Chief Compliance Officer

What the role involves.

The EST hiring bar.

Every EST hire, in every seat, meets three tests: exceptional technical ability, a deep command of the compliance obligations of their area of expertise, and fluency with modern tools, including AI, applied with the judgment regulated shareholder data demands. We are a small firm doing consequential work; the bar does not flex.

Responsibilities.

• Own Forms TA-1 and TA-2: annual reports on time, amendments within 60 days of any change in ownership, control or officers; keep registration, SIC and fingerprinting records current.
• Maintain the compliance manual as a living document: a procedure for every rule that applies to us, each with an owner, a version history and a documented annual review; reconcile it to how the work is actually done.
• Monitor turnaround against Rule 17Ad-2 every month, with figures that tie to the detail records and to Form TA-2; oversee the 17Ad-6 and 17Ad-7 recordkeeping program, record differences and aging under 17Ad-10 and 17Ad-11, control books, and the annual 17Ad-13 accountant's report.
• Ensure Rule 17Ad-16 depository notices go out for every issuer onboarded or terminated.
• Own the lost securityholder and unresponsive payee program under Rule 17Ad-17 and oversee unclaimed property reporting across all states; oversee paying agent controls, signature guarantee standards (17Ad-15) and lost and stolen securities reporting (17f-1).
• Own the Regulation S-P program: safeguards, disposal, incident response, customer notification and service-provider oversight; own OFAC screening, from the written procedure to the evidence that it ran.
• Run a testing and surveillance calendar across both recordkeeping platforms; document findings; report to the CEO and the parent company.
• Lead SEC examinations and regulatory inquiries from first request to closing letter; deliver annual compliance training; oversee vendors that touch securityholder records; manage outside compliance counsel.

Requirements.

• Excellent technical skills. This is a core requirement. You read transaction-level data and can tell whether the numbers are right.
• Working command of the Exchange Act transfer agent rules (17Ac2-1 and 17Ac2-2; 17Ad-1 through 17Ad-20; 17f-1 and 17f-2), Regulation S-P and OFAC requirements.
• 8+ years in compliance, operations or regulatory roles at an SEC-registered transfer agent, broker-dealer, clearing firm or depository, with at least 3 years leading a compliance function.
• You have been the firm's point of contact in an SEC examination, from the request list through the on-site phase and the response to findings.
• You have written compliance policies and procedures from scratch and kept them current.
• Fluent, daily use of AI tools in compliance work: drafting and reviewing policies, summarizing rules and exam requests, analyzing transaction data. You know what to delegate, what to check yourself, and how to keep non-public information out of it.
• Clear, direct writer. Much of this job is correspondence with regulators, issuers and vendors.
• Bachelor's degree.
• Preferred: direct transfer agent experience including DTC FAST, DRS and paying agent operations; multi-state unclaimed property; STA best practices; JD, CRCP, CAMS or a comparable credential.

What you get.

• Health, dental, and PTO, plus a discretionary annual bonus.
• The whole program, not a piece of one: you set the procedures, you run the testing, you face the regulator, with direct access to the CEO and a seat on the management team.
• A firm small enough that your work is visible the same week you do it, inside a group with the resources to back it.
• Office at 237 West 37th Street, New York.

Founded by a trader, not a filing.

EST was founded on the trading floor at E*TRADE Securities, and that shows up in how the register team works today — a record date is treated like a market event, not a checklist line item. You'll be part of a small, senior team out of our Manhattan office, where the person who took the shareholder's call is often the same person who fixes the ledger.