   • Regulatory Compliance
   • CRO
   • Risk Appetite

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage investigation and reporting of occurrences to applicable regulatory agencies when indicate and facilitate disclosure to patients and families.
   • Develop the tools and process for aggregation of product level results to the entity level for all ERM risk modeling projects.
   • Analyze and develop treasury management reports.
   • Provide oversight for regulatory and compliance directives.
   • Provide oversight of product approval and development processes.
   • Specialize in SAS data mining software and analytic intelligence platform.

   More chief risk officer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your chief risk officer job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A chief risk officer can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, chief risk officers' average salary in hawaii is 61% less than in new hampshire.
   • Seniority. Entry-level chief risk officers 62% less than senior-level chief risk officers.
   • Certifications. A chief risk officer with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a chief risk officer's salary.

   Average chief risk officer salary

   $117,089yearly

   $56.29 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level chief risk officer salary

   $72,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 23, 2026

   Average chief risk officer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$149,433	$72
   2	New Jersey	$147,207	$71
   3	New York	$137,792	$66
   4	Massachusetts	$134,685	$65
   5	District of Columbia	$129,334	$62
   6	Arizona	$127,233	$61
   7	Utah	$127,218	$61
   8	Delaware	$127,025	$61
   9	Connecticut	$116,760	$56
   10	Florida	$115,683	$56
   11	Oregon	$115,640	$56
   12	Ohio	$115,546	$56
   13	North Carolina	$113,055	$54
   14	Washington	$108,811	$52
   15	Colorado	$107,586	$52
   16	Georgia	$103,743	$50
   17	Tennessee	$101,577	$49
   18	Illinois	$101,464	$49
   19	Texas	$101,414	$49
   20	Missouri	$100,238	$48

   Average chief risk officer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	McKinsey & Company Inc	$156,020	$75.01	2
   2	Federal Reserve	$153,073	$73.59
   3	Safra National Bank of New York	$144,916	$69.67
   4	MUFG EMEA	$134,158	$64.50
   5	Federal Reserve Bank	$133,568	$64.22	7
   6	Heritage Financial Group	$132,981	$63.93	6
   7	SWBehavioral&Health	$130,222	$62.61
   8	Deutsche Bank	$129,334	$62.18	36
   9	Atlantic Capital Bank	$127,735	$61.41	5
   10	Fora Financial	$126,977	$61.05
   11	Silicon Valley Bank	$125,878	$60.52
   12	Texas Capital Bank	$125,733	$60.45	13
   13	Citi	$125,731	$60.45	40
   14	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$125,373	$60.28	195
   15	Bank of the West	$125,348	$60.26
   16	Advisors Asset Management	$125,178	$60.18
   17	Santander Bank	$122,407	$58.85	7
   18	Bank of the Ozarks	$122,232	$58.77	1
   19	Booz Allen Hamilton	$122,011	$58.66	29
   20	Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria	$120,657	$58.01	1

4. Writing a chief risk officer job description

   A chief risk officer job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a chief risk officer job description:

   Chief risk officer job description example

   Treliant is a global consulting firm serving banks, mortgage originators and servicers, FinTechs, and other companies providing financial services. We are led by practitioners from the industry and the regulatory community who bring deep domain knowledge to help our clients drive business change and address the most pressing compliance, regulatory, and operational challenges.
   
   We provide data-driven, technology-enabled advisory, implementation, and staffing solutions to the regulatory compliance, risk, financial crimes, and capital markets functions of our clients.
   
   Founded in 2005, Treliant is headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in New York, London, Belfast, Northern Ireland and Łódź, Poland. For more information visit www.treliant.com.
   
   Treliant is seeking a Capital Markets Fraud Risk Management Officer based in either New York or London who will be dedicated to one of our banking clients and be responsible for proactively managing fraud risk and ensuring our client's Capital Markets business is in compliance with its broader Fraud Risk Policy & Standards. This role will act as the Fraud Risk Management Officer for the bank's Capital Markets Business as required under the its Fraud Risk Policy.
   
   The role will combine expertise in fraud practices, mitigating controls, and assurance with a knowledge of Capital Markets to ensure timely risk identification, ongoing control assessment, and associated remediations across Capital Markets are carried out with the highest levels of discipline and in line with standards set and overseen by the bank's Fraud Policy framework.
   Responsibilities Execute on Fraud risk management routines outlined under the framework for the bank's Capital Markets business, i.e. high-quality fraud program, FRMP / FRMS assessments, strategic plans to enhance controls, ongoing monitoring of risk through the use of metrics, and ensuring fraud assessments for new activity and any material outsourcing Represent Capital Markets in the business's Fraud Risk Oversight Committee and all other governance committees and forums as required Escalate any matters of concern relating to fraud risk to senior management and 2 nd line partners in a timely manner Coordinate and execute elements of the bank's Operational Risk Management (ORM) framework as relates to fraud risk, including risk appetite definition and monitoring, KOR, scenario analysis, and lesson learned reviews Work with Operational Risk, Business, and fellow Risk & Control colleagues to collate and report on open issues from all sources owned by and impacting fraud risk management across Capital Markets Develop tools and analyses to proactively identify areas of emerging fraud risk Challenge issue owners to deliver actions as efficiently and effectively as possible Qualifications Detailed expertise in fraud risk management practices, controls and risks Excellent oral and written communications skills; must be articulate and persuasive with the judgement and authority to provide insightful commentary to senior stakeholders Ability to drive change to business practices by working effectively across a global organisation Self-starting with the ability to multitask and prioritize Project management and change capabilities are essential Capable of prioritizing and multi-tasking in a dynamic, fast paced environment Ability to analyse a process and recommend ways to improve quality, controls, and efficiency Benefits Treliant offers a comprehensive, total rewards package that includes competitive compensation and a flexible benefit package that reflects our commitment to creating a diverse and supportive workplace. In addition to a competitive base salary, candidate is eligible for incentive pay as well as a full range of health, vacation, and retirement benefits.
   
   If you want to be part of a dynamic team of professionals, we invite you to join the team at Treliant. We invest in people, and challenge you to advance your career while achieving your aspirations and goals. Here at Treliant, we pride ourselves on our collaborative team culture, where we embrace diversity of thought and innovation. If you strive for excellence and seek an inclusive environment apply on line www.treliant.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right chief risk officer for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with chief risk officers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit chief risk officers who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your chief risk officer job on Zippia to find and recruit chief risk officer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit chief risk officers, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new chief risk officer

   Once you've found the chief risk officer candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new chief risk officer first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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