Compliance Specialist Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Are you searching for a compliance specialist job description? Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a compliance specialist. Feel free to use our compliance specialist job description template to produce your own compliance specialist job description. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a compliance specialist.
Who is a Compliance Specialist?
A compliance specialist is someone who makes sure a company complies with all applicable rules and regulations.
In conformity with corporate, state, and federal regulations, compliance specialists, often referred to as compliance officers ensure that firms adhere to all regulatory and licensing obligations. These experts create, put into effect, and enforce rules and regulations that keep a business’s goods, operations, and physical locations working morally and legally.
Their responsibilities may differ depending on their work sectors, like healthcare or banking. Examining their company’s business operations to ensure they adhere to specific requirements, resolving compliance issues that may emerge, and staying current with regulatory changes are just a few of the tasks they must complete.
These experts are responsible for conducting audits or investigations, suggesting areas for improvement, and creating action plans for repair if there are suspected compliance violations. A third-party auditor could be necessary for specific circumstances. Compliance specialists act as the inspectors’ points of contact with the company to get the company’s records and assess the scope of any proposed audits. They are in charge of implementing corrective action to ensure they uphold future compliance, whether they create their remediation plan or get a recommendation from a third party.
The job of these specialists is essential to any successful corporate operation, whether it hires a compliance specialist to create a compliance program from scratch or improve an already-existing approach.
Compliance specialists have a responsibility to their employers to identify and manage regulatory risk in collaboration with management and staff. Their goal is to ensure that a company has internal controls that are effective at measuring and controlling the risks it encounters. Compliance specialists offer an internal service that successfully assists business units in their responsibility to abide by pertinent laws, regulations, and company policies. Usually, but not always, the company’s general counsel serves as the compliance officer.
Compliance specialists should be well-versed in the organization and aware of potential regulatory violations. They must convey the organization’s core ethical values and compliance requirements. It is especially crucial in a regulatory environment where change is rapid. The compliance specialist must collaborate with management and business units to ensure that proper contingency plans are in place that shows how to react in the event of a potential compliance violation.
The compliance specialist must put the right disciplinary actions after a regulatory violation to prevent a repeat offense. The responsibility is to ensure compliance procedures are monitored and reviewed to find potential areas for improvement.
Compliance specialists offer a neutral assessment of corporate rules. Influence by other employees, including management and executives, to overlook infractions may result in significant fines or sanctions that may lead to financial loss or even business closure. Larger companies typically have a chief compliance officer (CCO) to direct compliance-related activities.
A compliance specialist must possess high ethical standards and honesty, as this individual is responsible for ensuring a company adheres to required regulations.
Compliance officers continually review the work of others, so they must have polished people skills and work well with colleagues. They must provide a decent example for their employees by being dependable and demonstrating commitment and unity about the rules and processes of the organization. Additionally, compliance specialists need to pay close attention to detail. They must be able to recognize behaviors that could expose them to risk.
The positions differ according to the industry, as one might anticipate.
They work full-time jobs dealing with regulatory matters. In some organizations, they occasionally take on the position of consultants. They do have an impact on a lot of big corporations.
Compliance Specialist Job Description
What is a compliance specialist job description? A compliance specialist job description is simply a list of duties and responsibilities of a compliance specialist in an organization. Below are the compliance specialist job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a compliance specialist job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The duties and responsibilities of a compliance specialist include the following:
- Aid in compiling internal data in response to regulatory inquiries and carrying out general administrative tasks.
- Contribute to the organization’s strong and efficient compliance procedures by reviewing marketing materials, presentations, and websites to check for regulatory compliance.
- Conduct risk assessments to understand risk degree, relevance, and breadth.
- Keep abreast on and comprehend pertinent laws and regulations.
- Ensure to document your observations and follow up with management to fix problems.
- Educate employees about the rules and how breaking them would affect the organization.
- Examine inconsistencies and instances of noncompliance.
- Inform business departments of the performance of current risk and compliance measures.
- Observe adherence to laws, rules, and internal directives
- Organize voluntarily accepted professional standards-related best practices
- Point out or emphasize any issues of concern
- Work with other divisions to develop a compliance-oriented culture.
Qualifications
- High school certificate
- An associate’s or bachelor’s degree in business administration, accounting, finance, or a related discipline
- A Master’s degree is an advantage in this career
- Internship to boost your resume and gain experience
- Certificates (optional but recommended)
Essential Skills
- Attention to details
Compliance Specialists can undertake risk assessments and examine procedures to ensure they are running at standard by paying attention to detail when it comes to compliance. Companies may secure the best working conditions for their employees by identifying possible risk areas and resolving them early. Audits can highlight areas of underperformance and assist businesses in preserving their reputations in their respective markets.
Soft talents such as intellectual curiosity and attention to detail are crucial in the position of a compliance specialist. A business could suffer a catastrophic loss of reputation and a colossal fine due to one tiny mistake.
- Business/IT Knowledge
Having up-to-date knowledge of business and IT is relevant in the career. A new breed of compliance specialists that are digitally literate, analytical, and proactive is urgently needed to provide insights and address the problems of the information age.
A compliance specialist must possess shrewd business acumen, which includes adaptation to various audit contexts and flexibility towards unforced regulatory errors. The mix of accounting and technological expertise defines the work of an auditor, and IT knowledge is quite crucial in this regard. It is important to be proficient with fundamental IT tools and to note compliance-related technologies.
- Communication
Another crucial skill related to compliance is communication. Compliance specialists use this skill to inform others of the steps they can take to follow internal and external policies and procedures. They can ensure the legitimacy of their firms by conveying significant updates, informing management of any infractions or issues, and implementing formulas designed to enhance operations.
- Conflict resolution
A compliance specialist will eventually need to know how to handle disagreements in their profession. Similar to how some in the cryptocurrency world feel that regulation stifles innovation, convincing a company to change how it operates to comply with regulations.
A compliance specialist must be able to articulate and support their position.
Regulators can be challenging to work with, so they must exhibit a degree of resilience and confidence when they face challenging circumstances.
- Creativity
A compliance specialist needs to be imaginative. They should be able to recognize the business’s compliance concerns and regulatory controls. Finding links between seemingly unconnected risk analysis, management, and decision-making processes requires creativity. A compliance specialist should be creative and innovative to integrate current business operations with compliance/audit inspections and reports.
- Critical Analysis
As a compliance specialist, you will be in charge of deciphering data and rendering judgments that could significantly affect a company’s operations. To address problems daily, you must be able to reason rationally and analytically.
Professionals in compliance can assess circumstances to determine their feasibility and degree of conformity to rules and policies with the aid of critical thinking skills. They use this skill to analyze risk potential by considering events rationally. This skill may make professionals find it easier to be impartial, which may affect their capacity to make morally and logically sound decisions.
- Integrity
Many compliance initiatives aim to keep companies’ practices ethical and their business processes fair. Compliance specialists execute the functions of their positions reliably due to high integrity. Their moral character can influence their ability to alert others to compliance violations and to remain committed to operating at the highest possible standards in their work.
The final essential soft skill a great compliance specialist must have is integrity. Imagine finding a professional who wants to enforce rules within a company when they are prone to cutting corners and bending the rules.
Integrity may seem obvious, but it is a soft skill many companies forget to assess. There is no replacement when it comes to quality and precision. So, a compliance specialist should have strong moral principles and an honest desire to do a good job.
- Understanding of security and vulnerability
Only if the compliance specialist is aware of the security policies related to the specific audit will an audit or compliance process proceed according to the plan. The auditor should be ready to outline preventative actions or remedial activities based on the report’s stage after identifying potential weaknesses in the process. Compliance specialists should be well-versed in security standards, including ISO standards, interception laws, control, and abuse rules, monitoring and evaluation methods, and review and performance reporting requirements.
Compliance specialists are to handle compliance initiatives and produce audit results. The compliance officer must effectively adhere to the skills described above to meet the overall goal of creating a flawless compliance procedure. The compliance specialist must adhere to the overarching guidelines for each skill set to perform qualified tasks and obligations.
- Leadership
Being a successful compliance specialist frequently entails working with management to identify new business opportunities while upholding standards for legal or commercial requirements.
Another crucial trait for compliance specialists is organization. These abilities can assist them in keeping track of new mandates, carrying out the repercussions of risk audits, and promptly informing others of policy updates. Compliance specialists aid the organizations they work for in meeting regulations by maintaining organization in their processes.
- People skills
For any auditor, reading people well and having a presence of mind are critical compliance abilities. A compliance specialist can gain his clients’ trust and credibility by building relationships. A healthy workplace requires compliance supervisors, who have to be non-confrontational and non-aggressive. By comprehending the circumstances of businesses, regulating responses to mistakes, effectively contacting, and empathetically addressing issues, compliance and regulation rules and principles to the fullest extent possible. Relationship building among clients and companies can help earn mutual trust. For auditors, these qualities include respect, credibility, and fruitful contacts.
- Problem-solving
A compliance specialist should be able to understand data before addressing a regulatory scenario, which requires excellent problem-solving soft skills.
Compliance specialists can develop risk management plans with the use of problem-solving abilities. If they spot possible red flags, they can utilize their knowledge to create new rules and regulations to reduce risk. They might include more requirements in audits, spread new guidelines, or remove non-compliant elements of the organization’s activities.
Regulation is a minefield. The regulatory policies keep getting changed by advisory groups, governments, and financial institutions.
A great compliance specialist handles ambiguous situations and interprets facts. They can then apply this information to analyze a situation from all perspectives and offer advice on the best course of action. There are many complexities and inconsistencies in the regulatory environment, so problem-solvers of a certain kind are needed. They should decide on the ideal result and work towards it. The risk of a regulatory probe will never exist for someone with this expertise.
Research regulations are intricate and dynamic. It is critical to have strong research abilities to identify trustworthy sources, gather data, and provide prompt and correct responses to stakeholder questions.
- Prioritization
Compliance specialists may have to deal with conflicting compliance objectives, from a minor pre-sale contract that needs to be reviewed to a compliance requirement that might cost a business thousand of dollars. A compliance expert must choose which issues to address first after effectively identifying company requirements and hazards. To make wise business judgments, they rely on great time management and prioritization abilities.
- Risk evaluation
A valuable soft skill needed in many businesses is risk assessment. To help a plane land safely, for instance, a flight coordinator will assess the circumstances.
The function of a compliance specialist follows the same rule. They have the confidence to make crucial decisions on behalf of the business while noting all elements for risk rating.
- Networking
Employees frequently view compliance as a requirement, which is why some will attempt to break the law. A compliance officer’s job is not limited to maintaining the company’s compliance. As they will need to assist them in moving forward in a way that safeguards the organization from any breaches, they must be adaptable enough to work with marketing, strategy, and operations.
The compliance specialist needs to be able to connect with other workers to accomplish this. Two strategies for doing this are to be personable and empathic.
Although compliance may not be everyone’s favorite subject, this does not require the officer to be equally uninspiring. A positive person who can listen and respond to other viewpoints with compassion will significantly improve the likelihood of success. They must develop interpersonal skills and dispel the notion that compliance is a hindrance. There is nothing wrong with a professional who enjoys mingling and is extroverted.
Colleagues will be more receptive to the specialist’s viewpoint as a result. The compliance specialist’s task is to weigh all available information and relevant conditions to think of a decision that does not jeopardize the workplace environment or the company’s credibility.
How to Become a Compliance Specialist
Choose a specialization
Any sector that needs regulation can employ compliance specialists, including the government, healthcare, manufacturing, and financial and accounting services sectors. Additional specializations for compliance officers include business, healthcare, and environmental compliance. Students should think about their job preferences before enrolling in college to make sure the degree would support their career objectives.
Get a Bachelor’s degree
Finance, accounting, statistics, economics, and management are popular degrees for prospective compliance specialists. The fields of commerce, civil or environmental engineering, criminal justice, and healthcare administration all provide degrees for those interested in specializing. Usually, four years of full-time study are needed to complete a bachelor’s degree.
Apply and get into an internship role
People apply for internship role to improve their resumes, acquire relevant skills and experience, and apply what they have learned in the classroom to a real-world setting. Internships are frequently sought after by college students in their junior and senior years. These internships can take place in the summer, fall, or spring and typically last one semester. Internships give students the professional experience they need to stand out in the job market.
Acquire a certification
Although not required for compliance specialists, certification shows skill to potential employers. Different certification processes and eligibility requirements exist. A certificate can be obtained in a few weeks or several years, depending on the certification.
Consider getting a master’s degree
The minimum education needed for a compliance officer is often a bachelor’s degree. Graduates with a master’s degree are qualified for senior and executive roles. You can earn a degree in about two years of full-time study.
Where to Work as a Compliance Specialist
The places compliance specialists choose to work may be flexible. Some may work directly with a company’s regulatory division, while others prefer to serve as independent consultants to other businesses.
The following industries are where compliance professionals work:
- Business
- Biotechnology
- Medical sector
- Banking and Finance
- Healthcare Insurance
- Pharmaceutical Technology
Compliance Specialist Salary Scale
According to PayScale, the current national average for a mid-career compliance manager is $80,000. Salaries can vary, however, from $52,000 to more than $125,000, depending on an individual’s skill, years of experience, and job location. The industry you choose to work in often affects how much you get paid – for instance, compliance specialists in banking may make more than the ones in charities.
Starting salaries for compliance specialists range from £18,000 to £35,000 in the United Kingdom.
Compliance managers can earn between £30,000 and £75,000.
Senior managers in compliance can earn £100,000 or more.