Chief Compliance Officer, Associate Commissioner for Compliance & Risk Management

About the Agency:

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is the nation’s largest municipal housing preservation and development agency. Its mission is to promote quality housing and diverse, thriving neighborhoods for New Yorkers through loan and development programs for new affordable housing, preservation of the affordability of the existing housing stock, enforcement of housing quality standards, and education programs for tenants and building owners.


Job Description:

Reporting to the First Deputy Commissioner, the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) will lead the Office of Compliance & Risk Management (CRM), a new Office within HPD that the CCO will have the unique opportunity to help to build and expand. When fully staffed, this Office will centralize various compliance, oversight, and hearing functions from across the agency critical to ensuring fairness, consistency, and equity in both our external and internal engagement. It will also create the policies and procedures that establish the governing framework for meeting agency obligations.

CRM will be responsible for coordinating the agency’s compliance programs, liaising with the units and staff responsible for relevant compliance responsibilities, audit responses, site standard adherence for financed construction work, public-facing appeals and hearings, and managing risk for the agency. The CCO, in collaboration with program teams across the agency, will ensure that HPD and its partners comply with laws (federal, state, and city), regulatory requirements, policies, and procedures. The CCO will also work with senior management to identify potential compliance and integrity risk areas and will opine on and recommend appropriate action plans to address identified risks. Through these efforts and initiatives, the CCO will promote a sustainable culture of ethics and accountability within the agency, helping program areas manage compliance autonomously.

The Chief Compliance Officer’s responsibilities will include:

- Supervise, track, monitor, and maintain expertise on areas of compliance impacting affordable housing production, maintenance, and subsidy; these include regulations imposed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. (and NYS) Department of Labor, and Internal Revenue Service; New York State legislation; and New York City Local Laws, Codes, and Rules.
- In close coordination with senior staff, establish goals around agency and program compliance performance, and measure accomplishments in service to initiatives and targets set by the Agency’s Executive team.
- Direct internally driven monitoring/quality assurance work, and provide support for program audits, monitoring, and investigations initiated by HUD, NYC and NYS Comptrollers’ Offices, and other external oversight and enforcement entities.
- Advise and educate agency program areas on designing, building and managing effective and efficient compliance programs. Maintain cooperative working relationships with high level managers in all areas of HPD to enhance coordination and information-sharing.
- Research, recommend, and support the implementation of changes to operating policies and procedures, as needed, due to updates in organizational or agency needs, or in light of changes in applicable rules, regulations, and requirements of federal, state, and legal or regulatory authorities.
- Drive the development of programming and tools for CRM, ensuring that strategies, operations, and programs are aligned across Divisions and with Agency goals.

Minimum Qualifications:

Candidates will need to meet the civil service requirements of Executive Agency Counsel.

- Admission to the New York State Bar; and four years of recent full-time responsible, relevant, satisfactory legal experience subsequent to admission to any bar, eighteen months of which must have been in the supervision of other attorneys, in an administrative, managerial or executive capacity, or performing highly complex and significant legal work. Incumbents must remain Members of the New York State Bar in good standing for the duration of this employment.

Preferred Skills and Qualifications:

- A minimum of 5 years' experience in successfully managing compliance programs, preferably in a public administration, real estate, affordable housing, not-for-profit, or multi-sector context, with a minimum of 2 years in a leadership role.
- Experience with regulatory compliance including interacting with regulatory authorities and oversight agencies (NYC Comptroller, NYS Comptroller, Department of Investigations, etc.)
- High level of capacity for creative thinking and problem solving; a motivated team player.
- Strong collaborator across all levels of management and experience, and with a wide array of internal and external stakeholders
- Excellent management skills, including demonstrated experience building out and managing large teams, with a commitment to establishing and fostering a positive and inclusive organizational culture and structure.
- Passion for public service.

Please submit a cover letter as part of your application.

Admission to the New York State Bar; and four years of recent full-time responsible, relevant, satisfactory legal experience subsequent to admission to any bar, eighteen months of which must have been in the supervision of other attorneys, in an administrative, managerial or executive capacity, or performing highly complex and significant legal work.

Incumbents must remain Members of the New York State Bar in good standing for the duration of this employment.

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.