Syracuse University - Chief Risk and Compliance Officer
| Req Number: | WWVYTU |
| Location: | Syracuse, NY |
| Posted: | 6/17/2026 |
| Category: | Government/Not-For-Profit : Education |
| Job Type: | Permanent |
| Compensation: | USD 235,000.00 - 275,000.00 Yearly |
The University
Syracuse University is a private, internationally recognized research university defined by its distinctive academic offerings, strong sense of community, and school pride. Situated in the geographic heart of New York State, Syracuse combines a traditional residential campus experience with a truly global reach. Founded in 1870, the University has evolved into a dynamic institution that balances scholarly rigor, professional preparation, and a commitment to innovation across disciplines.
Syracuse’s breadth and scale reflect its institutional strength: more than 200 majors, 100 minors, and 200 graduate programs offered across 13 schools and colleges, serving over 15,000 undergraduate and more than 6,000 graduate students. The University’s diverse student body represents all 50 states and over 120 countries, contributing to a vibrant campus culture enriched by varied perspectives and experiences. With a network of more than a quarter of a million alumni in 160 countries, Syracuse extends its influence well beyond campus, offering students and faculty connections to industries, ideas, and opportunities around the world.
At its core, Syracuse University offers a quintessential college experience, rooted in academic excellence, spirited campus life, and a deep sense of belonging, while also preparing students to thrive in an increasingly interconnected and rapidly changing global landscape.
For more information, please visit http://www.syracuse.edu.
About the Syracuse area
Syracuse is a vibrant, livable city in Central New York, offering an appealing balance of professional opportunity, cultural amenities, and access to nature. Located approximately 250 miles northwest of New York City, the Syracuse metropolitan area is home to roughly 500,000 residents and is known for its accessibility, affordability, and strong sense of community.
One of the region’s defining advantages is its quality of life. Residents benefit from a relatively low cost of living, diverse housing options, and short commute times, making it easy to balance professional responsibilities with personal and family life. The community is welcoming and engaged, with a range of local events, seasonal festivals, and neighborhood traditions that create a strong sense of place.
Syracuse also offers a rich cultural landscape, including museums, galleries, music venues, and professional regional theater. The city supports an active arts scene and a growing food and dining culture, alongside established shopping destinations and local markets.
Equally important is the region’s connection to the outdoors. Central New York provides year-round recreational opportunities, from boating and hiking in the warmer months to skiing and snow sports in the winter. Residents enjoy easy access to the Finger Lakes, known for their wineries, scenic beauty, and tourism, as well as the Adirondack Mountains, one of the largest protected natural areas in the country. Locally, parks, lakes, and trails, including those along the historic Erie Canal, offer accessible options for walking, biking, and outdoor recreation.
University Vision and Mission
The Syracuse University Vision
Syracuse University aspires to be a preeminent and inclusive student-focused research university, preparing engaged citizens, scholars and leaders for participation in a changing global society.
The Syracuse University Mission
As a university with the capacity to attract and engage the best scholars from around the world, yet small enough to support a personalized and academically rigorous student experience, Syracuse University faculty and staff support student success by:
- Encouraging global study, experiential learning, interdisciplinary scholarship, creativity and entrepreneurial endeavors
- Balancing professional studies with an intensive liberal arts education
- Fostering a richly diverse and inclusive community of learning and opportunity
- Promoting a culture of innovation and discovery
- Supporting faculty, staff and student collaboration in creative activity and research that address emerging opportunities and societal needs
- Maintaining pride in our location and history as a place of access, engagement, innovation and impact
Position Overview
The Chief Risk and Compliance Officer (CRCO) at Syracuse University is an opportunity for a senior leader ready to operate at the intersection of strategy and governance, shaping an integrated risk and compliance program across a complex and dynamic research university environment. The CRCO serves as a key strategic leader for Syracuse University, shaping and advancing a comprehensive, institution-wide approach to risk management and compliance. Reporting to the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, the CRCO provides vision, leadership, and oversight for integrated programs that support the University’s mission, operations, and long-term success.
This role leads a dynamic team of 12 compliance and risk professionals, building upon a strong foundation of university-wide compliance infrastructure, Division I athletics compliance, and strong enterprise risk management and insurance strategy. The role offers the opportunity to build and continuously strengthen a cohesive framework for identifying, assessing, and managing compliance and risk across a complex and dynamic academic environment. The CRCO works collaboratively across the institution—partnering closely with academic and administrative leaders—to ensure that risk and compliance efforts are aligned with Syracuse’s strategic priorities and evolving needs.
As a visible and trusted advisor, the CRCO plays a central role in fostering a culture of accountability, transparency, and ethical conduct. The position serves as a subject matter expert and stays abreast of key compliance and risk issues facing R1 educational institutions while promoting adherence to applicable laws, regulations, and University policies, and helping to embed thoughtful risk awareness into decision-making at all levels of the organization.
The CRCO engages regularly with senior leadership and key stakeholders to assess strategic, operational, reputational, and compliance risks, and to develop practical, forward-looking mitigation strategies that enhance institutional resilience. The role also contributes to governance and oversight through presentations and updates to senior leadership and the Board’s Audit and Risk Committee.
This is an on-site position, offering the opportunity to be fully engaged in the life of a vibrant campus community while partnering directly with leaders across the University.
Responsibilities
University Compliance Oversight
• Provides strategic leadership and comprehensive oversight of the University’s compliance program, ensuring adherence to federal, state, and local laws, as well as institutional policies.
• Develops and maintains institutional compliance frameworks, oversees compliance risk assessments and monitoring activities, and partners with stakeholders across campus to foster a culture of integrity, accountability, and ethical conduct.
• Provides oversight of research related compliance activities, including research security, foreign influence, and export control regulations.
• Advises faculty and staff on risk mitigation strategies for sponsored research and works directly with the Vice President for Research to support compliant, secure, and federally aligned research operations.
Education, Reporting and Engagement
• Prepares and delivers risk, ethics, and compliance dashboards; annual compliance plans; investigation and trend analyses; program maturity and effectiveness assessments; emerging regulatory updates; performance metrics; and written reports for the Audit and Risk Committee of the Board of Trustees and senior leadership, ensuring clear, accurate, and timely communication of key institutional risks and compliance obligations.
• Collaborates with stakeholder offices including Title IX, Research Compliance, Human Resources, and others to promote transparency, accountability, and coordinated institutional responses.
• Leads and supports education and communication initiatives that strengthen the University’s culture of compliance, risk awareness, and ethical decision-making.
• Facilitates operational compliance partnerships and provides leadership support for University committees related to compliance and enterprise risk management.
• Keeps University leadership informed of emerging ethical, compliance, and risk issues with potential adverse impact.
• Maintains regular engagement with the Vice President for Research on research related compliance matters and collaborates with Academic Affairs on the development, review, and alignment of academic and administrative policies.
Risk Management and Insurance
• Provides strategic oversight of the University’s Office of Risk Management and Insurance, which manages property, liability, workers’ compensation coverage, and medical leaves.
• Sets program direction, approve coverage strategies and ensure effective claims governance and loss prevention practices.
• Partners with the Executive Director of Risk Management & Insurance to monitor performance, broker relationships, coverage placements, claims trends, and reserve practices.
• Oversees the stewardship, and regulatory compliance of the University’s captive insurance entity, Orange Insurance Company, LLC, which provides liability coverage for the University and its subsidiaries.
Enterprise Risk Management
• Provides strategic oversight and direction for the University’s ERM program to ensure a fit for purpose framework that is well communicated, consistently applied, and tracked to completion.
• Sets risk appetite and tolerance guidance, approve ERM methodologies and reporting cadences, and ensure risk identification, assessment, mitigation planning, and issue remediation are integrated into institutional decision making.
• Partners with and supervise the Director of Enterprise Risk Management, who leads operational execution, including risk analytics, dashboards, heat maps, emerging risk monitoring, and facilitation of risk owner action plans.
• Ensures that ERM reporting to senior leadership and the Board is clear, timely, and actionable, and that risk mitigation commitments are monitored through closure with documented controls, owners, and timelines.
• Collaborates with the Office of General Counsel to govern University policy through a standardized policy framework ensuring policies are current, compliant, accessible, and aligned with ERM priorities and facilitate stakeholder engagement to promote clarity, consistency, and reduced institutional risk.
Ethics and Compliance Reporting Hotline
• Maintains operational oversight of the ethics and compliance reporting hotline to ensure accessibility and confidentiality.
• Establishes and enforces protocols for timely triage, investigation, and resolution of cases.
• Monitors case progress and outcomes, ensures compliance with university standards and regulatory requirements, and prepares analytics and dashboard reports for the Audit and Risk Committee of the Board of Trustees.
Athletics Compliance
• Provides oversight of the Division I Athletics Compliance Office, ensuring adherence to NCAA rules, conference requirements, and federal and state laws.
• Responsibilities of this Office include monitoring compliance with Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies, eligibility standards, recruiting practices, and financial aid regulations; coordinating education and training for coaches, staff, and student-athletes; and implementing systems to detect and prevent violations while maintaining institutional control and integrity.
Conflicts of Interest and Financial Conflicts of Interest
• Administers and oversees annual Conflict of Interest (COI) and Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) disclosure processes.
• Ensures completion and review of COI surveys for university leadership, Board of Trustees, head coaches, and the highest-compensated individuals.
• Ensures compliance with federal regulations governing FCOI for sponsored research by collecting, reviewing, and monitoring disclosures.
• Oversees the COI/FCOI mitigation plans; and accurate records to support audit and reporting obligations.
Clery Reporting
• Ensures compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.
• Coordinates data collection and reporting processes, oversees timely publication of the Annual Security Report.
Management and Supervision
• Manages and oversee the work of staff within the Office of the Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, ensuring effective coordination across all functional areas.
• Provides guidance, set priorities, and monitor performance to achieve departmental objectives and initiatives as organizational needs evolve.
• Fosters collaboration, accountability, and professional development within the team, and ensure resources are aligned to meet compliance and risk management obligations.
The Candidate
Required Experience
• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in compliance and risk management, ideally within higher education, demonstrating a deep understanding of the regulatory and operational environment.
• Leadership experience directing enterprise-wide risk management and compliance functions in a complex setting, including collaboration with academic, administrative, and operational units.
• Experience with risk mitigation, internal controls, and compliance program design, with the ability to apply best practices to strengthen institutional risk posture and accountability.
Preferred Experience
• Designing, implementing, or overseeing an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program.
• Overseeing or working closely with Athletics Compliance to support NCAA, conference, and institutional requirements.
• Overseeing ethics and compliance reporting systems, including whistleblower reporting and case management.
• Overseeing risk management and insurance programs, including workers’ compensation, liability coverage, and claims management in a university setting.
Skills and Knowledge
• Comprehensive knowledge of federal and state regulations affecting higher education, with the ability to interpret evolving requirements and guide institutional compliance efforts.
• Demonstrated understanding and ability to develop and communicate enterprise risk management frameworks and compliance standards to executive leadership, supporting informed decision making in a complex, decentralized university environment.
• Strong capability in program and policy development, including drafting, reviewing, and aligning policies to regulatory and operational requirements.
• Ability to oversee compliance functions in highly regulated environments, including Division I athletics compliance programs, ensuring adherence to NCAA, conference, and federal requirements.
• Knowledge of risk management and insurance principles, with the ability to provide strategic oversight of liability, property, workers compensation, and related coverage programs within a large institutional setting.
• Exceptional judgment, discretion, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build credibility and influence decisions at senior levels.
• Ability to navigate the operational and research complexities of an R1 university, including working effectively across academic, research, administrative, and operational units.
Education
• Bachelor’s degree is required.
• Master’s degree in a field directly related to compliance or institutional risk is preferred.
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Korn Ferry shall provide equal employment opportunity to all qualified candidates, and will refer candidates without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected basis. Artificial Intelligence tools may be used in connection with the recruitment process for this position.
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