Job Title: Compliance Director
Classification: Exempt
Department: Compliance
Revision Date: July 29, 2026
Reporting Relationships
Reports To: Vice President of Compliance & Quality
Positions Supervised: Compliance Manager
Summary
The Compliance Director provides strategic leadership, executive oversight, and governance to ensure agency-wide adherence to all state and federal regulations, including Washington Administrative Code (WAC), DSHS guidelines, and L&I standards. This position is responsible for establishing the organization’s overarching compliance framework, managing organizational risk, and safeguarding the integrity of service delivery. The Director acts as the primary liaison with regulatory bodies and external auditors. By embedding continuous quality controls, risk mitigation, and the Standard of Excellence into operational workflows, the Compliance Director ensures client-centered care remains fully compliant and operationally sustainable across all programs.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Standard of Excellence Leadership
- Consistency in Care: Enforce rigorous protocol adherence and precision in support services to guarantee that every client receives the same high standard of care every shift.
- Integrity in Operations: Foster a culture of transparency and accountability by demanding absolute clarity in documentation, communication, and compliance.
- Stability & Growth: Strengthen the agency’s compliance foundation to support full capacity utilization and the long-term vitality of the organization.
- Identify operational barriers quickly and solve them openly.
- Ensure these core pillars are reflected in training, supervision, and daily work across all departments.
Core Compliance Functions
- Design, implement, and oversee the agency’s comprehensive compliance and risk management strategy, aligning regulatory protocols with organizational goals.
- Serve as the primary compliance advisor to the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), providing regular reporting on systemic risk, audit outcomes, and regulatory trends.
- Serve as the principal liaison for external regulatory agencies (DSHS, state inspectors) and external auditors.
- Maintain an expert-level understanding of evolving WAC regulations, state mandates, and client support requirements.
- Lead the proactive restructuring of internal operations to maintain compliance.
- Establish and execute the annual organization-wide Risk Assessment Plan and Compliance Self-Assessment framework.
- Author, approve, and enforce high-level agency policies, code of ethics, and governance standards across all departments.
- Direct complex internal audits and sensitive compliance investigations regarding potential regulatory violations, systemic non-conformance, or ethical concerns.
- Oversee the formulation and submission of all official Plan of Correction (POC) responses and remediation plans following state examinations or external audits.
- Partner with department heads to audit client documentation, program planning, and service delivery workflows to guarantee regulatory alignment.
- Directly supervise, mentor, and evaluate the Compliance Manager, fostering a culture of continuous learning and accountability.
- Ensure robust systems are in place for DSHS background clearances, staff credentialing, and state-mandated training compliance.
- Champion data privacy and confidentiality, ensuring full agency adherence to client privacy rights, security standards, and ethical care protocols.
Education and Experience
- Minimum age of 18 years.
- Current criminal background check, cleared by DSHS before working alone, unsupervised with clients.
- High School Diploma or GED required.
- Associate or Bachelor’s Degree in Human Services, Social Work, Business Administration, Healthcare, or a related field preferred, but not required.
- Equivalent combination of direct work experience, state regulatory knowledge, and demonstrated leadership may substitute for formal education.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Language Skills: Excellent reading comprehension and written communication skills required. Ability to read, analyze, and interpret documents, reports, technical specifications, governmental regulations, and correspondence. Ability to apply proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and format to communications. Ability to present information in one-on-one, small group, and large group situations to management and staff.
- Mathematical Skills: Ability to work with basic mathematical concepts, and ability to draw and interpret graphs.
- Reasoning Ability: Ability to solve a wide range of practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete and complex variables. Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form. Ability to deal with multiple variables.
- Computer Skills: Ability to operate related computer applications (i.e. word processing and spreadsheet applications), and business equipment including personal computer, copy machine, fax machine, and telephone.
Physical Demands
- Talking: Able to convey detailed or important instructions or ideas accurately, loudly, or quickly.
- Average Hearing: Able to hear average or normal conversations and receive ordinary information.
- Finger Dexterity: Using primarily just fingers to make small movements such as typing, picking up small objects, or pinching fingers together.
- Repetitive Motion: Movements frequently and regularly required using the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.
- Average Visual Abilities: Average, ordinary visual acuity necessary to prepare or inspect documents or products or operate machinery.
- Physical Strength: Frequently required to sit, stand, and walk and occasionally required to stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. Occasionally required to lift and/or move up to 50 lbs.
Your Work Place
Internally, work is normally performed in a climate-controlled office environment, where exposure to conditions of extreme heat/cold, poor ventilation, and fumes are very limited. Noise level is moderate and may include sounds of normal office equipment (computers, telephones, etc.). No known environmental hazards are encountered in the normal performance of job duties.
Intent and Function of Job Descriptions
Job descriptions assist organizations in ensuring that the hiring process is fairly administered and that qualified employees are selected. They are also essential to an effective appraisal system and related promotion, transfer, layoff, and termination decisions. Well-constructed job descriptions are an integral part of any effective compensation system. All descriptions have been reviewed to ensure that only essential functions and basic duties have been included. Peripheral tasks, only incidentally related to each position, have been excluded. Requirements, skills, and abilities included have been determined to be the minimal standards required to successfully perform the positions. In no instance, however, should the duties, responsibilities, and requirements delineated be interpreted as all-inclusive. Additional functions and requirements may be assigned by management as deemed appropriate. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is possible that requirements may be modified to reasonably accommodate disabled individuals. However, no accommodation will be made which may pose serious health or safety risks to the employee or others or which impose undue hardships on the organization. Job descriptions are not intended as and do not create employment contracts. The organization maintains its status as an at-will employer. Employees can be terminated for any reason not prohibited by law.