What does a compliance manager do?
Compliance managers are professionals who maintain the ethical and legal integrity of an organization. They establish and oversee control systems to deal with and prevent violations against internal policies and legal guidelines. It is their responsibility to assess the efficiency of controls and improve their continuity. They are professionals with exceptional analytical skills as they design control systems, execute regular audits, and enforce organizational policies. The skills necessary for this job include strong communication skills and knowledge of industry regulations and procedures.
Compliance manager responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real compliance manager resumes:
- Manage due diligence reviews in regard to FCPA.
- Manage CFPB audit on both servicing and originations units.
- Lead a team to assess and analyze Dodd-Frank CFTC swap regulations.
- Promote to manage system development teams charge with performing new product QA.
- Lead department review presentations on impact of new EU regulations effective Jan-2008.
- Set up a project PMO team, along with organizing awareness and remediation team leads across every area.
- Conduct annual audits on all register ISO relationships to maintain credit and compliance due diligence as well as PCI standards.
- Draft newsletters and PowerPoint presentations in connection with compliance policies and procedures.
- Investigate privacy and security incidents and ethics complaints and recommend corrective action plans mitigation efforts.
- Initiate and facilitate enterprise-wide learning management system (LMS) governance to maximize support and business value across business units.
- Provide trend analysis and generate relevant tools that enable compliance oversight, internal controls and prevention strategies, including compliance education.
- Ensure attainment of OMIG and OIG workplans.
- Direct infrastructure, desktop, and voice upgrades.
- Act as a SME to internal & external business partners.
- Budget, review capital expenditures, and review PCI project FTE applicants.
Compliance manager skills and personality traits
We calculated that 9% of Compliance Managers are proficient in Oversight, Ethics, and Risk Management.
We break down the percentage of Compliance Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Oversight, 9%
Performed monitoring and oversight for compliance with applicable regulatory, client-imposed and policy restrictions for the Bank's registered investment adviser.
- Ethics, 6%
Investigated privacy and security incidents and ethics complaints and recommended corrective action plans mitigation efforts.
- Risk Management, 6%
Identified individuals within the organization to participate in the fraud risk management workshop to assist with identifying risk scenarios.
- Compliance Program, 5%
Directed and executed SOX compliance program through continuous collaboration with business unit and external auditor leads as well as senior executives.
- Regulatory Compliance, 4%
Lead management during targeted regulatory compliance examinations
- Risk Assessments, 3%
Perform periodic compliance testing and risk assessments to evaluate effectiveness and determine areas of weakness in current procedures.
Most compliance managers use their skills in "oversight," "ethics," and "risk management" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential compliance manager responsibilities here:
The three companies that hire the most compliance managers are:
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Compare different compliance managers
Compliance manager vs. Bsa officer
Depending on the industry, there are a lot of functions you need to comply with if you want to become a manager of quality management and corporate compliance. Commonly seen in banks, manufacturing, processing, automotive, and textile companies, this job position is responsible for monitoring, implementing, and oversees the quality of a product. Also, they may be responsible for organizing workflows, writing reports, and supervising the overall tasks of every employee.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between compliance managers and bsa officer. For instance, compliance manager responsibilities require skills such as "oversight," "ethics," "risk management," and "customer service." Whereas a bsa officer is skilled in "aml," "secrecy," "sar," and "ctrs." This is part of what separates the two careers.
The education levels that bsa officers earn slightly differ from compliance managers. In particular, bsa officers are 3.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a compliance manager. Additionally, they're 2.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Compliance manager vs. Manager, quality management, corporate compliance
A company's head of ethics and compliance is in charge of implementing policies and regulations to ensure a safe and efficient work environment. They typically manage staff, set department goals and timelines, establish guidelines and protocols, and develop strategies to optimize operations. As the head of ethics and compliance, it is their responsibility to spearhead inspections to ensure company procedures comply with the government standards and regulations, investigate violations and workplace incidents, and implement solutions to resolve issues and concerns.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that compliance manager responsibilities requires skills like "oversight," "ethics," "risk management," and "risk assessments." But a manager, quality management, corporate compliance might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "continuous improvement," "quality compliance," "quality system," and "governance."
In general, managers, quality management, corporate compliance achieve higher levels of education than compliance managers. They're 10.1% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 2.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Compliance manager vs. Head of ethics and compliance
An Internal Audit Manager monitors and evaluates how well risks are being managed. They develop recommendations and reports based on audits and present solutions to senior management.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from compliance manager resumes include skills like "ethics," "risk assessments," "customer service," and "strong analytical," whereas a head of ethics and compliance is more likely to list skills in "compliance risk," "compliance functions," "operational risk," and "global head. "
Most heads of ethics and compliance achieve a higher degree level compared to compliance managers. For example, they're 12.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 8.8% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Compliance manager vs. Internal audit manager
Types of compliance manager
Updated January 8, 2025
