What is the Job Description of a Compliance Analyst?

Find out about the types of jobs you could pursue in compliance analysis. Read on to learn more about career options along with salary and education information.

What is a Compliance Analyst?

Compliance analysis involves auditing, organizing, and processing information and documents in order to ensure legal compliance. Potential job titles in the compliance analysis field include paralegal, occupational health and safety specialist, and building inspector. The job of a paralegal usually consists of assisting lawyers in studying cases, which may include: organizing reports, researching laws or bills, being in contact with the client(s) involved in the legal matter, and shadowing an attorney during a trial hearing. As an occupational health and safety specialist, you will typically examine hazardous factors in the workplace involving machinery, job practices, and manufactured materials that could be risky to employees' health and work environment. A building inspector's job involves evaluating construction sites to make sure they abide by building codes, laws, and regulations. In this profession, you will also need to ensure construction details like plumbing systems and structural measurements comply with code and contract agreements, otherwise, violation reports would have to be issued.

The following chart provides an overview of what you need to know about entering this field.

	Paralegal	Occupational Health and Safety Specialist	Building Inspector
Degree Required	Associate's degree	Bachelor's degree	High school diploma or equivalent; postsecondary education preferred
Education Field of Study	Sociology, law, business administration	Operations management, engineering, construction	Construction technology or related field
Key Responsibilities	Legal clerical work, assisting lawyers	Assessing work environments, making plans and recommendation for workers' optimum safety and health	Evaluating building construction for legal compliance, stability and safety
Job Growth (2020-2030)	12%*	7%*	-3%*
Average Salary (2020)	$56,610*	$78,110*	$66,470*

Source: *U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

What Will I Do as a Compliance Analyst?

Compliance analysts make sure businesses operate within legal boundaries. You would most likely investigate a business concern, such as safety or legal compliance, and offer or implement the most efficient solution.

Some compliance analysts may be inspectors, auditors or legal consultants. These positions can involve consulting and advising, as well as leading or working in a team. Entry-level job tasks range from filing compliance reports to providing employee training on compliance. More advanced tasks are extremely varied and generally involve overseeing a certain sector of compliance. You may also need to be comfortable working on a computer, especially with specific compliance software. (www.onetonline.org).

In Which Industries Can I Find Work?

There are many industries to choose from as a compliance analyst. Below is a list of some industries available to you:

Financial
Legal
Environmental
Human resources
Agriculture
Construction
Healthcare
Transportation

What Specific Job Titles Apply to This Field?

Job titles in compliance are numerous and vary widely. Each industry contains common job titles, such as analyst, examiner, screener and inspector. Other job titles include equal opportunity officer, regulatory affairs specialist, coroner, auditor, purchasing agent or claims adjuster.

While there are many different aspects of being a compliance analyst, occupational health and safety technicians and construction and building inspectors are two examples of jobs that encompass specific and general responsibilities related to the position. As an occupational health and safety technician, you'd be responsible for the safety and productivity of the workers at your job. You may be in charge of testing work environments for hazards or teaching employees how to work safely while maintaining the best levels of productivity. Also, you could be working in an office, factory, or any other work environment. You may be expected to travel to different locations to implement further inspections or recommendations.

As a construction and building inspector, you would be required to work in the field as well as in the office. You could be your own boss, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in May 2020 that about 11% of home inspectors are self-employed. Your daily duties may range from checking zoning codes to inspecting buildings to examining plans for construction. In all cases, you would be responsible for making sure the sites in question are in compliance with legal requirements.

What Are Some Related Alternative Careers?

Similar professions include secretary and administrative assistant, environmental scientist, and surveying and mapping technician. Like paralegals, administrative assistants prepare documents, write reports, answer phone calls, and schedule meetings with clients. They can choose to work in various locations including medical facilities, government departments, and school offices. Environmental scientists ensure human health and safety in the same way occupational health specialists do. However, these professionals typically review the environment's overall effects on humans by studying data on waste, investigating samples of hazardous discoveries, and suggesting solutions to reduce pollution. While building inspectors survey construction sites, mapping technicians survey empty land sites and use measuring tools to document location data as a way to help cartographers create maps.