Director of Compliance and Issues Management

Director Of Compliance And Issues Management

The Director of Compliance and Issues Management provides strategic leadership and oversight for California Coast Credit Union's compliance management system (CMS) and enterprise issues management framework. This role is responsible for ensuring the credit union maintains effective compliance governance, identifies, tracks, escalates, and remediates regulatory and operational issues, and adheres to credit union policy and all applicable federal and state laws. The Director leads the compliance team, partners with executives and business units to design and strengthen compliance controls, and oversees issue identification, reporting, remediation validation, and management reporting. The position plays a critical role in fostering a strong culture of compliance, accountability, and timely issue resolution across the organization.

The Compliance Director works independently and collaboratively under the direction of the AVP, Compliance & Legal, to manage compliance operations, prioritize department initiatives, and implement risk-based compliance strategies. The role requires advanced regulatory expertise, strong leadership capabilities, and sound judgment in escalating issues.

Leadership & oversight: Provides managerial oversight of compliance analysts, including workflow management, coaching, development, hiring, and performance evaluations.

CMS ownership: Oversees key pillars of the CMS including, but not limited to, regulatory change management, compliance testing and analysis, policies & procedures, monitoring, complaint management, issues management, training, and issue remediation.

Issues management governance: Owns the development and management of the credit union's enterprise issues management framework, including intake, risk rating, root cause analysis, remediation tracking, validation, escalation, and management reporting.

Cross-functional SME: Advises senior leadership and business units on compliance risk, regulatory policy and impacts, and control effectiveness.

Monitoring and reviews: Oversees risk-based compliance monitoring and targeted reviews across operational, lending, marketing, and member-facing functions.

Compliance support: Provides timely, accurate compliance guidance to internal partners through the compliance help desk and contributes to issue resolution and documentation.

Regulatory Interface: Supports AVP in interactions with auditors, regulators, and examiners; ensures the credit union remains exam-ready.

Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Law, or a related field required; a graduate degree in a related discipline is preferred. Minimum ten (10) years of financial-institution compliance experience, including leadership or supervisory roles; credit union experience preferred. Professional certifications such as CRCM (strongly preferred); CAMS, CIPP, CCBCO, or equivalent beneficial. Advanced knowledge of consumer compliance regulations, BSA/AML/OFAC, privacy, deposit operations, marketing, and lending regulations. Ability to recommend changes and revisions in a positive and constructive manner to employees at all levels of the credit union. Experience with a GRC framework; knowledge of the three lines of defense. Experience working with auditors, examiners, and regulatory agencies. Demonstrated experience designing, managing, or overseeing an issues management or remediation tracking framework within a regulated financial institution. Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to influence across all levels of the organization. Excellent analytical skills with the ability to translate regulatory requirements into operational practices. Comfort working with data, dashboards, and compliance management software (e.g., tracking tools, ticketing systems, Symitar data). High proficiency with Microsoft Office; Symitar experience preferred. Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously. Demonstrates sound judgment, independence, and appropriate regulatory-based escalation practices.

Ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulatory expectations. Maintain a strong CMS with defined controls, testing, reporting, and governance. Lead, coach, and develop compliance analysts. Provide timely, actionable compliance guidance to internal stakeholders. Mitigate regulatory and operational risk while supporting strategic initiatives.

AVP Compliance & Legal; BSA/AML Officer; Compliance Officer Chief Audit & Risk Officer Lending, Operations, Marketing, Digital, Branch Internal Audit Regulators (NCUA/DFPI, potential for future with CFPB)

Ability to tolerate periods of continuous sitting. Work is primarily performed within an office setting. Subject to standard background noise found in an office environment.

Salary Range $130,813.6560 - $163,517.0700