Becoming a Chief Compliance Officer: Skills, Duties and Pathway

Compliance is a mandate for industries such as healthcare, fintech, information technology, telecommunications and more. Within these sectors, the frameworks’ increasing complexity necessitates meticulous supervision and effective maintenance of the compliance function. Regulatory bodies are getting stricter with enforcement actions, imposing severe penalties and fines in place. Moreover, as businesses expand globally, geographical challenges arise that compliance can address. Given these trends, the demand for Chief Compliance Officers will only increase in the coming years.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected 17200 job openings for compliance officers in the U.S. alone between 2021 to 2031. If you are an aspiring professional seeking to become a Chief Compliance Officer, we have just the thing for you. Read on to understand how to become a Chief Compliance Officer and the roles and responsibilities to be carried out.

Who is a Chief Compliance Officer?

A chief compliance officer is a management executive responsible for developing, implementing and managing compliance activities to ensure adherence with regulatory requirements. The C-suite officer is a subject matter expert and reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The role of a CCO is of paramount importance especially in highly regulated industries.

Steps to become a Chief Compliance Officer

When aiming to become a Chief Compliance Officer, think long-term. The timeline may vary depending on your education, career progression, and achievements, but the general path remains the same.

Here are five steps to becoming a CCO:

Get your degree(s)

You need a minimum of a bachelor’s degree to become a Chief Compliance Officer. This could be in fields like business, management, finance, or even law. A master’s degree is optional but good for a solid educational foundation. Consider degrees like a Master of Business Administration, Master of Health Administration, or Master of Science in Operations Management.

Additionally, some certifications can give you an edge—Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional (CCEP), Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), and Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC).

Gain relevant experience

Start with entry-level jobs in compliance, risk management, legal and audit roles. Get your basics strong and learn about the compliance space and key regulations as much as possible. The ground-level experience will also help you decide the industry that you want to specialize in if required.

Stay updated and network

If you wish to lead a team, you must stay updated on the regulatory environment and demonstrate your proactive approach. Use LinkedIn and other social platforms to build your authority and network with industry professionals. People build people—the greatest leverage. It will enhance the chances of organizations reaching out to you for relevant roles.

Get leadership experience

Look for leadership opportunities, such as a compliance manager to learn how to get different hands on deck, create comprehensive compliance programs, and manage people. Collaborate with legal, Peopleops, and IT security teams to develop cross-functional understanding and soft skills like communication and problem-solving.

Apply for Chief Compliance Officer

Once you have gained the relevant experience and built your network, you can start seeking CCO opportunities. If your organization has internal job postings, you can also get promoted internally.

Chief Compliance Officer Roles and Responsibilities

A Chief Compliance Officer is a blend of legal expertise, strategic vision and ethical leadership. Over the years, their roles and responsibilities have transformed from traditional policy management to cultivating a sense of compliance ownership amongst other business functions.

Let’s look at some of the roles and responsibilities mentioned in the chief compliance officer job description:

1. Developing compliance programs

The Chief Compliance Officer plays a crucial role in creating an effective compliance program after interpreting regulatory requirements as per business context. The executive maps relevant controls to requirements, drafts policies, and procedures, and ensures proper task assignment to compliance teams for efficient implementation.

2. Monitoring risks

The CCO conducts regular risk assessments to understand various types of risks resulting from non-compliance, such as cybersecurity risks, operational risks, financial risks, and more. The impact and likelihood of these risks is analyzed through a risk matrix and disaster recovery and business continuity plans are tested to understand security maturity. Mitigation plans are developed accordingly using a combination of risk response strategies. (Also check: Top 9 Risk Assessment Tools in 2024)

3. Facilitating communication

The CCO facilitates communication with cross-functional leaders to ensure collaboration for compliance tasks. Next, the officer directly communicates with senior management for budget approvals or any big decisions. Lastly, the executive engages in external communication with regulatory bodies, industry groups, or vendors for their compliance reports.

4. Training and education

The compliance officer leads the arrangement for compliance training and awareness. The executive ensures that the stakeholders understand the importance of compliance and the applicable requirements. Phishing simulation exercises and other tests are also arranged to minimize threats to sensitive information.

5. Resolving compliance issues

The CCO ensures a healthy culture of compliance by resolving any issues that can impact regulatory adherence. The issues can stem from third-party relationships, ethical misconduct, compliance violations, training gaps, and other areas. The officer must implement the right decisions to resolve these issues and minimize future recurrence.

6. Conducting regular assessments

The officer conducts annual reviews, periodic investigations, and assessments, or internal audits to identify any existing compliance gaps or improvement areas. It can involve reviewing documentation, conducting vulnerability scans, and measuring current achievements against the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

7. Compliance reporting

The Chief Compliance Officer is a key representative of the compliance department and reports compliance status to the CEO and founding team. An executive report with key details is presented to the board to give a birds-eye view of the compliance progress. Discussions on upcoming threats or emerging trends are also discussed to ensure support and seek necessary approvals.

8. Collaborate with external auditors

The Chief Compliance Officer collaborates with the independent auditor at the time of external audits. The officer must arrange for necessary evidence to ensure and provide context wherever necessary to ensure a smooth audit process.

Top 3 Challenges faced by Chief Compliance Officers

Managing the expectations of the board, stakeholders, clients, and partners is not the only challenge CCO goes through. There is a range of other hurdles that become overwhelming for the officer. Take a look at these top three challenges faced by Chief Compliance Officers:

1. Getting top-management buy-in and budgets approved

Often, when the board is not from a technical background, it gets hard to secure leadership buy-in and get compliance budgets approved. They view compliance as a cost center and feel that it interferes with other priorities.

How to solve it: In a webinar hosted by Sprinto, Edna Conway, Matthew Rosenquist, and Howard Israel suggested that you should never use fear to get the budgets approved. Rather, use the business differentiator proposition and build a compelling case for compliance ROI.

2. Adapting to a fast-paced environment

Regulatory changes often keep CCO’s up at night. The speed at which the changes come in, the technological advancements, and the expectation of the clients and partners about transparency require them to juggle across responsibilities and adapt quickly.

How to solve it: Leverage compliance tools that help you stay ahead of the chaos and establish a scalable foundation where you can adhere to multiple frameworks without duplication of efforts.

3. Enhancing risk assessment accuracy

As the internal and external environments become more complex, increasing the accuracy of risk assessments is another challenge. There are qualitative and quantitative factors to weigh, external events that impact risks, regulatory expectations for risk assessments, and dependence on other functions for risk inputs.

How to solve it: Invest in integrated GRC platforms like Sprinto with built-in risk assessments, real-time dashboards, and automated risk mapping for controls. The heat maps, risk matrices, and detailed risk profiles make it easier for CCOs to understand the likelihood and impact of each risk, assign owners for accountability, and initiate proactive mitigation.

What does a day look like for a CCO?

The Chief Compliance Officer’s morning begins with checking email updates, including newsletters and industry trends emails to stay abreast of regulations. The day is spent overseeing compliance activities using compliance automation software (most enterprises leverage automation tools). Such tools enable granular-level monitoring, and the officer can take stock of the pending compliance tasks from the reporting dashboards. Based on the reports, the officer coordinates activities such as pending training, policy updates etc to maintain and manage controls.

Another portion of the day is dedicated to handling data, generating reports and engaging in strategic planning. Next, there are team meetings and supervisory responsibilities. There can be a dialogue or strategic meeting with the board of directors and the day wraps up with planning for the next day’s to-dos. 

A CCO’s role is multifaceted and there can also be ad-hoc requests and tasks. It is important to note that the day-to-day activities of a CCO can vary based on the organization’s established systems, applicable securities laws, and scale of requirements.

Skills required to become a chief compliance officer

A Chief compliance officer requires business acumen, interpersonal skills, technical abilities and prompt decision-making skills to come out as a strong executive. The officer must also be keen to dive deeper into the regulatory landscape and champion data and analytics for overall success.

The following are the skills required to become a chief compliance officer:

1. Quick decision making

CCOs must be proficient in identifying, understanding and analyzing compliance risks while developing quick and effective strategies. Agility is crucial in the compliance space where CCO’s frequently encounter incidents that demand swift responses.

2. Regulatory understanding

Chief Compliance Officers must have up-to-date knowledge of the regulatory environment, an understanding of legal requirements, and the ability to interpret these requirements. They must subscribe to newsletters, attend seminars and workshops, and pursue professional certifications like CRCM (Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager) to stay abreast of regulations.

3. Analytical skills

The compliance leader must have problem-solving and analytical skills to navigate through the regulatory intricacies. They must be able to establish the root cause of the risks, analyze business impact and suggest the right mitigation ac