Senior Director of Compliance

The posting

For over 50 years, Bet Tzedek Legal Services has provided high-quality, free legal services to Los Angeles’ most vulnerable residents. What started as a volunteer-led organization is now a midsize legal services nonprofit with a significant portfolio of private and public grants, government contracts, and organizational obligations, each carrying compliance requirements.

Bet Tzedek seeks a Senior Director of Compliance to report to the President & CEO and lead the organization’s compliance infrastructure. A member of the management team that operates immediately below Bet Tzedek’s executive and senior leadership levels, the Senior Director will build and maintain the systems, workflows, documentation standards, monitoring practices, trackers, reports, and cross-departmental coordination needed to summarize requirements; set monitoring and documentation expectations; track risks, owners, due dates, and corrective actions; surface gaps; and equip leaders with timely, decision-ready information.

The Senior Director serves as the organization’s central compliance infrastructure and coordination lead, bringing together requirements, deadlines, documentation, ownership, operational context, risks, corrective-action status, and options to provide practical guidance, visibility, and timely escalation. The role partners with programmatic, legal, financial, human resources, information technology, and executive leaders, while accountable department leaders retain responsibility for final business decisions, subject-matter judgments, and corrective actions within their respective functions.

This position is eligible for Bet Tzedek Legal Services’ hybrid/remote workplace designation. While the primary workplace is Bet Tzedek’s offices, at the discretion of the immediate supervisor, the employee may be permitted to work remotely or may be required to work in other locations depending on workload or business obligations. Candidates must be located in the Southern California region and able to commute if needed.

Requirements

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

· Report to the President & CEO and serve as the organization’s central compliance infrastructure lead, responsible for the systems, workflows, trackers, documentation standards, monitoring expectations, reporting structures, governance channels, and escalation pathways needed to manage compliance obligations organization-wide.

· Design and maintain a compliance and risk governance framework, including an annual risk-based compliance work plan; a consolidated register of material obligations, risks, findings, corrective actions, owners, due dates, escalation status, grant and contract summaries, reporting calendars, responsibility matrices, controlled document repositories, dashboards, and other tools that support accountability and informed decision-making.

· Review grants, contracts, MOUs, RFPs, regulations, policies, and related source documents to identify, interpret, and summarize key obligations, deadlines, deliverables, restrictions, reporting requirements, documentation expectations, and operational implications for responsible departments and leadership.

· Coordinate compliance and risk governance matters across Finance, Institutional Giving, Legal Programs, Human Resources, Data and Information Technology, and other responsible departments by clarifying requirements, confirming ownership, gathering and validating information, monitoring dependencies, reviewing open risks and corrective actions, and supporting timely follow-through.

· Monitor compliance obligations, risks, and corrective actions through documented, risk-based review cycles calibrated to significance and urgency; maintain the consolidated register; track owners, due dates, supporting documentation, open questions, findings, overdue items, escalation status, and closure status; and evaluate whether key compliance controls and required documentation are appropriately designed and operating as intended.

· Use periodic monitoring, sampling, evidence review, and follow-up testing, as appropriate, to validate compliance activity and convert findings into practical guidance. Communicate exceptions to responsible leaders; confirm accountable owners and corrective actions; and track implementation, escalation, and verified closure without shifting ownership of the underlying business decision or remediation.

· Identify and surface compliance risks, gaps, ambiguities, control weaknesses, operational barriers, emerging issues, and material or time-sensitive matters. Escalate unresolved matters through defined governance channels with the relevant requirements, impact, urgency, options, recommended next steps, accountable owner, due dates, dependencies, and escalation status, and verify closure once corrective action or leadership direction is complete.

· Prepare periodic, decision-oriented compliance and risk reports for the President & CEO and executive leadership summarizing material obligations, emerging risks, gaps, overdue items, findings, corrective-action status, trends, and matters requiring leadership direction. Translate complex information into practical implications, options, and recommended next steps without displacing departmental decision-making.

· Support reports to the Board of Directors or an appropriate Board committee through established protocols by preparing clear summaries of material compliance obligations, significant risks, findings, corrective-action status, trends, escalation items, and matters requiring governance attention, while preserving management and departmental responsibility for operational decisions and implementation.

· Facilitate recurring cross-functional compliance and risk governance reviews with Finance, Institutional Giving, Legal Programs, Human Resources, Data and Information Technology, and other responsible departments to assess priority obligations, confirm accountability, review the annual work plan, evaluate material risks and findings, resolve open issues, monitor corrective-action progress, and calibrate review and reporting frequency to risk significance and urgency.

· Facilitate grant, contract, and compliance kickoff meetings so relevant departments understand applicable requirements, timelines, deliverables, ownership, documentation needs, monitoring expectations, and escalation pathways.

· Coordinate organization-wide responses to audits and compliance reviews by organizing documentation, monitoring dependencies and follow-up items, validating evidence where appropriate, translating findings into practical guidance, confirming accountable owners and corrective actions, and verifying closure. Each responsible department will retain ownership of its underlying records, representations, subject-matter judgments, business decisions, and corrective actions. This includes Finance’s responsibility for accounting judgment, financial records and representations, and fiscal compliance matters; Human Resources’ responsibility for personnel and employment matters; and External Affairs’ responsibility for fundraising, institutional giving, donor relations, and external communications.

· Coordinate and maintain compliance-related registrations, certifications, and documentation associated with public funding sources, including SAM.gov, Certificates of Insurance, licenses, Board resolutions, and other documents required to pursue, receive, and manage public grants and contracts.

· Develop, maintain, and periodically update compliance policies, manuals, templates, checklists, guidance, and staff-facing materials designed to promote consistent, practical, and auditable compliance practices across departments.

· Provide training and practical guidance to staff regarding compliance workflows, documentation expectations, reporting requirements, eligibility rules, grant conditions, escalation protocols, and related operational processes.

· Serve as a primary coordination point for pro bono volunteers, outside advisors, or consultants assisting Bet Tzedek with compliance-related matters, while ensuring that internal decision-making remains with the appropriate organizational leaders.

· Coordinate, track, and organize information related to representative compliance and organizational risk areas assigned by the President & CEO, including regulatory compliance, contractual obligations, privacy and data protection, records retention, business continuity, conflicts of interest, insurance, malpractice, grant and funding requirements, audit readiness, reporting obligations, and related matters.

· Perform other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS:

· Licensed to practice law in California required.

· Five (5) to eight (8) years of progressively responsible experience in compliance, risk management, grants management, contracts, audit, nonprofit operations, legal services, or a related field required.

· Experience interpreting complex contracts, grant requirements, regulations, policies, and organizational obligations and translating them into clear summaries, practical guidance, monitoring standards, workflows, and action steps.

· Demonstrated ability to build and maintain practical compliance infrastructure, including risk and obligation registers, dashboards, trackers, policies, templates, workflow automation, controlled document repositories, reporting tools, auditable records, risk-based monitoring, control validation, sampling, evidence review, and follow-up mechanisms that support cross-departmental accountability.

· Experience with government contracts, public funding, restricted grants, funder audits, or complex reporting requirements strongly preferred.

· Strong analytical judgment and the ability to synthesize complex information into decision-ready briefings that clearly present requirements, risks, practical implications, options, recommended next steps, and matters requiring leadership attention.

· Exceptional project-management and cross-functional coordination skills, including the ability to monitor multiple obligations and deadlines, coordinate inputs across departments, follow up on open items, escalate unresolved matters, and verify completion.

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare concise summaries, guidance documents, training materials, dashboards, and executive briefings for varied audiences.

· High emotional intelligence and strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trust, work collaboratively, ask clarifying questions, support accountability, and influence progress without assuming decision-making authority assigned to other departments or senior leaders.

· Proficiency with Microsoft 365 tools that support compliance operations, such as SharePoint, Lists, Planner, and Power Automate, is strongly preferred. The candidate should be able to convert complex obligations into practical registers, dashboards, reporting tools, workflow automation, controlled document repositories, guidance, and auditable records, and use those systems to coordinate across departments, monitor obligations, surface risks and gaps, and equip leaders and accountable teams with timely, usable information.

· Experience working in a nonprofit organization, especially a legal services nonprofit or other mission-driven organization with public and private funding streams, strongly preferred.

· Understanding of, and commitment to, Bet Tzedek’s mission of equal justice for all and Bet Tzedek’s core values of leadership, community-based advocacy, and innovation required.

Salary

$150,000.00 - $155,000.00 (DOE/DOQ)

Benefits

BENEFITS PACKAGE:

Bet Tzedek offers an excellent benefits package in addition to competitive salaries. These benefits currently include:

· A generous number of paid holidays, vacation, and sick days annually.

· Personal and floating holidays.

· Compensatory time for exempt employees.

· Medical, dental, vision, chiropractic and acupuncture coverage for employees and dependents, with office visit co-pay reimbursement for HMO enrollees.

· Life/accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance, long-term disability insurance, and Employee Assistance Plan.

· Voluntary (employee-contributed) life/AD&D, accident, critical illness, hospital confinement, and pet insurance.

· Employer-contributed profit-sharing plan.

· Employee-contributed 403(b) plan.

· Healthcare and childcare flexible spending accounts.

· Commuter transit and/or parking benefits.

HOW TO APPLY:

· Please visit https://bettzedek.org/careers/ to submit a letter of interest and resume. Please, no phone calls.

To best serve our communities, Bet Tzedek seeks diverse staff with cultural competency reflecting our client populations. We strongly encourage candidates from traditionally underrepresented communities and historically oppressed groups to apply.