Director of Compliance and Issues Management

About the Role

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 ensures 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 fosters a strong culture of compliance, accountability, and timely issue resolution across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Provide managerial oversight of compliance analysts, including workflow management, coaching, development, hiring, and performance evaluations.
• Oversee key pillars of the CMS: regulatory change management, compliance testing and analysis, policies & procedures, monitoring, complaint management, issues management, training, and issue remediation.
• Own 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.
• Advise senior leadership and business units on compliance risk, regulatory policy and impacts, and control effectiveness.
• Oversee risk-based compliance monitoring and targeted reviews across operational, lending, marketing, and member-facing functions.
• Provide timely, accurate compliance guidance to internal partners through the compliance help desk and contribute to issue resolution and documentation.
• Support interactions with auditors, regulators, and examiners; ensure the credit union remains exam-ready.
• Oversee tracking, interpretation, and communication of regulatory changes from DFPI, NCUA, CFPB, FinCEN, OFAC, and other applicable agencies.
• Ensure regulatory changes are analyzed, documented, assigned, and implemented in partnership with business owners.
• Approve regulatory summaries and direct internal communication of impacts.
• Own and maintain the organization’s policy management framework, ensuring it is structured, effective, and aligned with regulatory expectations.
• Ensure compliance-related documentation is current, accurate, and consistently reflects applicable laws, regulations, and internal standards.
• Review and approve policy and procedure updates drafted, reviewed, and edited by compliance staff.
• Oversee documentation governance, including version control, approval workflows, and retention practices.
• Conduct or support a minimum of six risk-based compliance reviews per year, focusing on the highest-risk areas identified through the Enterprise Risk Assessment.
• Issue formal written reports with ratings and remediation tracking; ensure the monitoring program aligns with NCUA AIRES structure and regulatory expectations.
• Set annual monitoring plans and priorities based on enterprise compliance risk assessments.
• Oversee review planning, testing methodologies, documentation standards, and reporting quality.
• Ensure issues are clearly articulated, risk-rated, and remediated within defined timelines.
• Own the compliance and regulatory issues management process, including issues arising from compliance monitoring, audits, exams, complaints, risk assessments, and management self-identified findings.
• Ensure issues are documented, risk-rated, tracked, and remediated within established timelines.
• Review root cause analyses and remediation plans for sufficiency and regulatory alignment.
• Escalate overdue, high-risk, or systemic issues to senior management and governance committees as appropriate.
• Produce recurring and ad-hoc issues management reporting for executive management and the Board, including trend analysis and systemic risk indicators.
• Oversee the complaint management program to ensure timely tracking, trend reporting, escalation, and regulatory alignment.
• Assess complaint data for UDAAP patterns and systemic indicators and potential regulatory violations, like UDAAP.
• Review UDAAP considerations and provide guidance for marketing, disclosures, and member-facing communications.
• Maintain CMS documentation and ensure exam-readiness at all times.
• Collaborate with the BSA Officer to ensure alignment between CMS and BSA/AML/OFAC expectations.
• Oversee compliance responsibilities related to SAR/CTR quality review, Beneficial Ownership, OFAC screening, and fraud trends.
• Serve as a compliance subject matter expert for operational, lending, marketing, digital banking, and branch teams.
• Provide independent challenge to business-unit decisions, controls, and remediation plans.
• Provide guidance that is well-researched, timely, risk-based, and operationally practical.
• Elevate systemic issues and emerging risks to senior leadership.
• Support development and delivery of compliance training.
• Supervise, mentor, and develop compliance analysts.
• Allocate resources, manage workloads, and set department priorities.
• Build department bench strength through structured development planning.
• Contribute to department budgeting and strategic planning.

Requirements

• 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.

Major Accountabilities

• 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.

Key Relationships

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

Physical Requirements

• Ability to tolerate periods of continuous sitting.

Environmental Conditions

Work is primarily performed within an office setting. Subject to standard background noise found in an office environment.

Pay

Salary Range: $130,813.66 - $163,517.07