Senior Director of Compliance and Risk (6052)

About The House of the Good Shepherd

Since 1872, The House of the Good Shepherd (HGS) has provided treatment, education, and support services to children and families in the communities it serves. Guided by its mission to provide care that changes children's lives, HGS delivers high-quality services in the context of family, culture, and community and seeks employees who bring integrity, compassion, insight, determination, and a commitment to positive impact.

We embrace the Sanctuary Model and are committed to creating a trauma informed, outcome-based culture of open communication, nonviolence, emotional intelligence, social learning, shared governance, social responsibility, and growth and change.

Job Overview

The Sr. Director of Compliance & Risk is HGS's designated Compliance Officer and Privacy Officer and leads the Compliance, Risk and Quality department. Reporting directly to the COO, with regular reports to CEO and the Board of Directors, the Sr. Director builds and oversees a compliance program that meets federal and New York State requirements, accreditation standards, and HGS's own policies. The position is responsible for the annual compliance work plan, code of conduct, policies, training, auditing, monitoring, confidential reporting, non-retaliation, investigations, corrective action, and the protection of client health information. The Sr. Director also sets the direction for HGS's risk management and quality improvement work, advises senior leadership on regulatory and emerging risks, and represents the agency with regulators, accreditors, legal counsel, and insurers.

Essential Functions:

• Serve as the designated Compliance Officer and maintain sufficient authority, independence, and access to organizational records and leaders to administer an effective compliance program.
• Develop, implement, and periodically revise the compliance program, annual compliance work plan, code of conduct, and related policies based on regulatory requirements and organizational risk.
• Provide the Chief Executive Officer and Board with clear, timely reports on compliance program effectiveness, material violations, trends, corrective actions, unresolved risks, and resource needs.
• Advise senior leadership on existing and emerging legal, regulatory, accreditation, contractual, privacy, and quality requirements affecting agency operations.
• Oversee systems for confidential reporting, nonretaliation, investigation, corrective action, auditing, monitoring, training, and response to detected noncompliance.
• Direct the agency's performance and quality improvement framework, including outcome measurement, utilization review, program evaluation, satisfaction surveys, and use of findings for measurable improvement.
• Oversee risk-based audits, regulatory examinations, accreditation activities, internal investigations, incident trend review, and monitoring of corrective action plans.
• Serve as the designated Privacy Officer and maintain a comprehensive privacy program governing the use, access, disclosure, retention, and protection of confidential and protected health information across all media.
• Oversee privacy risk assessments, complaint and incident investigations, breach risk determinations, required notifications, mitigation, sanctions coordination, and documentation.
• Partner with the Information Security Officer and information technology leaders to align privacy and security governance, investigate inappropriate access or disclosure, and monitor recurring patterns.
• Ensure privacy notices, consent and authorization forms, release-of-information practices, business associate agreements, policies, procedures, and workforce training reflect current requirements.
• Represent the agency with regulators, accreditors, legal counsel, insurers, and other external parties on compliance, privacy, quality, audit, and risk matters.
• Establish department priorities, approve methodologies and reports, allocate resources, and supervise the Director of Compliance & Risk through regular performance and development activities.
• Promote a culture in which staff understand their responsibilities, raise concerns without fear of retaliation, and use data and learning to strengthen services.
• Lead or sponsor agency committees and special initiatives assigned by the Chief Executive Officer and perform other duties consistent with the scope of the position.
• Additional Responsibilities: May perform other related duties as assigned. This statement does not identify those additional duties as essential functions.

Job Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in compliance, law, health care administration, human services, business, public administration, or related field required; master's degree preferred.
• At least seven years of progressively responsible experience in compliance, quality, privacy, audit, risk, or related work, preferably in nonprofit child welfare or behavioral health.
• At least three years of leadership or management experience required.
• Demonstrated experience conducting or overseeing investigations and communicating findings to executive or governing-body audiences.
• Professional certification in compliance, privacy, audit, risk, or quality is preferred.
• Working knowledge of applicable federal and New York State requirements, accreditation expectations, and effective compliance program practices.
• Valid driver's license and ability to travel to agency locations and external meetings or training as needed.