How To Become A Compliance Vice President: What It Is and Career Path

What is a compliance vice president and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Compliance Vice Presidents are executives who direct the compliance department of the company. You are to set goals, provide strategic direction to the department, and ensure that all policies and guidelines are updated to reflect industry standards and rules set by governing bodies. As a compliance vice president, you must set compliance guidelines for the company. Furthermore, you need to ensure that the company complies with government standards to avoid losing its license to operate. You will also develop and deliver ethics, compliance training, and compliance communications, lead in-house compliance education efforts across the organization and manage security and anti-fraud training.

You need a bachelor's degree in business, finance, or marketing and about three to five years of experience to be considered for this position. You should have a good knowledge of legal requirements and procedures, excellent verbal and written communication, and analytical skills. Your salary per annum will be an average of $149,583.

ScoreCompliance Vice PresidentUS Average

Salary

7.7

Avg. Salary $103,164

Avg. Salary $59,228

Diversity

3.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.66%

Asian 8.80%

Black or African American 7.44%

Hispanic or Latino 12.46%

Unknown 4.68%

White 65.95%

Gender

female 43.88%

male 56.12%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress level

8.5

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.9

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a compliance vice president

Explore compliance vice president education requirements

Most common compliance vice president degrees

Bachelor's

67.5 %

Master's

13.3 %

Doctorate

11.7 %

Start to develop specific compliance vice president skills

Skills	Percentages
CMS	10.48%
Compliance Program	8.32%
Internal Audit	8.27%
Strategic Thinking	7.61%
Corrective Action	7.03%

Complete relevant compliance vice president training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New compliance vice presidents learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a compliance vice president based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real compliance vice president resumes.

Research compliance vice president duties and responsibilities

Lead the SOX compliance effort with assistance from one direct report.
Lead HIPAA investigation and response team as part of theft of laptop containing multiple clients' sensitive information.
Manage outside counsel regarding litigation, employment disputes, product liability, and prosecution and protection of intellectual property.
Manage successful litigation, arbitration and mediation proceedings, including commercial disputes, product liability, employment and intellectual property.

Get compliance vice president experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a compliance vice president. The most common roles before becoming a compliance vice president include assistant vice president, vice president team lead and compliance officer.

Prepare your compliance vice president resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your compliance vice president resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a compliance vice president resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable compliance vice president resume templates

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