Regulatory and Compliance Team Lead

Overview

•  World Business Lenders (WBL) is a privately held portfolio lender specializing in real estate-secured business loans for underserved businesses. WBL operates with a fully remote, multinational workforce and an experienced executive leadership team.
• Typically, the work schedule is from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, though additional hours may be required based on business needs.

About the Role

• WBL is seeking a Regulatory and Compliance Team Lead to manage the operational compliance framework supporting WBL's lending, servicing, and corporate activities. The Team Lead will translate applicable federal and state requirements into practical policies, controls, monitoring, training, reporting, and remediation while supervising the Regulatory Associate and Compliance Associate.

What Success Looks Like 

• Maintains a current, risk-based compliance framework aligned with WBL's products and operations.
• Ensures regulatory changes, licensing obligations, disclosures, policies, and controls are assigned and completed on time.
• Identifies compliance gaps early and drives documented, sustainable remediation.
• Provides clear reporting and escalation to Corporate Legal and executive leadership.

What You'll Be Doing (Core Responsibilities)

Compliance Program Leadership

• Lead the compliance framework across WBL's lending, servicing, and corporate operations.
• Maintain the compliance risk assessment, obligations inventory, control framework, annual work plan, and reporting calendar.
• Develop and maintain compliance policies, procedures, standards, training materials, and evidence of completion.
• Assign, prioritize, and review the work of the Regulatory Associate and Compliance Associate and support their development.

Regulatory Oversight

• Monitor adherence to applicable federal and state requirements, including usury limits, licensing requirements, and disclosure obligations.
• Oversee regulatory change management by assessing new requirements, identifying affected processes, assigning owners, and validating implementation.
• Coordinate licensing, registration, examination, inquiry, and regulatory-response activities with Legal and business stakeholders.
• Maintain effective relationships with internal subject-matter experts and external advisors when specialized interpretation is required.

Monitoring, Testing, and Remediation

• Establish risk-based monitoring and testing plans for key compliance obligations and operational controls.
• Review findings, determine root causes, assign corrective actions, and track remediation through closure.
• Escalate significant or repeated compliance issues promptly and support management decisions with clear risk analysis.
• Maintain complete, audit-ready evidence of reviews, findings, approvals, and remediation.

Cross-Functional Collaboration and Reporting

• Partner with Legal, Operations, Lending, Servicing, Finance, Internal Audit, Information Technology, and other functions to embed compliance requirements into operations.
• Provide concise dashboards, trend analysis, risk summaries, and status updates to Corporate Legal and executive leadership.
• Support product, process, vendor, and jurisdictional changes by identifying compliance requirements before implementation.
• Drive continuous improvement in compliance workflows, documentation, quality assurance, and reporting.

• Education
• Bachelor's degree in law, compliance, finance, business, public policy, or a related field.
• JD or a recognized compliance, risk, audit, or financial-services certification is preferred.
  
• Required Experience
• 5+ years of regulatory compliance, legal, risk, or audit experience in financial services or another highly regulated industry.
• Working knowledge of U.S. federal and state legal and regulatory frameworks affecting lending, servicing, licensing, usury, and disclosures.
• Experience building or operating compliance policies, controls, monitoring, testing, training, issue management, and reporting.
• Prior team leadership, work-review, or project-lead experience.

Preferred Background / Industry Experience

• Financial services, commercial lending, private lending, banking, fintech, specialty finance, mortgage lending, or another highly regulated industry.

Specific Technical Skills Needed

• Regulatory research and change management.
• Compliance risk assessments, control frameworks, monitoring, and testing.
• Licensing, disclosure, policy, training, and examination support.
• Issue management, root-cause analysis, remediation tracking, and executive reporting.

Key Competencies

• Leadership
• Risk-based judgment
• Executive communication
• Stakeholder management
• Analytical thinking
• Accountability
  

Remote Work Requirements

• Stable, reliable internet connection.
• Professional and dedicated remote working setup.
• Ability to work effectively across a remote, multinational organization and maintain confidentiality.